- Mar 28, 2014
- 22
- 1
- 22
Our 7 month old Speckled Sussex has a prolapse. She is a very sweet and loving girl who has enjoyed every moment of the special attention of the treatment. We purposely didn't name our chickens in case hard decisions came up, but during treatment, our bond with this chicken is now at pet level.
Fortunately we have a small flock so we discovered the prolapse day-of the occurrence, and her fluffy bottom feathers must have hid the issue from the others because the prolapse itself was not damaged.
2/26 - Discovery of prolapse. Prolapse routine: warm bath, blow dry, prep H, held the prolapse up against her with a prep h rubber glove and sang to her until she relaxed and retracted it back in, crate her in the house, kept it dark and warm, electrolytes in water.
2/27 - Yes Egg; Yes Prolapse (before egg laying, not after). Prolapsed in the morning. Realized she was egg bound and put lube up her, she laid the egg an hour later and no prolapse.
2/28 - Yes Egg; No Prolapse.
2/29 - Yes Egg; Yes Prolapse (before egg laying, but not after). Prolapsed in morning and we did the same routine. She laid an egg later with no prolapse.
3/01 - Yes Egg; Yes Prolapse (in evening). When I came home for the evening, she was freshly prolapsed (no poop on it yet) and had laid an egg (which she usually does in the morning). We did the same routine (instead of prep H used honey) and she has no problem retracting.
3/02 - Yes Egg; No prolapse.
3/03 - Yes Egg; Yes Prolapse (in morning before egg laying, but not after). Prolapse in morning before egg laying. Used vetericyn and honey. For the first time, she had difficulty retracting, but probably because the egg was close to laying. She laid an egg, it had dried blood on it.
3/04 - No prolapse
The decision to cull would be easier if she was prolapsing everyday all the time no matter what we did. But she isn't. She prolapses every other day. Even though she is in darkness (and we withheld food for one day, and limit food to a survival amount the rest of the days) she still is a daily egg layer. It almost seems like her prolapses occur separately from egg laying.
She has electrolytes in her water, we turn the light on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening so she can drink/eat. We are feeding her her normal feed but in small quantities (1/4 cup) and mixed with yogurt, cod liver oil, and pulverized egg shells.
Any fellow chicken keepers have any suggestion in regards to the cause of the prolapse or treatment? Any last ditch efforts? I read somewhere about aspirin and benedryl, but I don't have nearly enough info to move forward with that.
Please tell me there are other options and strategies out there. I am willing to try anything. If her issue regresses and she starts prolapsing multiple times a day, we will probably cull her.
Thank you for all for your time and energy.
(I am at work right now and do not have any pictures of the prolapse.)
********
For those wanting more details of our prolapse protocol.
1. Clean Prolapse. We use the kitchen sink but any tub will work. At first we gave her long, warm baths (but not so hot that she pants!). Now we just take the sprayer and spray it off.
2. Dry Chicken. We help the chicken out of the sink and onto a towel on the counter. If you bathed her, then you can blow dry her (be careful to not make her too hot and dry). When we just spray her, we towel off the excess water.
3. Apply Vetericyn or Prep H or Honey or All. At first we just used Prep H. Now we spray on Vetericyn and use honey in the next step.
4. Hold the Prolapse. Get that gloved hand really greased up with either Prep H or Honey. Gently, and then more firmly, hold the prolapse up and onto the vent. I also hold the chicken's chest so she doesn't walk away. Now, sing to that chicken. I'm not kidding. When my partner does it, he doesn't sing, and she won't retract. But when I do it, I sing to her and she really enjoys it and relaxes and coos back and then magically, she retracts it back in usually in less than 5 minutes.
5. Keep Chicken Separate & TLC. We keep her in a dog cage in the house with a space heater in the room. Electrolytes in the water. Do some googling on what to do food wise, we are trial and error on whats best right now for that.
Fortunately we have a small flock so we discovered the prolapse day-of the occurrence, and her fluffy bottom feathers must have hid the issue from the others because the prolapse itself was not damaged.
2/26 - Discovery of prolapse. Prolapse routine: warm bath, blow dry, prep H, held the prolapse up against her with a prep h rubber glove and sang to her until she relaxed and retracted it back in, crate her in the house, kept it dark and warm, electrolytes in water.
2/27 - Yes Egg; Yes Prolapse (before egg laying, not after). Prolapsed in the morning. Realized she was egg bound and put lube up her, she laid the egg an hour later and no prolapse.
2/28 - Yes Egg; No Prolapse.
2/29 - Yes Egg; Yes Prolapse (before egg laying, but not after). Prolapsed in morning and we did the same routine. She laid an egg later with no prolapse.
3/01 - Yes Egg; Yes Prolapse (in evening). When I came home for the evening, she was freshly prolapsed (no poop on it yet) and had laid an egg (which she usually does in the morning). We did the same routine (instead of prep H used honey) and she has no problem retracting.
3/02 - Yes Egg; No prolapse.
3/03 - Yes Egg; Yes Prolapse (in morning before egg laying, but not after). Prolapse in morning before egg laying. Used vetericyn and honey. For the first time, she had difficulty retracting, but probably because the egg was close to laying. She laid an egg, it had dried blood on it.
3/04 - No prolapse
The decision to cull would be easier if she was prolapsing everyday all the time no matter what we did. But she isn't. She prolapses every other day. Even though she is in darkness (and we withheld food for one day, and limit food to a survival amount the rest of the days) she still is a daily egg layer. It almost seems like her prolapses occur separately from egg laying.
She has electrolytes in her water, we turn the light on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening so she can drink/eat. We are feeding her her normal feed but in small quantities (1/4 cup) and mixed with yogurt, cod liver oil, and pulverized egg shells.
Any fellow chicken keepers have any suggestion in regards to the cause of the prolapse or treatment? Any last ditch efforts? I read somewhere about aspirin and benedryl, but I don't have nearly enough info to move forward with that.
Please tell me there are other options and strategies out there. I am willing to try anything. If her issue regresses and she starts prolapsing multiple times a day, we will probably cull her.
Thank you for all for your time and energy.
(I am at work right now and do not have any pictures of the prolapse.)
********
For those wanting more details of our prolapse protocol.
1. Clean Prolapse. We use the kitchen sink but any tub will work. At first we gave her long, warm baths (but not so hot that she pants!). Now we just take the sprayer and spray it off.
2. Dry Chicken. We help the chicken out of the sink and onto a towel on the counter. If you bathed her, then you can blow dry her (be careful to not make her too hot and dry). When we just spray her, we towel off the excess water.
3. Apply Vetericyn or Prep H or Honey or All. At first we just used Prep H. Now we spray on Vetericyn and use honey in the next step.
4. Hold the Prolapse. Get that gloved hand really greased up with either Prep H or Honey. Gently, and then more firmly, hold the prolapse up and onto the vent. I also hold the chicken's chest so she doesn't walk away. Now, sing to that chicken. I'm not kidding. When my partner does it, he doesn't sing, and she won't retract. But when I do it, I sing to her and she really enjoys it and relaxes and coos back and then magically, she retracts it back in usually in less than 5 minutes.
5. Keep Chicken Separate & TLC. We keep her in a dog cage in the house with a space heater in the room. Electrolytes in the water. Do some googling on what to do food wise, we are trial and error on whats best right now for that.
Last edited:
