Sick chicken! Maybe sour crop? EMERGENCY!!

[novembertess]

We have 3 Isa Brown hens that are about 3.5 years old now (we lost one last Christmas to a mysterious illness). Last night, one of the girls, Kiev, was standing in a bush looking disoriented when the other two were going to bed. I was only slightly concerned so I just picked her up and put her with the other two on our porch railing where they like to roost til I put them in their coop at night. About an hour and a half later, I checked on her and she had fallen asleep standing up. I woke her and a little bit of brown goo came out of her beak. When I picked her up, she started to vomit, so I tipped her forward. This seemed to make her feel better and she went back to sleep and I put all the hens away, isolating Kiev from food or water.
At 5 am this morning, the girls were making a fuss and it was still dark out so I thought something had gotten into the coop. I rushed down but they were fine but I decided to put them in their cage in the basement to be safe. Only when I picked Kiev up, she started to throw up again, so I tipped her. She threw up twice more as I was holding her, she seemed unable to control it. After the second time though, she started to cough and move her neck around and she was having difficulty breathing. I was afraid I had asphyxiated her but I didn’t know what to do in that situation. I put her on the kitchen floor to observe. She takes a labored breath in and then will “cluck” it out, though the cluck is much lower than her normal voice. She also sometimes tips her head up and does a sneezy/cough cluck.
I am left with two questions:
1. Does the vomiting and disorientation sound like sour crop? Or is there’s another reason she could be doing it?
2. Is the labored breathing aspiration? Will she get pneumonia? Will she die?
We don’t have an avian vet in the area so I don’t know what to do at this point

 

[novembertess]

Also as a minor update; I put her in a large crate in the basement, separate from the others without food and water so she could sleep (and i could, though I’m having trouble doing that)

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes, it does sound like she has sour crop possibly from a long standing impacted crop, which has become decayed. It also sounds like she aspirated while she vomited, but that is always a risk when making the hen vomit. Her case sounds pretty serious. I have never had success in treating a hen who has progressed sour crop. There can be reproductive issues, such as internal laying or tumors, that have put pressure on her gizzard and intestines, where the whole digestive process has been slowed down creating the problem.

If a vet that treats chickens is possible, it might be best to consult them. But I have treated a few hens like this who were several years old, and when they died, I found internal laying or cancer to be a problem. I hope you have better luck than I did. Here are two useful articles about crop problems that I hope can help you:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...d-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments.67194/