Help with a 5 week old chick prolapse?

[kittyacid]

My Silkie appears to have prolapsed at five weeks old. I thought this was an egg laying related condition, but she is obviously not laying yet. Yet everything I have read and seen indicates a prolapse. Anyone know why this may have happened?

 

[threehorses]

Diarrhea and coccidiosis can cause a prolapse as the baby continually tries to remove the feces from his vent by pushing. The irritation from diarrhea and/or coccidiosis make him feel as if he still has to poop.

If you could answer the questions on the second sticky of the forum - but answer them into this thread - maybe we can help you figure out more.

In the mean time, make certain that the bedding is dry, the temps are right, no water is spilly, all droppings are removed, the brooder or cage is disinfected, including waterers and feeders. If he's on dirt, put bedding over it.

 

[kittyacid]

Thanks. She is on medicated chick starter and has been acting fine. I noticed one of the other chicks peck at her bottom, when I inspected it and found the prolapse. I bathed her, gently pushed in the prolapse and applied prep H as instructed by someone in my earlier post about her. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=216699 She acts fine except that she doesn't like being separated from the others and it hasn't been long enough to see if the prolapsed tissue stays in. They are inside the brooder at night and outside in a pen during the day when I am home. Besides the medicated chick starter, I give them chick grit and she had watermelon yesterday and today as a treat.

Could she have cocci while on the medicated starter? Disinfect the brooder because it could disease related?

 

[threehorses]

She could have cocci on medicated starter. It's designed to allow some cocci to get to the chicks so that they develop immunity, not to treat for all cocci. But I'd think more likely she just got irritated because of the high water in the watermelon. Just watch her, keep her apart from the others til her vent is completely normal.

 

[kittyacid]

Should I be giving her anything except water and chick starter? How often should I push the tissue in and do I bathe her each time and put the prep H on her each time as well.?

 

[kittyacid]

Anyone?

 

[kittyacid]

Help please

 

[threehorses]

Sorry... I wasn't online, was outside doing chores. (Chickens were beckoning).

Well it depends - it's really rather hard to tell online what the situation is. Does she have diarrhea? Is it at all mucous? Or are her droppings firm and normal for the most part?

Definitely she should at least be getting the starter and clean water. Additionally, you could give her some probiotics and then add OACV (organic apple cider vinegar) to her water at a rate of 1 teaspoon per gallon of water.

The probiotics could be Probios dispersible powder or paste from the feedstore (1/8th teaspoon on something she'll eat quickly - or a Bb sized bit of the paste in her beak), acidophilis capsules (the contents of which sprinkled on something she'll eat with 10 minutes), or plain yogurt (1 teaspoon per 6 chicks) either by itself if she'll eat it, or mixed into a tiny bit of something she'll eat quickly.

All your babies would benefit from any of the above probiotics weekly during brooding, daily during any stress or potential illness, or whenever during adulthood. The only time you won't use yogurt is if you're treating with a medicine whose active ingredient ends in -mycin or -cycline (read the labels always).

The live bacteria in the above probiotics will colonize the gut of your babies and adults. The chicken digestive tract depends heavily on bacteria to finish the process of breaking down foods that the gizzard started. They also produce enzymes that make food digestable, and vitamins (B vitamins - great and important for growth), as well as (through competition) helping to keep infections under control. Good bacteria not only literally feed your bird, but they also act against bad bacteria, fungi, and to a certain degree make the digestive tract a little more strong against cocci.

Chicks are born without these bacteria. Naturally, they'd acquire them by pecking on their mother's vent and droppings as they tried to figure out how to eat. Her good bacteria (and some naturally occuring bad ones) would be digested by them and colonize their own guts. So it's important that the good bacteria get a hold before the bad can. It's first-come-first-serve in a baby's digestive tract. Since we rarely hen-brood babies these days, I give probiotics (usually Probios but sometimes yogurt) on the babies' second day of eating to ensure that the GOOD guys get the real-estate that is the digestive tract before the bad guys do.

So you can help get their gut bacteria back in shape. That might help firm up droppings, and help ease some irritation in the lower digestive tract.

The OACV helps in that the organic also has good beneficial colonizing bacteria within it. Additionally, that dosage of OACV will help make the pH of the gut return to a pH that is friendly for beneficial bacteria, and UNfriendly for pathogenic organisms (bacteria, yeast, cocci). Add to that the fact that it's a nice source of potassium which might help with the baby's energy. I'd do the OACV every other day, personally. The yogurt daily while she's ill, then taper both off to weekly during brooding. Weekly during the times before laying and first month of laying.

In the mean time, push the tissue in and reapply the prepH as often as it needs. If it's out, then re-treat.

You won't use OACV during Sulmet/Corid treatment if you do that. You WOULD still use the yogurt. You could just treat with Corid (as it's only a coccidiocide, while Sulmet is a coccidiocide and an antibiotic - a little more harsh) and it won't be too hard on the system. It could at least rule out coccidiosis and won't interfere with her other treats until we can firm up what might be causing this.

 

[kittyacid]

Thank you for taking the time to post. There is a huge amount of good info in what you said.

Do I continue to bathe her each time I push the tissue in or can I use a baby wipe? There is some poo in the area that I guess needs to be cleaned off, but I worry about her getting a chill getting wet so much. And there was a bit on the end that had dried and I tried to rub it off but it was stuck so I left it. I am afraid of infection setting in. The temp is in the mid-80's and she hates the bath too. A big problem I seem to be having is that it goes in, but she struggles so much that it starts to slide out as soon as I let go.

I am off to get the yogurt and did want to mention that the chick starter is medicated with Amprolium which might mean that I use the Corid only?? The poops do look normal as far as I can tell. Thanks again!

 

[kittyacid]

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