Cochin with extreme prolapse

[LilyD]

My sister just called and her 6 month old white cochin just laid a huge egg (about the size of a duck egg) and her insides are hanging out and dragging on the ground probably about a good 6 to 8 inches from her bottom. Is there any thing she can do for her hen. I told her that probably the kindest thing would be to put her down with that much inside tissue on the outside. But also is there anything she can do to prevent this from happening in the future. She bought 9 new cochin hens this summer and this is the second one with a prolapse this season.

Any ideas.

I have never had a prolapsed hen so this is all new stuff for me. Would love some assistance from others who have been through it.

 

[rbaker0345]

I would clean the prolapsed area well by dipping her backside in a bath of betadine and warm water, very dilute. Then I would try to push the cloaca back into its proper position. She may need to take the bird to the vet for something called a pursestring suture.

 

[LilyD]

I have done that before with a bird she had with a small golf ball sized prolapse but this one she says has what looks like intestines hanging out her back end. I told her she could try to bath it and push the insides back in carefully, but is there any way a hen can survive a prolapse that severe. I have never heard of one that big before.

 

[rbaker0345]

I don't know. I think that its survivable as long as there are no ruptures or ulcerations. I would be at the vet, but I'm a vet tech, so its cheaper for me. I think it would probably need a pursestring suture to keep it from coming back out.

 

[LilyD]

Okay I will let her know and hopefully she will make it. What could be causing this is there anything she can do to stop it from happening with her other hens?

 

[rbaker0345]

Well, if its happening just to birds that are all came from one place and that are probably all related to one another, its probably genetic. That's the hard thing about SQ birds, breeders breed for certain characteristics and sometimes bad traits pop up in the crossfire. If this bird survives, I definitely wouldn't hatch any eggs from those birds.