Plucking, or Sour Crop?

[KaterCheek]

My hen, Bella, has a bald spot on her belly, close to her feet. I thought she was just plucking due to stress, and thought it might be because of the heat, but it's cooled off now and her spot looks as bad as ever. She's molting a little, but this has been going on for several weeks and doesn't seem to be getting better.

Also, the spot she's been plucking is oddly distended. Because of that I thought it might be sour crop, but except for the bald spot she seems healthy and happy. I can't find any pictures of sour crop on an adult, so I don't know what it looks like.

I saw her fight with one of the other hens just today, but that could be because the other hen saw me cuddle Bella (cuddling a hen drops her in the social order.)

Is this just stress-plucking, or something else? And if it's just stress-plucking, do you think I can use Bitter-apple spray on it? (They use it to get dogs to stop biting or licking themselves.)

I have a photo, but I can't get it to post here.

 

[PunkinPeep]

The crop is located on the breast, so it's not sour crop.

If the lower abdomen is distended, it kind of sounds like peritonitis/egg yolk peritonitis. I have heard of use of antibiotics to help it, but to my knowledge, it is most often fatal. I hope the opposite in your case. I don't have personal experience with this problem, so i'm just hoping to point you in the right direction.