Dr. Z. saved my girl!

[speckledhen]

Ok, hopefully, the hen will be able to get enough poop out, but the more solid ones would have trouble coming out of small openings. From what you wrote, sounded like she completely closed up the vent. Did she stitch in the center or the side of the vent or did she completely close up the vent? I still think that if she was egg bound and the egg was extracted, and not even prolapsed, stitching up the vent was a very bad idea. If feces back up into the oviduct because they cannot come out normally, your hen will develop an ecoli infection and you have a whole other issue to deal with.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Can you get enough of a look and feel to determin if there might be another egg trying to come out? If there is an egg in there it needs to come out stiches or not, If there are egs coming and they can't pass the vent she will suffer and die.

I know the effort is to do the best for the chicken, but this is starting to sound like some pretty bad suffering with low chance for sucess. Sucess being hen returns to laying health not caged in a dark crate on starvation diet.

Some of the failures of egg laying equipment are beyond what can reasonably be fixed.

 

[mulewagon]

Honey, don't panic! If you think the sutures are going to cause a problem, sterilize your little embroidery scissors and cut them. Don't mess around with trying to get the ends out - just cut the middle. And remember that she's less likely to lay when stressed - it's not impossible, but less likely.

I'm sure it's a good idea to keep her quiet in the dark - she needs to sleep and recover. Handle her as little as possible, just for the necessary meds and such.

And don't get too upset with the vet - I doubt she was trained to treat chickens...they're an odd animal, with that big egg coming out every day. But hopefully rest and medicine will help her recover...

 

[speckledhen]

Truth be told, many vets will try to help, even if they are clueless about avian species, and chickens in particular. That is why most of us learn to take care of issues on our own, but Clay is right about some things being beyond fixing. And if the fixing attempt is ill-advised, that usually doesn't bode well for the hen.

 

[jjthink]

I don't think you exactly said, but can we assume Dr. Z is not an avian vet (you did say she's not your regular avian vet but I'm not sure if that meant she wasn't avian at all).
JJ

 

[PepsNick]

I'm sorry... she SEWED the vent CLOSED???

 

[TheBantamPrevails]

RELAX!

If your chicken is pooping, things are fine, but you will have to get the purse suture taken out before your chicken lays an egg again.

This happened to my bantam cochin a few weeks ago. She had a terrible prolapse. Her hole oviduct was sticking out with a shell-less egg wrapped up inside. My vet bill was $450 though!

The vet anesthetized her, took an x-ray, cleaned her up, and examined her. Then she put in a purse suture to keep her insides on the inside. The x-ray did not show an egg in the oviduct. This is important because if there was an egg in the chute, it would need to come out in a day or two. My chicken stayed the night at the vet, and they made sure she was still passing urates and feces. If she could poop, it meant that the suture was loose enough. A purse suture is like a draw string on a bag.

Like your chicken, my chicken had some necrotic tissue where the prolapse had stopped circulation. She may have been prolapsed all day. I do not know because her cochin bustle tail feathers hid what otherwise was an obvious and ugly prolapse. The vet was worried but said "birds are amazing healers."

So, I brought her home and nursed her. She pooped as usual, but around 4 days in, the fibery broccoli leaves I was feeding her in addition to the scratch were getting backed up. She was till pooping, but not as much as I wanted. After a week, she definitely had a big turd in there. So I took her to get the stitch out, and an hour later she pooped a real nice big turd.

Also, a bit of necrotic tissue was sticking out. I pulled it gently because I thought it was an egg membrane. But then I could tell it was still attached by a small section. So I cleaned it, put K-Y on my pinky, and gently pushed it back in so it wouldn't be tugging on her healthy insides.

The next morning, she the necrotic bit came out again. So I went to clean it and push it back in, but it sloughed off.

I kept the chicken in for a couple more days for observation, then got her back outside in the coop. She is doing great now.

And today she laid her first egg since the ordeal, successfully! In her case, lack of calcium was the issue. Without a shell, it is hard for them to lay. She is still a young hen--she just started laying infrequently a couple months ago, and I think this is her first egg with a shell.

So, my advice is to make sure your chicken is pooping. If you know how frequently she was laying, you can predict when she will need to lay again. The purse stitch needs to come out before that. Or, after a week, whichever comes first. If she isn't able to pass urates and feces, the stitch needs to come out now.

But she will always be at risk of prolapse. So daily vent checks are needed. I am glad I started doing this with all my girls. I feel like we know each other better!

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you for weighing in on this issue. We were very worried that the vet may have actually sewn the vent mostly shut--not sure why that would be done if she was just egg bound and not prolapsed. Jeannie, was she prolapsed or actually egg bound? Did she tell you to keep her in the dark? She really should have. If that vent was actually sewn shut and not just one or two stitches, then you may have serious issues. If it was the latter, then could be things may be okay--IF she doesn't have an egg that needs to have an exit.

 

[TheBantamPrevails]

Quote:
Yeah, I agree, it is weird to put that suture in without a prolapse. But if she had to get in there to remove the egg, she probably went through the vent? In which case, she may have sort of artificially prolapsed it to clean out the necrotic tissue, and that would account for the purse suture.

I agree about the dark. Make sure she gets a limited amount of light a day. Some of my chickens have been laying fine on 12 hours of light, so it will need to be less than that. A guess anyone? Total darkness seems cruel, but perhaps a few hours of light a day until she is healed is fine.

Really rooting for this chicken! I was so relieved my hen made it, so I hope this one is an amazing healer too.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, by "dark", I mean very dim light. Forgot to say that she is probably open-mouth breathing because she is stressed and in pain. You could give one low dose aspirin to her by mouth or in a small piece of bread.