Is a female duck with a prolapsed vent a death sentence?

[Galaxyfalcon]

I would give her baths a couple times a day. It will help keep the area clean and can even reverse the prolapse sometimes. If the tissue can go back inside on its own that will be much better. If it doesn't, then you can put it back in. You don't want to force it, but looking for the way it will go back in easily itself.

You can give her moisten and broken down feed. This will make it a bit easier on her vent when she poops.

I don't know if your vet gave you an antiinflammatories drug, but you can give her some. Ibuprofen or Aspirin will also work. The idea is to get the inflammation down so it easier to pass eggs and allow the tissue to stay in.

With my girl, I left her eggs with her so she would go broody. That allowed her to stop laying eggs and take a break. It is also recommended by some to put the girls in the dark to stop them laying. You can try keeping her in the dark, but I never got that to work for me.

Thanks for the reply. We were prescribed an oral anti-inflammatory given once a day (metacam) as well as an antibiotic. I'll go out in a bit and giver a tub to take a bath in. We currently have her separated from the other ducks in the duck run (she has enough energy to be upset about that at least).

She may have laid an egg this morning and spent some time in her favorite nest box warming her eggs. I'm almost considering getting some ceramic eggs so she can sit on them all she wants. Her prolapse is a bit drippy, so we've just done another spray with vetricyn and hopefully keeping it moist. I also saw her do a gigantic runny/soft poop so at least she's pooping still.

Aside from all of that she still has good energy. She's eating and drinking and wants to go outside and play in the grass, so she mostly has her normal energy level aside from just dealing with the prolapse.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Hello everyone, thank you for the replies. Here are some photos from last night of her condition, I'm sorry the photo quality isn't the best.

As far as I can tell (all things considered), it's a minor prolapse. As least compared to what else I've seen is possible.

@New duck mommy 2021 if you push the prolapse back in, do you push from the center? Or do you sort of fold it in from the outside area?

We do have some hydrocortizone ointment. We went ahead and lubbed her up pretty good. We also have calcium supplements (tums) which isn't ideal but we gave her a half of one last night (she couldn't swallow it whole). The girls are on a layer pellet right now, and we supplement the feed with oyster shells and add a poultry multivitamin to their food mix.

She had an extremely hard time laying her egg yesterday morning. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's what caused her to re-prolapse after her emergency room visit. I'm not sure if the hard time laying her egg was because of a calcium issue or if the prolapse condition made it so much harder for her.

Aside from these issues, she has good energy and is eating and drinking. We saw poop in her little area this morning, so she's been pooping some too.

I called our main vet and she can't see Freya today, but we can drop her off tomorrow for an exam and see if she recommends taking the suture out (emergency room put a suture in to try to help keep her from prolapsing again).

I'll see if I can run out and get some calcium citrate with D3 today. Aside from that and hydrocortizone, is there anything else we can be doing for her? We've also been spraying her backside with some vetricyn.

To me that looks like gleet build up on the outside
If you slightly stick your finger in do you feel gleet inside as well
This is how my girl started with her issues but after going through it all I know what steps to skip and take action on instead
Can your vet give you medicam
This helped my girl so much woth swelling and pain pushing
Dashers prolapse was from swelling and fungal infection in her urethra and outer glands
Laying eggs was harder cause she had to push through swelling but medicam did help with that
I would push that slight prolapse In but would clean the gleet off and put cream on those areas
I used monistat inside and out as well as colloidal silver spray on the outside

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Thanks for the reply. We were prescribed an oral anti-inflammatory given once a day (metacam) as well as an antibiotic. I'll go out in a bit and giver a tub to take a bath in. We currently have her separated from the other ducks in the duck run (she has enough energy to be upset about that at least).

She may have laid an egg this morning and spent some time in her favorite nest box warming her eggs. I'm almost considering getting some ceramic eggs so she can sit on them all she wants. Her prolapse is a bit drippy, so we've just done another spray with vetricyn and hopefully keeping it moist. I also saw her do a gigantic runny/soft poop so at least she's pooping still.

Aside from all of that she still has good energy. She's eating and drinking and wants to go outside and play in the grass, so she mostly has her normal energy level aside from just dealing with the prolapse.

Oh good she has medicam
You can give her probiotics as well because of the meds and her body fighting this she will need the extra
I got mine on Amazon said it was good for birds
Depending if you want to spend the money I would get that gleet tested for fungal
I wish my vets had done that at the start instead of waiting 4 months and tons of bacterial meds

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Oh good she has medicam
You can give her probiotics as well because of the meds and her body fighting this she will need the extra
I got mine on Amazon said it was good for birds
Depending if you want to spend the money I would get that gleet tested for fungal
I wish my vets had done that at the start instead of waiting 4 months and tons of bacterial meds

I will definitely ask the vet tomorrow to see if they can test for any kind of fungal infection! The metacam we have last through today. How long did your girl stay on it for pain relief? I'll ask the doctor about it again as well.

What probiotics did you get for her? I think we have a poultry electrolyte + probiotics but I'll need to double check. Let me know what you gave your ducky and I might pick some up! We're really hoping she can make a recovery, it's really scary.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I will definitely ask the vet tomorrow to see if they can test for any kind of fungal infection! The metacam we have last through today. How long did your girl stay on it for pain relief? I'll ask the doctor about it again as well.

What probiotics did you get for her? I think we have a poultry electrolyte + probiotics but I'll need to double check. Let me know what you gave your ducky and I might pick some up! We're really hoping she can make a recovery, it's really scary.

Yo be honest they had dasher on it for months but they didn’t test for the fungal for so long that it got worse
They focused on bacterials
She was my only duck to have it out of 16 and through it all never missed a day of laying eggs
She had a lot of runny poo that would almost shoot out that cleared after the fungal cleared as well as the swelling
About a week before the 60 day mark of fungal meds her vent finally was normal and I was no longer having to clear her and clean her but they kept her on the meds for a full 90 days cause of how long they waited to find the issue
This is the probiotic I purchased
I would just give her s separate bowl of peas and mix it in. She gobbled it right up
The good news is dasher is fine
They can survive depending on what’s going on

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Yo be honest they had dasher on it for months but they didn’t test for the fungal for so long that it got worse
They focused on bacterials
She was my only duck to have it out of 16 and through it all never missed a day of laying eggs
She had a lot of runny poo that would almost shoot out that cleared after the fungal cleared as well as the swelling
About a week before the 60 day mark of fungal meds her vent finally was normal and I was no longer having to clear her and clean her but they kept her on the meds for a full 90 days cause of how long they waited to find the issue
This is the probiotic I purchased
I would just give her s separate bowl of peas and mix it in. She gobbled it right up
The good news is dasher is fine
They can survive depending on what’s going on

Thanks! I will try to pick some of these up. Freya is currently with our main vet at a drop-off appointment so I hope things go well. I asked if they could test for a fungal infection while she was there, just in case.

Does anyone else meet resistance when you take an animal to a vet and ask for specific tests? Our vets do good work, but for some reason there seems to be resistance when we're worried and ask them to try a specific test (fungal in this case).

 

[Saveria]

You all are making an amazing "info on prolapse" thread. Thanks everyone. I am going to bookmark it.

Does anyone else meet resistance when you take an animal to a vet and ask for specific tests?

I saw that with some vets. They probably think you don't need it because they don't know that you need it, if that makes sense . My current vet doesn't mind, so maybe they are just overwhelmed and don't want to have to take more time to set up another test.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Just a quick update for everyone. Freya is at the vet, and they got her all patched up. They called my fiance with the details so I heard second hand, but it sounds like they're expecting her to make a full recovery. They want to hold her for 24 hours to watch how she handles her next egg and see if the prolapse needs any extra attention.

So relieved, thank you everyone for your input and feedback. Not out of the woods yet but it sounds positive. I'll update again once we have a chance to talk to the vet tomorrow.

 

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

Just a quick update for everyone. Freya is at the vet, and they got her all patched up. They called my fiance with the details so I heard second hand, but it sounds like they're expecting her to make a full recovery. They want to hold her for 24 hours to watch how she handles her next egg and see if the prolapse needs any extra attention.

So relieved, thank you everyone for your input and feedback. Not out of the woods yet but it sounds positive. I'll update again once we have a chance to talk to the vet tomorrow.

How’s Freya doing today?

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

How’s Freya doing today?

She's doing better! The vet says that the swollen bit that's still outside is inflamed tissue and not a prolapse proper. She showed us how to put it back in, which is the same technique we can use to put a prolapse back in in the future. Apparently, she'll be more prone to prolapse again in the future but she should make a full recovery once the scar tissue/swelling go down. Doctor recommends continuing with antibiotics but otherwise letting it heal on its own. We could use some vetricyn spray, but spraying her might cause her to be irritated and pick at it.

So prognosis is good overall. Still can't believe how good she's doing, Sunday was extremely hard and we thought we might lose her. So glad to see her doing good. Doctor didn't say how long the swelling tissue might last but she expects it to go back in on it's own.

The vet staff also discovered that Freya enjoys polka music, since she was chortling along with the vet staff working late last night apparently, and she seems to have charmed the staff.