cHIcken with prolapsed uterus

[cjb]

can anyone help me? my chickens uterus, I think, is falling out. I have pushed it back in serveral times and put hemroyd cream on it. haven't checked lately trying to let her settle down. she has water with electroyltes and I covered her in a crate in the bathroom where it is quiet. what else should i do? my friend said put her down. any one had any experience with this?

 

[SallyF]

Do a search on this site for "prolapse"; there are lots of references for it and hopefully one of them will have some advice for you. Good luck.

 

[TexChix2]

Do not put her down. Separate her from the others, soak her little behind to get the poop off, then trim the feathers away from all her back under side. She will continue to have a mess of a behind while the uterus is prolapsed and by trimming away the feathers she'll keep much cleaner. Still, soak her every now and then, apply some triple antibiotic to lower the risk of infection. Feed her yogurt with her usual feed to boost her bacterial resistance.

My little black naked neck had a terribly prolapsed uterus at the end of last winter and she is now running around back out there with the little flock happy as the day is long.

Hens do not die from prolapsed uterus. They can die from infection and certainly can die if the other hens get the idea to pick at the red area (and cause bleeding and--infection).

I got tips to keep her food and light limited to slow her laying down, but she never stopped for a day. She lay right through it. For all the times I pushed her uterus in she fought like crazy and pushed it out farther. After three months of separation and only small improvement, I let her rejoin the flock during the day, then at night. A month or so after that her uterus popped right back in and she hasn't had a problem since.

The condition never seemed to bother her. (My baths, pushing on her behind, shutting her away from her pals, the cool dark basement--THESE things bugged her. Never the red internal organ hanging out her behind.)

If you have any other questions about how my Hera pulled through, feel free to ask. Keep the faith!

 

[MotherJean]

On the other hand, it doesn't always work out as well as it did for TexChix2. Leaving that prolapse hanging outside the body exposes the hen to serious infection or turning necrotic (dead flesh), which generally results in gangrene. I don't know anyone who would leave a prolapsed hen in the flock. The tales of them being pecked to death are legion. If you decide not to cull this hen because of the prolapse, you should know that she may have ongoing problems with egg laying in the future. Remember that the uterus is the shell gland. If that becomes damaged due to infection or injury because of the prolapse, it could result in a litany of future troubles including: soft shells, no shells, egg binding, and internal laying. I certainly understand wanting to do everything in our power to save a pet's life. If it was my hen, I'd probably try to treat her problem rather than cull. I just think you need to be fully informed that sometimes the sun comes out, the choir sings and we all live happily ever after....and sometimes not. If you decide to try to help her, there's lots of threads on the subject.