Chicken with prolapse

[Three Little Bunnies]

Hi!

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
Easter Egger, not sure of age, feels like a healthy weight

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Prolapse

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
24 hrs

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
no

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
Bit of bleeding

6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
This hen has chronic shell-less eggs and prolapsing - I extracted one yesterday and the organs haven't gone back in

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
water and chicken food, as far as I know

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
She is having trouble pooping

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
gave her a bath, applied hydrocortisone and antibiotic paste, tried to gently push the organ back in (this worked once before), put her in a box in the garage

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
Don't know if there's a bird vet, so I need to treat her

11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
She lives in a big run and coop; she's been in the small part of the coop with nest boxes for 24 hours, but she's in a little box in the garage now

Update: I felt again for an egg, applied sugar to the prolapse, and gave her a bit of Tums dissolved in water. She doesn't seem to have anything in there; she just won't stop straining. Please help!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'd give her a whole TUMS not just a bit. If you need to, cut the TUMS in half. Pull down on your hen's wattles, pop 1/2 in the beak, let go of the wattles and let her swallow. Repeat for the other 1/2. You must have a magic touch, I've never been able to get TUMS to dissolve in water.
Calcium Citrate with D3 would be better than TUMS, but TUMS will work, she needs the calcium to help with contractions and retention.

If the tissue is swollen and damaged, it may not stay in. It may take days for the swelling to go down. Soakings if she's not lethargic are good. Keeping the tissue moist with ointment, oil, raw honey, etc. is crucial, you don't want the tissue to dry out, it will become necrotic.

You do want to keep her hydrated.


https://the-chicken-chick.com/prolapse-vent-causes-treatment-graphic/

 

[Three Little Bunnies]

I'd give her a whole TUMS not just a bit. If you need to, cut the TUMS in half. Pull down on your hen's wattles, pop 1/2 in the beak, let go of the wattles and let her swallow. Repeat for the other 1/2. You must have a magic touch, I've never been able to get TUMS to dissolve in water.
Calcium Citrate with D3 would be better than TUMS, but TUMS will work, she needs the calcium to help with contractions and retention.

If the tissue is swollen and damaged, it may not stay in. It may take days for the swelling to go down. Soakings if she's not lethargic are good. Keeping the tissue moist with ointment, oil, raw honey, etc. is crucial, you don't want the tissue to dry out, it will become necrotic.

You do want to keep her hydrated.


https://the-chicken-chick.com/prolapse-vent-causes-treatment-graphic/

Thank you for your response! Right now the hen is asleep, so I may try the TUMS thing when she wakes up. The tissue is pretty swollen, and the last time she was prolapsed (less than a week ago), she was bleeding a little bit. She is seeming more lethargic now, probably from straining for so long.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Let me know how she's doing.

 

[Three Little Bunnies]

Let me know how she's doing.

She is still prolapsed - the tissue is no longer red but a purplish color. I'm thinking she will probably have to be put down, but I don't want to do it until I know she won't get better. A veterinarian is willing to do a mobile consultation; I'm trying to decide if it is worth it to pay the $50 they want to charge.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Do you have photos of the prolapse?

 

[Three Little Bunnies]

Thank you for your timely response! My apologies that I did not get back to you sooner.

The hen seems to have recovered, so I will outline the steps taken to help her, in case they will help others in the future.

For the first week or so, the hen was in the laundry room in a small cage with a towel over it, for darkness. I encouraged her to drink when I checked on her and provided produce for her to nibble. She got a bath - about an hour long - each day. Approximately every two hours during the day, I would apply honey and sugar to the prolapse and wrap the hen in a towel to keep her from straining. Approximately every four hours, I would apply cortisone and antibiotic ointment. She eventually was moved to the garage, where this process repeated for approximately 10 days. The obstacle to her recovery seemed to be a scablike mass that had formed on the exposed tissue. After about two weeks, part of this had mostly detached and was able to be trimmed. Sometime last night, the rest of the mass had fallen off and the prolapse has now receded.

The hen is still in her cage in a segregated part of the coop, and I keep the towel over the cage to ensure that she does not have enough light to try laying eggs again. One other question I have: the hen seems to have this trouble due to her habit of laying shell-less eggs. Since she is normally provided with layer feed and supplemental calcium, I suspect that calcium deficiency is not the issue. Is there any way to keep her from laying eggs so this does not happen again?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm glad to hear she's doing better and it's nice that you included details of caring for her during recovery.

What are you giving as supplemental calcium? Is it oyster shell or are you giving Calcium Citrate with D3?

To completely stop production, you could look into Suprelorin implants, you will need a vet willing to do this for you. The implant stops ovulation but does need to be readministered every few months or so. I don't know how much it costs, but there's folks that have done this. Search here on BYC or google.

If vet care is not an option, the only other way to keep her from producing would be to keep her totally in the dark for 16 hours a day indefinitely. It's possible she may still lay, but limiting light can usually stop production. I'm not sure what the long term effects on her health or wellbeing would be. If you timed it right, she could spend her 8 hours of daylight with her flock or a buddy or two, getting outside to do all the things hens love to do.

 

[Lyrebirb]

She is still prolapsed - the tissue is no longer red but a purplish color. I'm thinking she will probably have to be put down, but I don't want to do it until I know she won't get better. A veterinarian is willing to do a mobile consultation; I'm trying to decide if it is worth it to pay the $50 they want to charge.

I know this is an old post. But this is what I'm looking at. I posted a thread. But I'm colorblind, idk what color my picture is. It's you yes ok to look at a gross picture could I get your help?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I know this is an old post. But this is what I'm looking at. I posted a thread. But I'm colorblind, idk what color my picture is. It's you yes ok to look at a gross picture could I get your help?

Welcome To BYC

So others can find your thread, I've linked it below.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...panting-and-open-mouth.1577781/#post-26804995