Congrats, Kathy!
Oh, as I was waking up, the time when my brain actually functions well (no jokes, please, LOL), I had a bit of a revelation about Caroline. Bear with me a moment for my thought process, if you're interested, that is: I don't think her main issue is the crop. It isn't actually blocked or impacted, just a bit soured from whatever that thing is she ate-frog, maybe? blech!- her poop is solid this morning so stuff is getting through her system, and she was having a fit to get out of the cage.
What I think is that the fact of the crop not processing that thing properly and her noticeable weight loss could be related to the same thing that killed Miranda, which I'm about 99% sure was ovarian cancer, with the way it presented, coupled with what happened to Reba and what we found inside Reba, their ages being the same, all hatchery hens, etc. She is bright eyed, not in molt, great feather quality, laying still just like Miranda was about three weeks before her death, just has lost quite a bit of weight suddenly for an inexplicable reason.
Miranda also had crop issues once her body started going downhill and lost quite a bit of weight in the last weeks before she died and started retaining lots of fluid. Caroline's abdomen doesn't feel particularly large at the moment, but this is probably just beginning. So, what do you think? Could I be on the right, though very sad, track here? Maybe Caroline, due to her advanced age for a hatchery girl, be suffering from the same thing that killed Miranda?