- Nov 16, 2015
- 308
- 253
- 186
Female duck who isnt laying prolapsed vent not eating, unsure whats going on.
Hi guys, sorry this is so long...
I have a female duck who is 2 years old, with a prolapsed vent. She is not laying and There is no sign of her being egg bound etc. She has been this way for 4-5 days now. She is not eating much, but is eating a little and is drinking plenty of water. She has definitely lost weight, and is in pain, but still has normal energy, and when allowed into the run, I will see her foraging, digging into interesting piles of litter, etc.
She is not pooping much, and not sure if that is due to a blockage or because she is not eating. I did some reading and it seems that a gizzard blockage would cause watery or white poop, but the little poop she is doing is a normal colour and consistency (brown or brown green after shes eaten greens).
Her belly is slightly swollen like a duck in lay, but until this occurred, shes been a reasonably, err, well padded (plump, not obese) lass, so its hard to tell. However he belly feels the same soft slightly swollen feeling that my tummies of other healthy ducks who are in lay feel like. Its mid spring here, so I would expect her to be in lay, and am assuming that whatever is causing the prolapse might also be the reason she has stopped laying.
I have given her the following treatment so far:
Warm baths, attempting to manually push the tissue back in (which I have done with several other ducks with success). There is no straining on her behalf when I am holding the tissue back in, but it pops out almost immediately afterward.
I have put her on antibiotics, both as a prophylactic as the tissue wont go back in, and in case there is some sort of gi infection behind this.
In the last couple of days I have also switch ehr pain meds from NSAIDs to prednisone, in an attempt to reduce the inflamation and give better pain relief, plus I have been putting an ointment which contains a corticosteriod, antibacterial and antifungal, and a steriod cream on the area.
There outermost area has white faeces stuck to it, and I mean stuck. I have washed, and soaked and tried to gently remove and its basically like the white faecal material has merged completely into her skin, it simply cannot be removed. Each time I bath her, there has also been fresh poop inside the area, which I have rinsed away. Looks like its simply the rest of a poop that was sitting inside that area and there was no way for her to push it out.
In the last 24 hrs some more tissue has prolapsed, and the tissue itself is a pale greeny yellow color. It looked like it was full of pus or pussy fluid, so I put the poor girl through more pain lancing it slightly, in the hope I could squeeze out any pus etc. but there was nothing, i think its just pale mucus membranes which are appearing slightly greeny yellow.
There are no avian vets near me, and local vets will not do anything except euthanase any prolapse or maybe suture. I dont want her to have a suture as I worry it will cause problems when she next comes into lay,
Currently the prolapse appears as a smaller ruping of white (dry faeces) covered tissue, surrounded by a deeper layer of pale tissue. I think the outer 'ring' is either dead or dying tissue, and after reading some other posts, I wonder if she mighr be better off if the tissue does die and fall away, as it seems some others have had this in birds and the birds have had better health and no recurrences afterward.
So from that perspective would love to hear any experiences with this and thoughts on best way to manage it till it does fall off, to avoid infection etc.
But what I am really hoping to figure out is what has caused this...
I should mention that prolapse may run in her genes. Her mother/grandmother had to be euthanased from a badly prolapsed vent with at least 2 eggs inside her (happened not long after i got my first ducks, so i had no idea how to try to treat and raced the duck to the vent who euthanased.) Her aunt/mother had a prolapse nd was egg bound, twice, the first time she recovered, and the second time she appeared to be recovering but a few days after passing the egg, and seeming to be better she suddenly died and it turned out she had egg yolk peritonitis.
Her other two aunts (or mother - i had a mum a daughter and 3 grand daughters who all laid in the same nest and this duck who is currently prolapsed was an egg i took from that nest and out under a chicken two years ago) have both had minor prolapse problems which I treated at the time by pushing the tissue back in with a cold almost freezing moist cloth. In both cases the prolapse didn't recur and they continued to lay with no further problems, though recently one of those two has had a couple of instances where it seemed to take a little longer than normal for her vent to go back in after laying (but it did go back in). The great grandmother/mother/ grandmother has also had one instance where she had a slight prolapse which was successfully reduced with the cold compress treatment and has not recurred.
I am quite sure this prolapse was not caused by egg laying. She may have eaten something strange or toxic as she is a very curious duck and is into everything new or interesting. She is doing poops with normal components, but not much, whether due to blockage or not eating in cant tell.
She has not had any other symptoms no blood in stools, no green or othr strange colored stools. No injury etc
Would appreciate any thoughts on what else I can look for or research to find the cause. She is currently on amoxicillin. My other options on hand are doxycyline or flucloxicillin.
Where i live you cannot purchase any antibiotics without a prescription and then they are horrendously expensive, ie $100 plus. So I get most of my antibiotics from unused prescriptions from friends/family or from a nurse friend. So baytril etc is not an option.
She is currently housed away from other ducks, with a heat pad, and the house and small run covered from rain/wind etc. i was keeping her in the dark for 16 hrs a day but am quite sure she was not laying to start with so have stopped this.
Feed wise have offered her greens such as dandelion, also coriander (cilantro) to chelate any toxins, oregano for immunity. Gave her calcium at the beginning before i was certain it was not related to egg laying, also initially cut her protein to stop laying, but reinstated that. She picks at pellets, greens etc. I have also syringe feed some mashed egg yolk with ground fresh coriander ad oregano. And if anyone can point me to a good video on tube feeding, please do, not just for this duck but for future reference.
Her crop seems normal, not tight, swollen or hard. Same for gizzard. I did try one dose of metachlopramide just incase she had motility problems, but it didn't seem to help.
Does anyone have any clues or any similar experience with a duck or chicken?
Thanks
Hi guys, sorry this is so long...
I have a female duck who is 2 years old, with a prolapsed vent. She is not laying and There is no sign of her being egg bound etc. She has been this way for 4-5 days now. She is not eating much, but is eating a little and is drinking plenty of water. She has definitely lost weight, and is in pain, but still has normal energy, and when allowed into the run, I will see her foraging, digging into interesting piles of litter, etc.
She is not pooping much, and not sure if that is due to a blockage or because she is not eating. I did some reading and it seems that a gizzard blockage would cause watery or white poop, but the little poop she is doing is a normal colour and consistency (brown or brown green after shes eaten greens).
Her belly is slightly swollen like a duck in lay, but until this occurred, shes been a reasonably, err, well padded (plump, not obese) lass, so its hard to tell. However he belly feels the same soft slightly swollen feeling that my tummies of other healthy ducks who are in lay feel like. Its mid spring here, so I would expect her to be in lay, and am assuming that whatever is causing the prolapse might also be the reason she has stopped laying.
I have given her the following treatment so far:
Warm baths, attempting to manually push the tissue back in (which I have done with several other ducks with success). There is no straining on her behalf when I am holding the tissue back in, but it pops out almost immediately afterward.
I have put her on antibiotics, both as a prophylactic as the tissue wont go back in, and in case there is some sort of gi infection behind this.
In the last couple of days I have also switch ehr pain meds from NSAIDs to prednisone, in an attempt to reduce the inflamation and give better pain relief, plus I have been putting an ointment which contains a corticosteriod, antibacterial and antifungal, and a steriod cream on the area.
There outermost area has white faeces stuck to it, and I mean stuck. I have washed, and soaked and tried to gently remove and its basically like the white faecal material has merged completely into her skin, it simply cannot be removed. Each time I bath her, there has also been fresh poop inside the area, which I have rinsed away. Looks like its simply the rest of a poop that was sitting inside that area and there was no way for her to push it out.
In the last 24 hrs some more tissue has prolapsed, and the tissue itself is a pale greeny yellow color. It looked like it was full of pus or pussy fluid, so I put the poor girl through more pain lancing it slightly, in the hope I could squeeze out any pus etc. but there was nothing, i think its just pale mucus membranes which are appearing slightly greeny yellow.
There are no avian vets near me, and local vets will not do anything except euthanase any prolapse or maybe suture. I dont want her to have a suture as I worry it will cause problems when she next comes into lay,
Currently the prolapse appears as a smaller ruping of white (dry faeces) covered tissue, surrounded by a deeper layer of pale tissue. I think the outer 'ring' is either dead or dying tissue, and after reading some other posts, I wonder if she mighr be better off if the tissue does die and fall away, as it seems some others have had this in birds and the birds have had better health and no recurrences afterward.
So from that perspective would love to hear any experiences with this and thoughts on best way to manage it till it does fall off, to avoid infection etc.
But what I am really hoping to figure out is what has caused this...
I should mention that prolapse may run in her genes. Her mother/grandmother had to be euthanased from a badly prolapsed vent with at least 2 eggs inside her (happened not long after i got my first ducks, so i had no idea how to try to treat and raced the duck to the vent who euthanased.) Her aunt/mother had a prolapse nd was egg bound, twice, the first time she recovered, and the second time she appeared to be recovering but a few days after passing the egg, and seeming to be better she suddenly died and it turned out she had egg yolk peritonitis.
Her other two aunts (or mother - i had a mum a daughter and 3 grand daughters who all laid in the same nest and this duck who is currently prolapsed was an egg i took from that nest and out under a chicken two years ago) have both had minor prolapse problems which I treated at the time by pushing the tissue back in with a cold almost freezing moist cloth. In both cases the prolapse didn't recur and they continued to lay with no further problems, though recently one of those two has had a couple of instances where it seemed to take a little longer than normal for her vent to go back in after laying (but it did go back in). The great grandmother/mother/ grandmother has also had one instance where she had a slight prolapse which was successfully reduced with the cold compress treatment and has not recurred.
I am quite sure this prolapse was not caused by egg laying. She may have eaten something strange or toxic as she is a very curious duck and is into everything new or interesting. She is doing poops with normal components, but not much, whether due to blockage or not eating in cant tell.
She has not had any other symptoms no blood in stools, no green or othr strange colored stools. No injury etc
Would appreciate any thoughts on what else I can look for or research to find the cause. She is currently on amoxicillin. My other options on hand are doxycyline or flucloxicillin.
Where i live you cannot purchase any antibiotics without a prescription and then they are horrendously expensive, ie $100 plus. So I get most of my antibiotics from unused prescriptions from friends/family or from a nurse friend. So baytril etc is not an option.
She is currently housed away from other ducks, with a heat pad, and the house and small run covered from rain/wind etc. i was keeping her in the dark for 16 hrs a day but am quite sure she was not laying to start with so have stopped this.
Feed wise have offered her greens such as dandelion, also coriander (cilantro) to chelate any toxins, oregano for immunity. Gave her calcium at the beginning before i was certain it was not related to egg laying, also initially cut her protein to stop laying, but reinstated that. She picks at pellets, greens etc. I have also syringe feed some mashed egg yolk with ground fresh coriander ad oregano. And if anyone can point me to a good video on tube feeding, please do, not just for this duck but for future reference.
Her crop seems normal, not tight, swollen or hard. Same for gizzard. I did try one dose of metachlopramide just incase she had motility problems, but it didn't seem to help.
Does anyone have any clues or any similar experience with a duck or chicken?
Thanks
