Bloated ill chicken

  Hi
I am quite new to owning chickens, but one of them hasn't seemed right for the past few days. She is usually the greediest and most bossy but now she is very quiet and not hardly interested in food. Her chest appears very swollen, like a squashy balloon and she is just sitting about with her feathers fluffed up. Please can anyone offer any advice, thankyou , Lisa

hello Karmadog, sorry your first post is about a poorly hen  .
Is the bloatedness in her chest where her crop is? Feel and then smell her breath. If so it sounds like she may have sour crop so if you take a look at this link you should find some information there about it:-
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=4345.0

Yes on re-reading you are probably right it will be sour crop if by "chest" you mean the area below the base of the neck.

Basically you need to clear the crop which will have undigested fermented (foul smelling)contents.    I've heard that live maggots (as used by fishermen) are effective though I've no experience of this.
All the best and let us know how you get on.
HF

Thankyou so much everyone for your advice. From reading your replies I now beleive this is a crop problem. I have tried to catch her to give olive oil, but she has now become the fastest chicken on the planet!!! I have put some olive oil in some chick mash and am hoping she will eat this, I'm going to try and catch her and massage the area, I'm a bit too scared to put the olive oil in a syringe, incase I get it in her lungs. I'm going to take her to the vet tomorrow, to get some help and put my mind at rest. She is my toddlers pet and they adore her, so don't want to take any chances. Once again thankyou for all of your responses. This is a fantastic site, and perfect for a city girl like me who has moved to Suffolk and trying to live the good life!