Prolapsed and necrotic vent. Advise needed

[sesameandginger]

@sesameandginger

Hi

I am so pleased you were able to seek veterinary treatment for your girl and hope it is successful and she makes a full recovery. Did they give her a hormonal implant to prevent laying until she is fully healed?


Diet is probably one of the commonest causes of prolapse. Larger birds like Cochins and Orpingtons and Sussex etc are more prone to building up fat reserves, particularly if they are fed a diet to high in carbohydrates. These fatty deposits build up in and around the vent and abdomen and slowly reduce the size of the vent opening and it's ability to stretch. This eventually reaches a critical point and as the egg is laid, the vent tissue is unable to retract. The fatty deposits also risk causing many other health issues like Fatty Liver Haemorrhagic Syndrome which can cause the liver to fatally rupture particularly if the bird is straining to lay an egg, as well as minor haemorrhages that can cause ascites. I'm not saying this is the case with your girl but just that it is worth reviewing your flock's diet. Usually too much scratch is to blame for these fatty deposits.

I fear her food is the culprit! And no, she was not administered any hormonal treatments, as they had extracted an egg that morning and we are hoping that she can heal/maybe even pass an egg through the small opening left by the suture?! Is that risky?!!

I fear that I have yet to find a highly skilled chicken vet in my area (San Francisco Bay should have the right options but surprisingly not) I don't want to go into my whole ordeal, but I went to one vet who didn't feel comfortable doing more than look, one avian specialist who wanted $1500 to administer a ton of medications and keep her under observation (the same one who recommended I cull her, and confidently told me she was not overweight and a large egg could not possibly cause this) and then finally a mobile farm vet office who I ended up seeing both vets, one who irrigated out the egg and another who helped get her sutured up. They administered some cal-mag and an antibiotic, which I have now discovered will prevent me from consuming her eggs in the future... basically showing me that I've learned more in my own research than any of these highly-trained professionals!

I think my girls get too little free ranging, as there have been a couple hawk scares, and fatty carb-rich feed. I am now working to reorganize their routine and provide more fodder boxes to bring into the run along with a higher protein diet! Woe is me, but my Luna is still alive and kicking she is next to me now after a nice epsom salt/ lavender soak and grateful that I spent the hundreds of dollars and days of driving around to make sure she was okay. I love her so much!

 

[sesameandginger]

Luna is the splash Cochin in the foreground... definitely a big bird!

 

[rebrascora]

Oh Wow! She is a beauty!
I must confess, my preference is for livestock vets as they are more down to earth and a lot less expensive, but I draw the line at taking my own chickens to the vet... I just don't have the funds and since I have a nasty virus in my flock (Marek's) I could very quickly become bankrupted. I have learned more here on BYC during the past few years than the majority of vets know about chickens anyway, so I would be wasting my money.
As regards the antibiotics, it is not so much that you cannot ever eat her eggs again, but rather that they have not been certified for use in chickens and therefore there is no recognised withdrawal period after which it is safe to eat them. That is very different from saying that they are unsafe to eat. Just that the research has not been done to figure out when they are free of the medication. Most people here on BYC use a 2 week withdrawal period for most meds that are used off label, including antibs. What meds did the vet prescribe? Some vets will even make you sign a disclaimer that you will never eat or sell the eggs for human consumption from a bird that has been prescribed a medication "off label" to cover themselves from litigation. Common sense should prevail in these things and considering the antibiotics that we are exposed to in our food these days, a 2 week withdrawal after her course of antibiotics has finished should leave her eggs "clean" of it.

 

[sesameandginger]

Oh Wow! She is a beauty!
I must confess, my preference is for livestock vets as they are more down to earth and a lot less expensive, but I draw the line at taking my own chickens to the vet... I just don't have the funds and since I have a nasty virus in my flock (Marek's) I could very quickly become bankrupted. I have learned more here on BYC during the past few years than the majority of vets know about chickens anyway, so I would be wasting my money.
As regards the antibiotics, it is not so much that you cannot ever eat her eggs again, but rather that they have not been certified for use in chickens and therefore there is no recognised withdrawal period after which it is safe to eat them. That is very different from saying that they are unsafe to eat. Just that the research has not been done to figure out when they are free of the medication. Most people here on BYC use a 2 week withdrawal period for most meds that are used off label, including antibs. What meds did the vet prescribe? Some vets will even make you sign a disclaimer that you will never eat or sell the eggs for human consumption from a bird that has been prescribed a medication "off label" to cover themselves from litigation. Common sense should prevail in these things and considering the antibiotics that we are exposed to in our food these days, a 2 week withdrawal after her course of antibiotics has finished should leave her eggs "clean" of it.

Good point

Oh Wow! She is a beauty!
I must confess, my preference is for livestock vets as they are more down to earth and a lot less expensive, but I draw the line at taking my own chickens to the vet... I just don't have the funds and since I have a nasty virus in my flock (Marek's) I could very quickly become bankrupted. I have learned more here on BYC during the past few years than the majority of vets know about chickens anyway, so I would be wasting my money.
As regards the antibiotics, it is not so much that you cannot ever eat her eggs again, but rather that they have not been certified for use in chickens and therefore there is no recognised withdrawal period after which it is safe to eat them. That is very different from saying that they are unsafe to eat. Just that the research has not been done to figure out when they are free of the medication. Most people here on BYC use a 2 week withdrawal period for most meds that are used off label, including antibs. What meds did the vet prescribe? Some vets will even make you sign a disclaimer that you will never eat or sell the eggs for human consumption from a bird that has been prescribed a medication "off label" to cover themselves from litigation. Common sense should prevail in these things and considering the antibiotics that we are exposed to in our food these days, a 2 week withdrawal after her course of antibiotics has finished should leave her eggs "clean" of it.

Ahh gotcha! They gave her a small dose of Baytril just because she was still kinda crusty when they put her back in so wanted to be safe. I plan on keeping her under supervision for a couple weeks anyway so hopefully that'll be enough! My husband would agree that we didn't have the funds either haha but I got a little carried away since I couldn't imagine my life without her: extreme, I know, yet he spends just as much on a weekend in the mountains snowmobiling, so I just had to reset the priorities

Thanks again, and good luck with your flock too!

 

[thestrickfamily]

We are two years into back yard chickens with only 6 hens. we are in day two since we noticed our Rhode Island Red had a prolapsed vent. We separated her and have been treating her with daily epson salt baths, iodine rinse, neosporin, and hemorrhoid cream and we are keeping her in a warm dark coop area. Her vent has stayed back in for the most part but she continues to leak white poop from around her vent with some poop coming out. Yesterday poop was pellet like and today little runny. My major concern is the large amount of necrotic tissue around the vent. The vent still is sticking out about 1/2-1” but that is because it is mainly dead looking. She is eating and drinking but not to active. Constantly pushing but fortunately when she pushes it is not prolapsing. The advise I need is if she makes it through will the necrotic vent tissue fall off and regrow or should we just throw the towel in for her sake now.

Hi there. I know this is a LONG shot cause this was 3 years ago but I have been researching for 36 hours on how to help my hen with what I believe is severe prolapse and possibly necrotic tissue. She did have what others tell me is fly strike with maggots and I got those all taken care of now…. But no matter what I try to keep the prolapse back in… it keeps coming out and there is dark around spots… should I try and cut that away???

 

[Kiki]

Hi there. I know this is a LONG shot cause this was 3 years ago but I have been researching for 36 hours on how to help my hen with what I believe is severe prolapse and possibly necrotic tissue. She did have what others tell me is fly strike with maggots and I got those all taken care of now…. But no matter what I try to keep the prolapse back in… it keeps coming out and there is dark around spots… should I try and cut that away???

Can you post clear pictures of your birds vent area?

 

[Eggcessive]

Starting a new thread in the emergency forum might also get more help.

 

[JessLee22]

Well after the gag reflex passed we simply used sharp manicure scissors and cut until we saw blood rich tissue. She never squirmed. Almost like she knew we were helping her. Never have wormed them and honestly didn’t know that was needed. This is all a learning curve. I’ll update as days go by. Started vent gleet treatment this evening and probiotics.

Hi there. I’m currently dealing with this issue right now of what seems to be a prolapsed vent, with glee & necrotic tissue. Trauma from a gal attack caused this & our girl was hiding & trapped outside for 24hrs before we found her. She’s a tough cookie! So you cut away the black tissue? What did you do to treat the gleet? What did you do to the prolapse after you cut away the necrotic tissue:

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hi there. I’m currently dealing with this issue right now of what seems to be a prolapsed vent, with glee & necrotic tissue. Trauma from a gal attack caused this & our girl was hiding & trapped outside for 24hrs before we found her. She’s a tough cookie! So you cut away the black tissue? What did you do to treat the gleet? What did you do to the prolapse after you cut away the necrotic tissue:

You're thread can be found here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/prolapsed-vent-gleet-necrotic-tissue-help.1560930/