Hi all. A few months back, I was able to successfully treat a hen with a significant prolapse and wanted to share what I did in hopes it can help others. I first noticed Sugar had a prolapse after investigating the cause of her dirty butt. She's a 2-year-old Plymouth rock. I saw right away at least an inch of innards protruding from her vent. At that point, she seemed otherwise healthy. We washed up the area, cleaning off as much of the dried poop as we could without ripping it off, and used a finger lubricated with Vaseline to push the prolapse back in.
Well, it didn't last 10 minutes before it prolapsed again. I spent the next week walking around with a glove in my pocket and pushing the prolapse back in whenever I spotted it out. But it never stayed. She was having poop issues and was losing weight from not eating. It got to a point where I had to either fix it or cull her. So I did a little reading, got some new supplies and got to work!
First step, a little spa time. A nice warm water soak (I didn't use Epsom salts, but I've read that you can) and Sugar absolutely loved it. It was mid-February, below 0 outside and she was also dealing with a touch of frostbite on the ends of her comb, so I'm guessing that soak felt great! She laid in there, by herself, for a good half an hour! While soaking, the prolapse actually went back inside on it's own, but it didn't last very long once she got out. After a little break, she had a second soak before we got to work.
Rather than use Vaseline, we switched to Preparation H for lubrication, trying to get as much inside her vent as possible to help the swollen tissues subside.
After we got the prolapse back in, she got a nice blow dry - chickens are so weird because she also loved that. I'm seriously thinking Sugar could happily live at a hair salon!
Next step was to make a sling to try to hold everything in where it was supposed to be. I only got photos of the first attempt, which helped but I made some improvements to the next one. This first one, I used one length of that stretchy bandage that's supposed to stick to itself. I used Johnson & Johnson brand, found it at Walmart. It passed under her tail, covering her vent, and below her wings before crossing over top of her wings in front. I had to use some first aid tape to make it actually stick and cut a slit in it to go over her vent so she could still poop. However, it ended up kind of bunching up and would slip either below or above her vent. The second time around, I just used two lengths of bandage - one above and one below the vent. That worked much better. She wore the sling for a week and the prolapse never once popped back out while she was wearing it. I continued to apply Preparation H every few days, making sure to get some inside to work on those swollen tissues.
After about a week, when her vent area looked normal (pale pink and not puffy), I took the sling off and watched her closely for a few days. No more prolapse! Within a month, I spotted her in the nest box again!
Now it's been almost 2 months and no more issues. She's eating well, laying, and no sign of prolapse again. I can't promise that it will work in every case, but I'm happy with the outcome we had.
Well, it didn't last 10 minutes before it prolapsed again. I spent the next week walking around with a glove in my pocket and pushing the prolapse back in whenever I spotted it out. But it never stayed. She was having poop issues and was losing weight from not eating. It got to a point where I had to either fix it or cull her. So I did a little reading, got some new supplies and got to work!
First step, a little spa time. A nice warm water soak (I didn't use Epsom salts, but I've read that you can) and Sugar absolutely loved it. It was mid-February, below 0 outside and she was also dealing with a touch of frostbite on the ends of her comb, so I'm guessing that soak felt great! She laid in there, by herself, for a good half an hour! While soaking, the prolapse actually went back inside on it's own, but it didn't last very long once she got out. After a little break, she had a second soak before we got to work.
Rather than use Vaseline, we switched to Preparation H for lubrication, trying to get as much inside her vent as possible to help the swollen tissues subside.
After we got the prolapse back in, she got a nice blow dry - chickens are so weird because she also loved that. I'm seriously thinking Sugar could happily live at a hair salon!
Next step was to make a sling to try to hold everything in where it was supposed to be. I only got photos of the first attempt, which helped but I made some improvements to the next one. This first one, I used one length of that stretchy bandage that's supposed to stick to itself. I used Johnson & Johnson brand, found it at Walmart. It passed under her tail, covering her vent, and below her wings before crossing over top of her wings in front. I had to use some first aid tape to make it actually stick and cut a slit in it to go over her vent so she could still poop. However, it ended up kind of bunching up and would slip either below or above her vent. The second time around, I just used two lengths of bandage - one above and one below the vent. That worked much better. She wore the sling for a week and the prolapse never once popped back out while she was wearing it. I continued to apply Preparation H every few days, making sure to get some inside to work on those swollen tissues.
After about a week, when her vent area looked normal (pale pink and not puffy), I took the sling off and watched her closely for a few days. No more prolapse! Within a month, I spotted her in the nest box again!
Now it's been almost 2 months and no more issues. She's eating well, laying, and no sign of prolapse again. I can't promise that it will work in every case, but I'm happy with the outcome we had.
