Help! How do I help bullied hen with possible prolapsed vent?

[ChocolateWingTheRooster]

So I noticed blood in the coop this afternoon and immediately looked to the poor bullied hen, Beetle. Despite being older than the others by some days, this poor hen landed herself at the bottom the pecking order and is constantly bullied— she used to have feathered feet

Well... turns out it’s worse than I initially thought, and I think her vent could possibly be prolapsed after checking it tonight.. any tips on what I should do? I plan on trying to isolate her for the day to allow her to stop bleeding, which will allow me to help her.
She did lay an egg today I think.

(I can try to get a photo of her vent tomorrow morning, but my old phone here has storage issues— hence the one photo of her)

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would go out and get her now.

Give her vent a wash up in a warm epsom salts bath and access the damage.

Something like this you don't wait until the next day. If she's prolapsed and/or the vent is damaged, it needs to be treated immediately and kept moist with an oil, ointment or raw honey to keep tissue from dying/turning necrotic.

Take photos of the vent when you get her washed up.



https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ng-from-vent-prolapse-oh-my-what-to-do.76124/

 

[ChocolateWingTheRooster]

I would go out and get her now.

Give her vent a wash up in a warm epsom salts bath and access the damage.

Something like this you don't wait until the next day. If she's prolapsed and/or the vent is damaged, it needs to be treated immediately and kept moist with an oil, ointment or raw honey to keep tissue from dying/turning necrotic.

Take photos of the vent when you get her washed up.



https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ng-from-vent-prolapse-oh-my-what-to-do.76124/

I did unfortunately have to wait out the night and until my parents left, I am unfortunately still under their authority, but she is currently being bathed. Will update in a few.

 

[ChocolateWingTheRooster]

I did unfortunately have to wait out the night and until my parents left, I am unfortunately still under their authority, but she is currently being bathed. Will update in a few.

View attachment 3854019

Okayyyy so this is probably not good, this poor girl.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I did unfortunately have to wait out the night and until my parents left, I am unfortunately still under their authority, but she is currently being bathed.

Nice job cleaning her up.

Looks like the prolapsed tissue has gone back in, but she likely has some damage due to picking (and perhaps the prolapse too).

She will likely leak some urates or start to have a pasty white discharge; this is not the same thing as Vent Gleet. It's normal to have the sticky discharge when there's been damage and/or a prolapse. It will be hard to wash off, but don't worry.

Since she's retaining the tissue for now, just apply a little ointment, oil or raw honey to the outside of the vent and a little under the vent, this will help those urates to not stick quite so badly.

DO get extra Calcium into her. Preferably Calcium Citrate with D3, 1 tablet now, then once daily for a week. If you don't have Calcium Citrate, you can give her 1 TUMS daily.

It's very important to give the Calcium, this helps with contractions and retention - it will help her heal.

Do you have any antibiotics on hand? If you do, what do you have?

I'd keep her separated from the others so they don't pick at her. Ideally, caged or fenced within the coop/run so she's near the flock, but they can't reach her. See that she's eating/drinking well.
Check that vent a couple of times a day, clean as necessary and watch to make sure there's maggots.

She may prolapse again if she has another egg, so...if that happens, give her another cleanup and apply your ointment to any exposed tissue.

 

[ChocolateWingTheRooster]

Nice job cleaning her up.

Looks like the prolapsed tissue has gone back in, but she likely has some damage due to picking (and perhaps the prolapse too).

She will likely leak some urates or start to have a pasty white discharge; this is not the same thing as Vent Gleet. It's normal to have the sticky discharge when there's been damage and/or a prolapse. It will be hard to wash off, but don't worry.

Since she's retaining the tissue for now, just apply a little ointment, oil or raw honey to the outside of the vent and a little under the vent, this will help those urates to not stick quite so badly.

DO get extra Calcium into her. Preferably Calcium Citrate with D3, 1 tablet now, then once daily for a week. If you don't have Calcium Citrate, you can give her 1 TUMS daily.

It's very important to give the Calcium, this helps with contractions and retention - it will help her heal.

Do you have any antibiotics on hand? If you do, what do you have?

I'd keep her separated from the others so they don't pick at her. Ideally, caged or fenced within the coop/run so she's near the flock, but they can't reach her. See that she's eating/drinking well.
Check that vent a couple of times a day, clean as necessary and watch to make sure there's maggots.

She may prolapse again if she has another egg, so...if that happens, give her another cleanup and apply your ointment to any exposed tissue.

She was leaking some clear white-ish substance earlier so that checks out.

I made sure to apply some ointment to the area.
Seems like her stool is loose ever since she first pooped, which is somewhat concerning but she also hasn’t been eating the feed for a bit.

I gave her a tums which she didn’t appreciate lol, must’ve been a bit too dusty for her standards. I gave her as much of it as she would take.

I do not have antibiotics sadly I can ask to get some, however, if it’ll help her. (Technically the ointment I used is also an antibiotic, though.)

I’m not sure about caging her within the run, all I have is a small dog crate, but it may have to work for a bit. At least until she’s okay.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Do you have some extra wire/chicken wire where you can temporarily section off a section/corner of your coop or run? If so, that may be a better option than placing her in a small cage.

The worry is, if she's being bullied and picked on, the others may take advantage of her weakened state and hurt her more or if she does prolapse again, they can do some real damage. Sadly, one time I had a hen with a prolapse, I was not home and she was picked badly and the prolapse was beyond repair, so I had to eventually end up putting her down. I just don't want you to go through that if possible.

Hard to know if she needs an antibiotic, a lot depends on how much damage the tissue suffered. With your cleanup and application of ointment, it may be good enough to avoid infection - time will tell on that.

 

[ChocolateWingTheRooster]

Do you have some extra wire/chicken wire where you can temporarily section off a section/corner of your coop or run? If so, that may be a better option than placing her in a small cage.

The worry is, if she's being bullied and picked on, the others may take advantage of her weakened state and hurt her more or if she does prolapse again, they can do some real damage. Sadly, one time I had a hen with a prolapse, I was not home and she was picked badly and the prolapse was beyond repair, so I had to eventually end up putting her down. I just don't want you to go through that if possible.

Hard to know if she needs an antibiotic, a lot depends on how much damage the tissue suffered. With your cleanup and application of ointment, it may be good enough to avoid infection - time will tell on that.

I do have some extra chicken wire at the farm, I’ll see if that works with my parents. Better than having her inside all morning like I have today.

Yeah I worry they’ll start to bully her again. Chickens are ruthless from what I’ve seen with her, it sucks.

Also— good news! She laid an egg just a bit ago and she didn’t prolapse again. You can just tell it hurt some, though, despite her lack of noise before laying. Gave the egg inside to my cat and fed Beetle back the eggshell for whatever calcium it had.

 

[Adolph Otto]

Is that an English Orpington? She looks identical to mine.