Wrotten tongue in chicken :(

Hi,
My Rhode island red is almost ready to lay her first eggs. But yesterday noticed she couldnt eat or drink as everytime she did big chunks of saliva would come out with the food or stop the water. I took her to the vets and we just discovered that her tongue is wrotten. All other health is good though. The vet doesn't even know how it happened. The vet said to wait and let the tongue fall off and hope there is still enough tongue left for her to cover her air hole when she eats ect.
Has anyone else had this experience with a chicken and if so what could you recommend?
I really dont want to kill her but if she's in pain I dont want her to suffer.
Never had this happen to me with a chicken before and was wondering if she would still have a normal life after her tongue has fallen, could she still eat bugs and greens.