7 Day old chick with vent prolapse

[Nambroth]

Hello all!

I have a group of 10 Bielefelder (large fowl) chicks that are now one week old today. One chick developed a prolapse this morning.

She is one of the larger chicks, robust, active, eating and drinking very well. Her droppings are perfect, and well formed. The problem is that they are HUGE droppings in terms of volume. This morning I noticed that she strains quite a bit to poop, and each time, she successfully passes (large) well-formed droppings... but also has a tiny prolapse. I noticed it the first time because the other chicks were pecking it (the red is just too inviting for them). I immediately gathered her up and gently washed the area with warm water, gently pressed the prolapse back in, got her all dry, and used a tiny bit of Vetericyn and a dab of coconut oil directly on/into her vent.

The chick in question does not seem to overeat; I see her eating and drinking at the same rate as all the others. She does drink well and I don't suspect she's dehydrated. I've watched her all morning and each time she's pooped, she's strained and the droppings have been very well formed, solid (but not hard), but very large, and she's prolapsed each time. Each time I've repeated the treatment of a moist warm "compress", pressing the prolapse back in gently, and applying small amounts of Vetericyn and coconut oil. Treating her doesn't seem to cause any discomfort, and the small amount of swelling that occurs with each prolapse seems to go down very rapidly to a very slightly puffy but otherwise normal looking vent.

I have all of my chicks on an organic starter mash and all are doing well (except one weak failure to thrive chick, which is a different story) and I haven't had any pasty butts or other digestive/droppings issues. All other chicks are passing healthy droppings.

I've read mixed things about Preparation H / Hemorrhoid cream use in prolapses, especially with tiny chicks. It's apparently not an ideal treatment we thought it was, once?

Is there anything I can do other than continue to watch her, and help each time she prolapses?

 

[Nambroth]

Update: I don't want to dry her out too much, which I know Vetericyn can do, so I stopped using it for now and am just using a tiny amount of coconut oil each time I push her little prolapse back in. She is active, happy, and doesn't seem to realize anything is wrong except that she has to strain to poop.

 

[Eggcessive]

Chicks with prolapses from what I have read sometimes die from other birth defects internally. Hopefully it is just constipation causing the prolapse.
I would give a few drops of either molasses or mineral oil as a stimulant to see if that helps. Also try adding a lot of water to a small amount of chick feed to make it soupy to get more water into it.
If the chicks were shipped it could be just some temporary constipation from shipping stress. I have seen so many pasty butt chicks at feedstores suffering from shipping stress.

 

[Nambroth]

Thank you Eggcessive. I will give that a try. They were shipped, but no pasty butt so far. They arrived in less than 12 hours after being boxed, so that may have helped (it's hard to say exactly what they go though!). She was okay for 6 days then just started having trouble today. I have had one that is a failure to thrive since day 1, so I thought she'd be my problem child, not this one!

 

[Nambroth]

Update 2: We got some hydrocortisone (no painkillers added) and after two applications (and continuing to reset her prolapse after each poop), she had her first poop without a prolapse this evening just now. Fingers crossed. I know she's hardly out of the woods but I'm hoping she improves.

 

[Nambroth]

Update 3: She's not had another prolapse since yesterday afternoon. The swelling at her vent is almost completely gone. She still strains a bit so I will continue 2x daily application of a very tiny amount of the hydrocortisone cream until she no longer seems to strain. I'm glad I was so stubborn with trying to help her! She's one of the sweetest chicks and has a lot of vigor and energy.

 

[Eggcessive]

Wow, that is great news. I hope she continues to thrive and do well. The hydrocortisone cream seems to have helped, or she was healing on her own.

 

[Nambroth]

Wow, that is great news. I hope she continues to thrive and do well. The hydrocortisone cream seems to have helped, or she was healing on her own.

Yes, it's impossible for me to know the why, but she is improving so I will stay the course! I don't know if this means she will be more prone to prolapse problems later in life or not, but I'm prepared to deal with that if so. An adult is easier to help, at least.