Egg bound/prolapse/possible infection?

[Tiffanylw]

Before I ask my questions, let me start by saying that I am new to having ducks and chickens and don't really know much about them and I don't know what I am doing! Lol. I only have one chicken that I believe is a Rhode Island Red? (I found her in the alley behind my house one day and no one around us claimed her, so we decided to keep her in our backyard with our 2 ducks. My 5 year old fell in love with her haha) I'm not sure of her age, but I found her about 2 months ago. She seemed almost full-grown when I found her, but she has gotten bigger and her feathers have "matured" in the last couple months she has been here.

Yesterday she tried to lay her first egg. We noticed her acting a bit odd when we went out in the morning to feed them. She was not her normal, talkative self, and she was mostly hanging around by the fence and not roaming around as much as usual. We didn't think much of it, though, at this point. Later in the day (late afternoon), we noticed her vent area looked swollen and dirty with poop and discharge. I did some research and realized she was prolapsed and an egg was stuck there, in her prolapsed oviduct. We put her in a warm bath, helped her pass the egg, and gently guided the prolapse back in place, following advice we found on the internet. She immediately seemed to feel better and started clucking at us again and walking about, but we could tell she was exhausted. We let her roost in her usual spot and she went to sleep quickly.

This morning when I went out to check on her, she was talkative, but not as much as usual. She also is not being very active today, just hanging close to the backyard fence again and sleeping a lot. She was not interested in food or water. Her poop is mucousy-looking, runny, and white. Does this sound like an infection that will require antibiotics? Or is it maybe vent gleet? What should I do next to care for her?

As I was typing this I went to check on her again and to try and take some pictures. I think she threw up a little while I was out with her. Please help!


Here is a picture of her poo from this morning (I didn't take the picture until later so it is partially dried up)


Picture of her poo from this afternoon.


Picture of her from this afternoon.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Yesterday she tried to lay her first egg.

we noticed her vent area looked swollen and dirty with poop and discharge. I did some research and realized she was prolapsed and an egg was stuck there, in her prolapsed oviduct. We put her in a warm bath, helped her pass the egg, and gently guided the prolapse back in place, following advice we found on the internet.

She also is not being very active today, just hanging close to the backyard fence again and sleeping a lot. She was not interested in food or water. Her poop is mucousy-looking, runny, and white. Does this sound like an infection that will require antibiotics? Or is it maybe vent gleet? What should I do next to care for her?

As I was typing this I went to check on her again and to try and take some pictures. I think she threw up a little while I was out with her.

Hi @Tiffanylw Welcome To BYC

Did the prolapse stay inside? She has no more swollen or exposed tissue at the vent?

You mention you think she threw up - was that water or ? Check her crop first thing in the morning before she eats/drinks to see if the crop is empty. Sometimes they can spit up a bit of water if they have been drinking a lot, but it's good to check to make sure there's no crop issues.

The poop has a lot of urates and does look mucousy. If you have a vet that will perform a test on the poop to check for worms and coccidiosis that would be a good idea.

What type of food do you feed your pullet? Do you provide oyster shell free choice?

Are both Ducks female?

 

[Tiffanylw]

Hello! Thanks for your response!

Her prolapse stayed inside and her vent appears to be back to normal today. No more swelling or exposed tissue. When she threw up, it did just look like water. I didn't see this message until after I fed her this morning, but she is behaving much more normal today! She seems to have more energy and was up scratching around and foraging as usual. She ate a small amount of food and I also gave her some meal worms and broccoli that she was very interested in. I've been feeding her and the ducks a mixture of 16% All Flock crumbles with probiotics and some regular poultry feed/chicken scratch. I also give them treats every now and then that is usually scrambled egg, dried crickets, or some sort of leftover steamed vegetables. Once they finish up this last bit of feed I have on hand, I plan to get some layer feed since she is laying eggs, as is my female duck. I have one female duck and one male. They stay in a small pen and shed in the backyard while the chicken sort of free-ranges in the backyard. (I tried to get her to stay in the pen with the ducks, but she kept jumping the fence so I gave up, haha.) I do let the ducks out for a few hours a day a few times a week.

I haven't been providing oyster shell, but I bought some yesterday and sat a small dish of it next to her food this morning. She pecked at it some, but wasn't very interested.

Her poo seems to be more solid today, but still has quite a bit of the white discharge or urates or whatever. It has been very hot lately (we live in Texas), so could she possible just be drinking a lot of water and that is causing her runny/white poo?

We do have a local vet that I believe treats chickens, but I'm not 100% sure he does. Taking her to the vet isn't really in our budget right now either, sadly.

 

[Tiffanylw]

Update: She laid another egg this afternoon all on her own! She also seems to be feeling much better. She is much more active and pretty much resumed normal eating habits this afternoon. Her egg was soft-shelled, though, so I guess I need to be sure she has more calcium?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I've been feeding her and the ducks a mixture of 16% All Flock crumbles with probiotics and some regular poultry feed/chicken scratch. I also give them treats every now and then that is usually scrambled egg, dried crickets, or some sort of leftover steamed vegetables.

I'm glad to hear she is doing better and was able to lay an egg without prolapsing.
If you are mixing the scratch with feed, she may be eating more "goodies" than the nutritionally balanced poultry feed. Scratch is a "treat" so just give a small amount separately and make her main source of nutrition the feed. See if that helps her too.

 

[Tiffanylw]

Thanks for your help! I'll give less of the scratch, I didn't realize it needed to be limited. Oops, haha. She is doing even better today, being very active and eating and drinking. And her poo looks back to normal! Hopefully everything is ok now, but I'm still going to watch her closely for a while. Thanks again for your help!