Sick Chicken w Pics, I've no idea what's wrong

[OG Anomaly]

She is moving around more now, and she pooped again, this time it's really dark. She's also standing, preening herself and eating a little.
I also got some profile pics of her chest area I'll add to this as well.
If she has worms, would you be able to see them in the feces, like you can with cats & dogs?

I think we'll just keep an eye on her for tonight, see how she is tomorrow, keep reading up on & doing the things people suggested, and hopefully she'll come around.

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to help!

 

[OG Anomaly]

That poop says a lot to me. I can tell you what I would do if you would like to hear that.

Of course.
Is it that bad?

 

[biophiliac]

Thank you so much for the help!
We felt 3 other crops and compared to those, hers is more swollen and is definitely softer/squishier.
I massaged her for a bit, while son was grabbing the other girls, and after comparison & putting her back in cage, she is standing up and eating crackers.
She does occasionally shake her head back & forth/side to side, then ends by contracting her neck in towards her body. I think that's what I thought was a shudder at first.
She's plenty warm and I did make a batch of electrolytes for her.
She didn't seem to mind the crop massage at all.
As for the breast bone...I don't know, maybe Leghorns are different, but I know our other birds are healthy, and all their breastbones seem sharp and defined to me and have always been like that, so I can't give any helpful info there.

Do I need to keep massaging her crop?
I'll look into this to see how if happens, but is there anything I can do/change immediately to stop this from happening again?

On prevention I'll risk jumping in without reading everything since you told me you were putting hay in the run - you will want to consider if any of your birds are consuming long strands of the hay, rather than just scratching through for bits and pieces. That is because long fibrous strands can form a mass in the crop and are difficult to pass leading to impaction or sour crop. I believe this is correct, @casportpony ? @rebrascora ?

 

[biophiliac]

Have you opened her beak to check for wet pox (diptheric form) inside the mouth?
Is there some white fuzz on her beak in the first pics? or is that an artifact or my bad eyes? In that same pic the black spots look more like dry pox than the ones I saw earlier, but that may not be related to her current problem.

 

[biophiliac]

That poop says a lot to me. I can tell you what I would do if you would like to hear that.

Yes we would like to hear please and thank you.

 

[casportpony]

That looks like it has blood in it:

 

[casportpony]

Of course.
Is it that bad?

All poop pictures posted so far are abnormal. In a perfect world, you would take her to a vet and have the vet check the poop for coccidia, worms, and bacteria, but vets are expensive, so I understand why most people choose not to go to a vet. I think your hen's crop problem could be something in her intestines.

 

[rebrascora]

Oh this great! She's definetely a 3 or 4

Are you sure you are understanding the condition chart correctly? I am really struggling to imagine a leghorn being any more than 2 even on a good day.... Just to be clear, it is not the crop that the chart is referring to but the breast muscle either side of the keel bone.... you may just have really plump leghorns, but that is pretty unusual.

If it is her crop which is still sounding likely to me, I would massage for 10 mins 4 or more times a day to try to break up the contents. I agree that there may be something else going on with perhaps an infection in her gut but since she seemed to perk up a little after that first massage, it is worth continuing and can only be beneficial as long as she seems comfortable with it. If her crop is blocked/slow then giving her any medicine orally is not going to help much.
Only give her homogenous sloppy food (no more crackers for now)..... pellets or crumbles soaked in warm water until they are all broken down and you can add a little olive/vegetable oil and maybe a bit of scrambled egg. Concentrate the massaging from the bottom of the crop upwards to break up any sediment and gunge that may be causing a blockage.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

To address a couple of your other concerns - The black spots on her comb look like peck marks to me. The white-ish patch that you see, imho, is where her comb flops over - my W. Leghorn has a similar whit-ish patch where her comb folds over, take a look at your other girls, I suspect you will find a similar patch if they have the folded over combs like this one. The ear, looks like her normal coloring to me as well.

Crop issues can be a symptom of an underlying condition like worms, Coccidiosis, infection and reproductive disorders. If there is any way to get a fecal sample tested that would be a good idea.

I agree with @casportpony the poop is concerning. I'm not sure what course of action that she was going to suggest, hopefully she has been in contact with you through pm, but I would be inclined to at least start to treat with Corid for Coccidiosis. It could be that she has infection and needs antibiotics, but which one it's hard to know. Since she is hanging in there, the Corid is mild and won't hurt.

Also, maybe I missed it, but you haven't mentioned when she last laid an egg. If she is like mine, she's a prolific egg layer, so she may be have a reproductive problem as well, or has not laid due to other things going on.

Getting the crop to empty/function is important, you may find this article very helpful on that http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/impacted-slow-and-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments

Keep her drinking and see how it goes. Please keep us posted.

 

[Patinas]

I don't pretend to be an expert at chicken ailments but I agree the poop is concerning, especially the dark one and I agree that one looks like blood.

My question is....in one pic I can see there are meal worms and oyster crackers on the floor of the cage. Why not offer only layer feed? Since the poop doesn't look good, it would make sense to me to just go to with the basics of commercial feed only and fresh water with some electrolytes added. Not suggesting doing that will fix everything but certainly isn't going to make anything worse. Also, with commercial feed only, they don't need grit to move it out of the crop. Keep the diet simple and see if that helps improves the poop?