Egg bound hen or prolapsed vent? I hope someone is around tonight..(photos)

[drpurl]

I noticed today while watching & feeding my girls that one of them had no fluff in their vent area. This is what I found.

while doing a bit of researched and my hubby holding her, she dropped this egg and the 2nd photo is what it looks liked. I felt her belly and doesn't feel hard. She isn't acting different and we don't have a rooster.

 

[LindsayB]

Have you checked them for lice recently? It's hard to see in the picture but the feathers in the top left, by your hand, look like they're either covered it dirt or lice eggs. Heavy lice infestations can stress them out and cause feather picking and egg issues. But then I'm also wondering what the red thing is sticking out near her bottom.

 

[Haunted55]

It does look like you may have a bit of prolapse going on. Here's something I did for a goose and 2 chickens since. Give a calcium 500-600mg combined with the vitamin D 400iu. Mine happened to be the chewable ones. I crushed the tablet and put it into a small amount of water and that was all they had to drink. First, it helped the muscles work properly and be able to push the eggs out right and then it also gives them the boost of calcium needed to harden the shell. Now while you are doing this, do not feed any layer feed. Give her a rest and let the calcium with vitamin D work for a few days. I'd give it for 5 days at least.

For the prolapse you can take a vitamin E capsule, 400iu, and mix it with KY Jelly and slather her vent. The vitamin E with shrink the tissue quickly and heal it up.

I do have some questions for you...have you checked her for mites and lice? I would. If you don't have a roo, her bottom shouldn't be bare. These little buggers show up around the vent area first so you may have that going on as well. You can use Sevin Dust to treat or you can get something at Tractor Supply called Poultry Protecter and try that. Not sure how good it works....I'm just trying it out myself. If you do find mites or lice, you can do a lot of things to make sure this doesn't happen again. Start with the dusting box and add DE, spaghnum moss, sand, wood ash if you have it and a touch of the Sevin. Move on to the coop....clean it well and either use a Sevin spray or dust to get all of the corners, nesting boxes, floor and roost. Then add new shavings or whatever you use.

 

[drpurl]

Thank you! I don't see mites and the feathers are more dirty and clumped together. However, I will clean it go tomorrow. I'll give her a bath and give calcium and isolate her for a few days.

 

[drpurl]

We got her cleaned up and put some preperation H on it and it went right back in.

 

[LindsayB]

Thats great news!

 

[Haunted55]

Thank you! I don't see mites and the feathers are more dirty and clumped together. However, I will clean it go tomorrow. I'll give her a bath and give calcium and isolate her for a few days.

I'm glad you got everything back! I've had a problem with mites here and I couldn't find anything. Nothing on the birds, nothing in the nest boxes, nowhere, no how. Yet they have loss of feathers around their vents and now going onto their legs. It must be mites or lice, not much else will cause this. So I am treating them right now for this and hope to see results sometime soon. That's why I brought it up, just as a heads up kind of thing.

Just an FYI again, I have been having issues with my birds having trouble with getting the proper calcium from their feed, as have a lot of other people on BYC. I've been seeing this here for months now and if you chek the threads here, you'll find 100s experiencing the same problems. If I had to guess, I'd say something is amiss with the supplements, or lack of them, being added to the feed. I have added oyster shell and occasionaly give them the calcium with D as a 'just in case'. I am also giving layer feed from 2 different companies, mixed together, hoping to have at least one of the brands cover their needs. Most times it works, but I do still get a couple of 'rubber eggs' now and then. It's happening in all of the fowl here as well, peafowl, turkeys, chickens, ducks and geese. The chickens the least, the ducks, the most. For it to be affecting all these types it has to be the feed, as they all get different feed. I will say I've had the least trouble with the Blue Seal Extra Egg layer feed.

 

[LindsayB]

Yep..I'm one of those people having egg issues, mines just one bird though. I have oyster shell out but she still has paper thin eggs. I'm hoping the calcium pill i gave her starts to work.
Drpurl- I would definitely give her a calcium pill. You don't want an egg to break inside her and give her more problems.

 

[Haunted55]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/738201/goose-what-is-this-how-did-it-happen-what-do-i-do-about-it

Here's my first experience with it. Yes it's one of my geese but the treatment would be the same. Scary thing to be sure when you first see it. Hopefully everything will work as quickly for you as it did for me.