Has anyone ever tried to do surgery on a chicken that is internally laying? WARNING ( semi graphic p

[PAchickenlover]

Thank you for all of the replies. Rags has moved outside to our old rabbit hutch. She has more room out there. Granted she is off the ground so she can't scratch at things except for inside the box area where her bedding of straw is. She is looking great, excellent energy. Rags wanted to go up with the rest of the flock but I don't trust it yet so she will stay where she is for a while. I have not treated her for the mites/lice yet but will do so here in the next day or so.

I sure hope she makes a full recovery and possibly lays an egg. I would love to use this thread to inspire people that think the only option is to cull. Chickens have an amazing will to live and heal. I am inspired by my Rags, the changes I have seen in her since the surgery, wow! I thank everyone for their helpful comments and suggestions. I will as always keep updating this thread with how Rags is doing.

Hope you all have had a good day and have a good evening.

 

[cowcreekgeek]

I have heard that coconut oil will drown the little buggers if you want a more natural approach, however I have not used this approach. I have used something called CatronIV as a preventive on my wounded rooster, and believe me he had a huge wound. I've used it now once a week for the last 9 weeks, and there seems to be no ill affect on my rooster other than the fact he doesn't like getting a little wet. It was recommended by my vet, and I picked it up at his office. I did notice later that it was at our farm store as well for the same price my vet charged. It's $12.00. It is a fly spray, and it will say it's for cattle goats and horses. But my vet recomended it, and if you look closely on the back of the bottle it says it for poultry lice as well. I assume it would work on mites also. It has 0.50% permethrin in it and the rest is other ingredients of which I have no idea.

Very interesting and informative thread. Wish you the best of luck in your hen's recovery.

It's great to hear that the vet you use prices their products similarly to those found elsewhere (that's often a sign that's you've found a really good one ~'-)

​

I'm not sure whether Mr. Catron IV will help to kill mites, but ... if yours is a name that's gonna match up w/ products commonly googled, ya might not wanna get yourself arrested.

Rather than purchasing products that are ready to use, it's far cheaper to mix your own ... you can buy a 32 ounce bottle of 10% permethrin that would provide five (5) gallons of 0.5% spray. It can also be mixed into murphy's oil soap, or hand lotions, or conditioners, etc. for your animals.

 

[NovaAman]

Gracious, that's kinda funny! Lol

 

[PAchickenlover]

I will have to try to find some of that so I can keep the bugs of my birds and animals. Thanks for the info.

 

[Outrun Acres]

This is a very interesting forum. I have had a similar experience with my two orpingtons. I didn't have to do internal surgery because because she had already prolapsed her egg still inside of her egg gland. I had been away on vacation and came back to this. So I don't know how long she had been like this. But the flesh in the egg gland was starting to tear away by itself and the skin was very thin in one area.

I tried soaking her in warm water to try to manipulate the egg and try to get it out through the vent. Quickly I realized there was no way that was going to happen. So I ended up making an incision where the skin was thinnest and pushing the egg out through the incision site. I cleaned the incision site with Betadine and chlorohexidine. And then covered it with antibiotic ointment. I soaked her everyday in warm water (mostly to remove and the poop that still have to come out of the vent and the incision site) and repeated the cleaning procedure.

My other orpington was egg bound as well (both were pullets at the time). Her egg was still inside of her but the build of of poop on her back end had attracted flies which led to having maggots all over her back end. I had to pull them out with tweezers one by one. After two days of soaking and greasing up her vent with some non-petroleum based lubrication she finally managed to expel the egg!

I am happy to say that both chickens began laying about a month after the experience. They are hardy little creatures. I am glad I performed a mild surgery to save the first chicken. She is my sons favorite and today is just a normal chicken like the rest of them and we haven't had any problems since.

 

[chickencrazy888]

It's great to hear that the vet you use prices their products similarly to those found elsewhere (that's often a sign that's you've found a really good one ~'-)

​

I'm not sure whether Mr. Catron IV will help to kill mites, but ... if yours is a name that's gonna match up w/ products commonly googled, ya might not wanna get yourself arrested.

Rather than purchasing products that are ready to use, it's far cheaper to mix your own ... you can buy a 32 ounce bottle of 10% permethrin that would provide five (5) gallons of 0.5% spray. It can also be mixed into murphy's oil soap, or hand lotions, or conditioners, etc. for your animals.

To cowcreekgeek:; FYI, I do have a big bottle of permethrin that I mix up to use on all my other chickens. I just wasn't sure if that would have been safe to directly put it on the huge wound of my rooster which is why I used what my vet recommended. Also chickens aren't my day job; I work elsewhere out of the home. I have no time to make make soap and all that stuff. As far as being arrested, I'm not sure I fully understand. Of course then again, my coffee is not working too well on me today. Can you not say a brand name on a post? My bad if that's the case. I was just trying to be helpful. Maybe BYC is not for me afterall.

 

[cowcreekgeek]

To cowcreekgeek:; FYI, I do have a big bottle of permethrin that I mix up to use on all my other chickens. I just wasn't sure if that would have been safe to directly put it on the huge wound of my rooster which is why I used what my vet recommended. Also chickens aren't my day job; I work elsewhere out of the home. I have no time to make make soap and all that stuff. As far as being arrested, I'm not sure I fully understand. Of course then again, my coffee is not working too well on me today. Can you not say a brand name on a post? My bad if that's the case. I was just trying to be helpful. Maybe BYC is not for me afterall.

No, to the legal issues ... it was that the trade name, Caltron IV, matched up w/ that guy's mug shot (he was arrested on some other completely unrelated charge, but his face pops up when you google the product ~'-)

As for makin' soaps 'n such? No need in that ... it's a concentrate, that can be diluted w/ any other compatible products, including water, provided you merely do the math right ... i.e. 1 Tablespoon of 10% permethrin added to 9.5 ounces of water should give you a 0.5% solution.

 

[PAchickenlover]

Rags is still doing great. She still is having no complications from the surgery that I did. I am so glad I did all of the precautionary measures to ward off infection, it sure did pay off. My thanks to everyone who is following this post, your input helps to teach others what to do or not to do.

 

[willowbranchfarm]

Rags is still doing great. She still is having no complications from the surgery that I did. I am so glad I did all of the precautionary measures to ward off infection, it sure did pay off. My thanks to everyone who is following this post, your input helps to teach others what to do or not to do.

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Rags is still doing great. She still is having no complications from the surgery that I did. I am so glad I did all of the precautionary measures to ward off infection, it sure did pay off. My thanks to everyone who is following this post, your input helps to teach others what to do or not to do.

I'm guessin' the incision is pretty well healed by now ... the quicker she returns to interacting w/ the flock, the quicker she's gonna be back to normal (don't wanna baby her too much ~'-)

I've still thinkin' there oughta be some way to temporarily suspend laying, or prevent eff production entirely, either chemically or by using hormones/steroids? But, I've gotta admit that I'd love to see her successfully lay eggs again ... that'd be somethin' else.