Fixed Prolapse, But Now Moulting??

[Gigiannie]

So, my little hens were about a year old this spring. (I have three Americaunas and one Wyandotte.) My white Americauna, Marilyn, suffered a prolapse almost two weeks ago. I followed the advice I found on BackYard Chickens, and also from a very helpful you tube video:

and was able to successfully (I hope) treat her.

The first two or three days that I had her isolated, she continued to lay eggs, which would push the prolapse back out. Even though it was looking less irritated, the key to fixing her seemed to be to turn off her egg laying switch. So, I decided to keep her in the garage (very dark) for all but about 6-8 hrs every day. As soon as she quit laying eggs, her vent stayed put, but I continued to bring her inside for about another week.
My hens are all extremely tame and easy to handle, so it was easy to take Marilyn out with the other hens for her daytime hours, once her vent was staying in place, and let her spend the day with them. I had considered keeping her indoors overnight for a few weeks, as I have an unavoidable trip coming up and will be away from home for a week. I was hoping that I could keep her from laying eggs for all of that time, as I will not be here, if an emergency ensues.

However, just a couple of days ago, I noticed that Marilyn was losing LOTS of feathers. I was concerned enough to put her back out with the other girls, full time. I am wondering if the hours of darkness have forced her into a premature molt. Today I noticed that she has actual bare spots, and it looks like a pillow fight has been going on, out there. I am now concerned (once again) for Marilyn's health. Is she going to be okay? Has anyone had experience with a similar situation?

Just in case you're wondering, my ladies get layer crumble, oyster shell and have free range of our fenced back yard. I hope someone can tell me what to expect, here. I can see bare patches in front of her wings. How long and how bad can moulting (if that's what's going on) be? Thanks!!

 

[rebrascora]

Hi

Well done for fixing her vent. It sounds like you did a great job and putting her in the dark was a good move. All your chickens are approaching moult since they will be about 16 months old but you are probably correct in thinking that placing her in the dark has triggered it slightly prematurely.... which is probably not a bad thing. I have some moulting now but last year I had some start late and had bare patches in winter which seemed like very bad timing.

Moults can be very minor or scarily substantial. There is a thread on the forum somewhere for posting your worst moulting hen pictures and I can assure you there are some real shockers! It's helpful for novice poultry keepers to see such photos so that they don't panic too much when their birds moult. Normality has a huge range both in timing and severity when it comes to moulting.

Hopefully that will give you a little more peace of mind whilst you are away.

Best wishes

Barbara

PS. I found the thread in question.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-worst-chicken-molt-pictures-fall-winter-2015

It can also be helpful to up their protein intake a little to assist them through their moult.