persistant sour crop, is my bird doomed? need help :(

I've got an approximately four month old speckled sussex named Poppy with a persistent sour crop problem and I need help!

Thursday of last week I noticed that she had a swollen crop at the end of the day (not always that unusual for my birds if they've had treats that afternoon, scraps from the garden, etc) and I thought her crop had looked puffy the day before too. On Friday morning it was still swollen, which is unusual because normally in my other birds it goes back down overnight. That afternoon she was ruffling her neck feathers and it seemed like she was trying to vomit. I flipped her and massaged her crop and she puked a bunch of nasty stuff. I took her out of the coop/run and isolated her. Took all food away and just gave her vinegar water and a little oil from a medicine dropper. On Saturday I gave her more oil and massaged her crop and it seemed greatly reduced. I gave her some yogurt to eat and she picked at it all day. On Sunday she seemed pretty much better so I gave her some regular feed and she ate like she was dying and her crop was swollen again... I put her back in with the other chickens that night hoping it would go down by morning. It did not.

Monday morning she was still swollen again so DH flipped her again and got a TON of puke out (which he said smelled worse than anything he's ever smelled before and he is traumatized for life now). He put her down for a bit to see if she was better and a couple of our best hens attacked her quite persistently. They've never done that before. Poppy seemed like she was doing the choke/throw up thing again so he isolated her again with only water. This morning she still seemed a little puffy, but better.

He checked her again just now (midday Tuesday) and her crop was horribly engorged and she seemed like she was choking. He flipped her and she puked out a bunch of wood shavings, apparently she got hungry and ate her bedding... it also looked like maybe she'd ate her own poop. She puked a lot of liquid again as well.

He removed all the bedding and put her on some sand. He gave her a tiny bit of food with a heavy amount of grit. She of course still has her vinegar water.

What are we doing wrong or should we do next?

My neighbor has chickens and has grown up with them and I've done everything she suggested and everything I could find when I looked in my chicken books and searching online. The only thing I haven't done is give her antibiotics. I have some antibiotics on hand, not sure the type, they were sold to me with my baby chicks and then I didn't use it because I read a Speckled Hen post that said not to do that. Should I give her some of that in her water? Should I just keep her isolated longer since she doesn't seem over it? Does she have a defective crop and we should just cull her?

Help please!

 

anyone?

 

I really would prefer not to have to buy her any antibiotics right now it's really not in the budget, if I can help her I will, but that would really be our last resort.

Decided last night to try flushing her with some baking soda mixed in water (found suggestion in another thread)

That seemed to really help afterwards I massaged the crop and she burped and then it was like the swollen crop just disappeared, she was totally fine. She's still alert and active, not acting sick at all really.

I let her have a little food after that and just some plain water.

This morning she was a little puffy again so I did it again and again it seemed to help. Then around lunch DH found her seriously swollen again and after massaging her it went back down again.

I read another post suggesting if we're flushing with the baking soda to not let her eat anything for at least 24 hours then give her bread soaked in milk then nothing again for another day and then if she is not swelling anymore she can start having food. Am I messing up her progress by letting her eat a little bit? My neighbor thought it should be ok for her to have small amounts at a time, but she still doesn't seem to be getting better.