Help hen with prolapse and broken egg inside!

[linz44]

When I cleaned her before I'm pretty sure there was a hole under it. This was not long ago. I wonder if when I cleaned the poop off her his time if I made that hole reopen

 

[rebrascora]

It will help if we can see a better photo but if that hole is what I think it is, she may not have many options, particularly if it has been caused by her internal laying....which will be the case if there is yellow egg material coming out of it. The pink thing with veins that you are describing is the outside of her gut and should not be exposed to the air. If it dries out and cracks she will die.
It may not have been caused by fly strike but that is the most obvious cause of a hole there as the flies lay their eggs in the poop soiled feathers below the vent and the maggots eat into the flesh. I am amazed that there are no maggots now....I hope she is not full of them as that can happen....no sign on the outside, but they can be inside eating her alive. I wonder if what you think is an egg shell may actually be her pelvic bones, but it is possible that she internally laid a complete egg with shell rather than just a yolk.
You need to keep her in a very clean environment away from flies and keep that hole and pink tissue really clean and moist. I am waiting for the person in the other post that I linked, to get back to us with an update on her hen and hopefully what she found beneficial.

 

[linz44]

I read the link and it appears to be the same thing. I'm glad I have this site to ask because I really don't know what the heck I'm doing! I've never had to really look at or tamper with a hens but before besides this one. I wish I had a picture of her butt before this happened. It looked before like she had two separate holes back there. Tneu were both like the top hole. It looked like she had two slits. Now I'm wondering if I have a deformed chicken or if this happened before and I didn't know it. When I saw that second hole before it wasn't yucky looking like this it was just like a slit. I read the link and from what I gather there really isn't much hope in saving her. I'm confused as to why there is no maggots?? I checked and cleaned her thoroughly and there was nothing but egg yolk and the egg shell. I'm glad I had gloves on and was very careful about the whole thing. I don't want to stress her out so I'm so debating what to do. This sucks!!

 

[linz44]

It will help if we can see a better photo but if that hole is what I think it is, she may not have many options, particularly if it has been caused by her internal laying....which will be the case if there is yellow egg material coming out of it. The pink thing with veins that you are describing is the outside of her gut and should not be exposed to the air. If it dries out and cracks she will die.
It may not have been caused by fly strike but that is the most obvious cause of a hole there as the flies lay their eggs in the poop soiled feathers below the vent and the maggots eat into the flesh. I am amazed that there are no maggots now....I hope she is not full of them as that can happen....no sign on the outside, but they can be inside eating her alive. I wonder if what you think is an egg shell may actually be her pelvic bones, but it is possible that she internally laid a complete egg with shell rather than just a yolk.
You need to keep her in a very clean environment away from flies and keep that hole and pink tissue really clean and moist. I am waiting for the person in the other post that I linked, to get back to us with an update on her hen and hopefully what she found beneficial.

Thank you! I see what you are saying. There was a clump of poop on her but which was very hard and when it came off (didn't pull it off) the water soak made it fall off in one piece like a cap, it looked like bowl shaped poop cap with a yellow spot on the inside. I wonder if the poop cap was keeping the flies off it somehow or something. I just dug the poop cap out of the garbage and there is nothing on it but poop. I doused her bum in antiboiotc ointment and it's definitely needing more. Should I keep cleaning it and keep oimment on it and leave it at that? If she's probably going to die regardless of what I do I'm wondering if I should keep the tampering to a minimum. She does NOT like to be handled and she makes it well known! She's my least friendly chicken and isn't above beating you in the face with her wings and using your face as a launch ramp, making it difficult to help her. I was able to hold her yesterday pretty easily but today could be a different story and obviously I don't want to make things worse with a hole back there leaking her insides. Did you see the second picture I post? it's good and close.

 

[linz44]

 

[linz44]

It almost looks like the hole is smaller. Could this have happened just from poop being stuck there? I mean like the poop caused the actual hole? Is there an easy way to tell if she's got maggots in there? I think I may want to get something on there to deter flies but what to use on an open wound..

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can we get another photo of the "2 holes"?

Look at the red circles - these may be maggots?

 

[rebrascora]

That is not as quite as bad as the first photo suggested. I think if you can keep it clean and slathered in antibiotic ointment, she might heal. That said, she is unlikely to lay eggs properly again and if she is laying internally as I strongly suspect, her days are numbered anyway, so it is up to you how you feel about her.
It might be kinder to have someone put her to sleep now before she deteriorates, particularly if you are not emotionally close o her. I would not risk her being out with the flock in case she does get fly strike or the other members of the flock start pecking at her and end up cannibalistic. If she is not at ease with being handled, then being kept in a cage in the house with humans and being cleaned regularly is going to stress her and you, which as you say will put pressure on that wound. Sometimes we get too focussed on trying to fix things, when perhaps it is not always in the best interests of the bird to do so.
It might be useful if someone else weighed in, to offer a second opinion.... I appreciate that it just looks like a wound, but this is a wound that is not just a flesh wound but a hole into the abdominal cavity. It would appear that the bird is laying internally (yolk is seeping out) which in itself is usually a terminal illness without the added complication of the abdominal cavity being breached and intestine exposed.....

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It might be useful if someone else weighed in, to offer a second opinion.... I appreciate that it just looks like a wound, but this is a wound that is not just a flesh wound but a hole into the abdominal cavity. It would appear that the bird is laying internally (yolk is seeping out) which in itself is usually a terminal illness without the added complication of the abdominal cavity being breached and intestine exposed.....

More photos would be helpful. Different views - you won't gross us out, I promise, this is the ER threads -we've seen a lot.

I agree with @rebrascora at the moment, this is not just a flesh wound or irritation from poop. It does look like yolk is seeping out, presumably due to maggots invading the abdominal wall.

 

[linz44]

Just checked her They are part of the feathers. There is one hole way up above that hole and that I'm guessing is the one that is supposed to be there and by second hole I mean this nasty one. When I cleaned her a while back I thought I saw two vents. I thought poop from one egg from another I guess. When I cleaned her before it wasn't nasty like this it just looked like a slit. Maybe I saw it wrong and it just looked like a slit and maybe there was never a hole there before. Maybe If I tell you it in two separate stories it would help. A while back she had poop stuck to her butt. I cleaned her off and thought I saw two separate slits. It didn't look yucky it looked like she just had two vents. One up high one lower. I didn't have to clean her again because of poop buildup until yesterday. Yesterday she had the poop again so when I cleaned it she had a bulged hole and it wasn't like what I saw the first time. I wonder if when I cleaned her the first time if there was no hole there and I was just seeing things. This is why I thought 2 separate vent holes was the norm.