Help! My chicken has a prolapsed vent and I can't get it back in?!

[jodieevaughan]

I'm a brand new user so I apologise if I've posted this in the wrong place, or done anything incorrectly..

Yesterday, I found one of the hens, Whitney, bleeding from her behind and only today have I managed to catch her (she's a rather nervous hen) to get a good look at what's going on. I have no doubt it's a prolapsed vent, but I've never had this happen before. I sat her in a tub of warmish water to relax her this evening as it was getting dark outside, and I tried to clean her as well as I could with water. I tried to push the vent back inside of her, but it wouldn't go in and I was too frightened to put a lot of pressure into it, as I thought that surely wouldn't end well. There was no more bleeding as far as I could see than when I initially found her yesterday.

Please help! Do I need to add more pressure or am I just doing it wrong? Maybe I just need somebody to explain how exactly I need to push it inside. It is quite a major prolapse in comparison to the photos I've seen online, but I don't believe there's an egg inside, it's too soft. I am really worried about her, I don't want the flies to get to her and lay their eggs, culling her really isn't an option in my mind, I really want to help her and I don't want her to be in pain! Help would be very much appreciated!

THANK YOU!!!

 

[boskelli1571]

When the hen gets a prolapse all the tissue swells, so it is difficult to get it back in. Use some Preparation H (make sure there is no lidocain or any other cain in the preparation. Be generous in application, give it a few minutes to work and then apply some pressue to the prolapse - it may take a bit of time so be patient.
Needless to say, keep her warm and isolated - also cut down on her feed, you don't want her to try to lay another egg. You may also find that it will pop back out again - keep repeating prep H and pressure. Keep us posted,

 

[jodieevaughan]

Thank you very much! I was panicking as I didn't want to hurt her. I couldn't find posts from anyone else saying they had any problems with getting it back in, so I thought I mustn't have been doing it right! She won't come near me now since I got her yesterday, so I'm going to wait until it starts to darken in the early evening so she is relaxed enough for me to get her without her panicking too much.

 

[jodieevaughan]

Last night, I bathed her and cleaned her up, and the prolapse had actually (for the most part) gone back in all by itself! I was amazed! She was completely relaxed in the bath, I dried her off and put her back, but this morning I have found that she has passed away in the night. I feel overwhelmed as I feel as though this may have been my fault, did I do something wrong?!

 

[boskelli1571]

Don't feel badly, chickens are fantastic at hiding illness. You did everything you could. It's likely that she also had other issues with her health that you could not have treated anyway. Sorry for your loss,