Gleet, prolapse, and weight loss: to cull or not to cull?

[xiggystardust]

Hi all. I have been on travel seven hours away from home this past week and need to be away a further two weeks. While we are away, a friend has been caring for our chickens. Unfortunately just after we left, One of our ladies seems to have developed vent gleet with bleeding, followed by a prolapse that happened yesterday. I drove all the way home to help out and see if I could get her back to health, but when I got here I had found to my dismay that she seems to have lost so much weight. Unfortunately, I need to leave today so I am trying to figure out whether to cull her before I leave, or just leave the chicken carer with instructions on how to push back in a prolapse.

My question to you is, what is your take on how survivable her condition is (or is she likely to simply suffer to death over the next two weeks)? The gleet seems to have subsided, but I applied some nystatin cream in case, and I treated her bloody spot with bacitracin. I tucked her prolapse back in but couldn’t remove all the encrusted poo after an hour of gentle scrubbing .

She’s been occasionally laying large, rough eggs since we got her in March, despite having plenty of access to eggshells and oyster shells and other sources of calcium—Since she does this so frequently, it seems likely to me that a prolapse will recur. But, obviously I would really rather not have to call her if I don’t have to!

Other information: she is a one year old ISA Brown. She is separated from the rest of the flock and currently in our garage where we can keep it dark for much of the day.

 

[DobieLover]

Hi all. I have been on travel seven hours away from home this past week and need to be away a further two weeks. While we are away, a friend has been caring for our chickens. Unfortunately just after we left, One of our ladies seems to have developed vent gleet with bleeding, followed by a prolapse that happened yesterday. I drove all the way home to help out and see if I could get her back to health, but when I got here I had found to my dismay that she seems to have lost so much weight. Unfortunately, I need to leave today so I am trying to figure out whether to cull her before I leave, or just leave the chicken carer with instructions on how to push back in a prolapse.

My question to you is, what is your take on how survivable her condition is (or is she likely to simply suffer to death over the next two weeks)? The gleet seems to have subsided, but I applied some nystatin cream in case, and I treated her bloody spot with bacitracin. I tucked her prolapse back in but couldn’t remove all the encrusted poo after an hour of gentle scrubbing .

She’s been occasionally laying large, rough eggs since we got her in March, despite having plenty of access to eggshells and oyster shells and other sources of calcium—Since she does this so frequently, it seems likely to me that a prolapse will recur. But, obviously I would really rather not have to call her if I don’t have to!

Other information: she is a one year old ISA Brown. She is separated from the rest of the flock and currently in our garage where we can keep it dark for much of the day.

Can you post pictures of her vent?
What do her poops look like?
I went through a similar situation.

 

[Chicalina]

Is it a small prolapse? If so hemorrhoid cream helps.

With an Isa Brown though, it is probably going to be a recurring problem. How adept is your chicken carer at dealing with this? It's one thing going round to help someone out by letting out and feeding their chickens, it's another thing having to deal with medical emergencies and pushing a chicken's bum back in every day.

 

[xiggystardust]

Can you post pictures of her vent?
What do her poops look like?
I went through a similar situation.

Here’s a photo of it as it stands this morning. I have trimmed off most of the feathers to make it easier for the white stuff to clean off. I pushed her prolapse in last night… I don’t know what big or small would be but it was maybe the size of two standard dice side by side. Half a golf ball.

 

[xiggystardust]

Is it a small prolapse? If so hemorrhoid cream helps.

With an Isa Brown though, it is probably going to be a recurring problem. How adept is your chicken carer at dealing with this? It's one thing going round to help someone out by letting out and feeding their chickens, it's another thing having to deal with medical emergencies and pushing a chicken's bum back in every day.

Yeah for real, I don’t want to put our carrier through too much. But, he did grow up on a farm and helped birth and stick arms in goats and cows, just has never taken care of chickens.

 

[NatJ]

If it was my chicken, in those particular circumstances, I would probably cull the chicken.

If you want to try to save her, she would have to live separately from the other chickens for now so they cannot peck her, and that is stressful for her as well as requiring extra care (one more pen to provide feed and water and cleaning and look for problems.) That's in addition to what is required to deal with the gleet and prolapse.

But if you are really unsure, you could ask the person who takes care of the chickens, since he is the one who would be doing the actual care.

 

[xiggystardust]

If it was my chicken, in those particular circumstances, I would probably cull the chicken.

If you want to try to save her, she would have to live separately from the other chickens for now so they cannot peck her, and that is stressful for her as well as requiring extra care (one more pen to provide feed and water and cleaning and look for problems.) That's in addition to what is required to deal with the gleet and prolapse.

But if you are really unsure, you could ask the person who takes care of the chickens, since he is the one who would be doing the actual care.

Thanks. It’s really a kind of borderline case, I agree. Her carer Seemed to think we shouldn’t be calling her, since she has a lot of energy, unfortunately was willing to care for her for the next few days and see how she goes. Fingers crossed!! Thanks all for the help here.

 

[Chicalina]

Let us know how she goes.

I've had a hen prolapse and basically ALL of her guts or reproductive tract (not sure which) were hanging out and trailing on the ground behind her and she kept stepping on them. Now that's a prolapse which required immediate culling, poor thing.

 

[xiggystardust]

Let us know how she goes.

I've had a hen prolapse and basically ALL of her guts or reproductive tract (not sure which) were hanging out and trailing on the ground behind her and she kept stepping on them. Now that's a prolapse which required immediate culling, poor thing.

How terrible! Poor chook. Mine was certainly a small prolapse by that measure

 

[Chicalina]

How terrible! Poor chook. Mine was certainly a small prolapse by that measure

That's what makes me think it's fixable, providing your chicken sitter can cope while you are away.

The leg is another thing though. She must be in a lot of pain and will require 'chicken intensive care' for a few weeks.