Hen with bloody vent - possibly prolapse?

uisceros

Chirping
Jun 2, 2022
85
116
91
Massachusetts, USA
Hi all,

I come back to you today with a weird situation I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with.

I have a Brahma Bantam (~1 year old) who has always had issues laying eggs. About 80% of the time they're bloody. She passes them, and they are never abnormally large or soft shelled, so I figured she was just getting used to laying (she took a long time to lay, only starting about 2 months ago).

Today, however, I went out to check on her, and she was clearly in distress. She was standing still, straining to push something out, and her vent was quite bloody. Every time she strained I could see her almost prolapsing (though at rest everything was inside). Her vent was also making, for lack of a better term, farting sounds.

I brought her inside, ran her vent under some water, applied some salve in/around her vent, and covered her hospital cage with towels to simulate night. I gave her water, but no food (her crop was full).

Any ideas what this could be? If it does prolapse, is there much I can do besides pushing everything back in? I'll try to take a photo after work.

Quick stats:
Bedding - dirt/sanicare
Not free-range, but outside in a large run/coop
Food - New country organics layer feed / scratch

She is the lowest hen in the pecking order, and is dealing with a LOT of feather loss. No clue why. I brought her to the vet about a month ago for diarrhea and the feather loss, and we could not find anything majorly wrong with her. She was on antibiotics for about two weeks just in case (as per the vets recommendation).

Thanks!
 
I brought her inside, ran her vent under some water, applied some salve in/around her vent, and covered her hospital cage with towels to simulate night. I gave her water, but no food (her crop was full).
Get extra Calcium into her ASAP.
You can find Calcium Citrate with D3 in the vitamin aisle of stores like Walmart, CVS, etc. Give 1 tablet daily, just pull down on her wattles, pop the tablet into the beak and let her swallow.

Provide her with food/water, she needs to stay hydrated. Not sure why you want to simulate night, being in a shady area or having the cage covered for privacy may make her feel a bit more settled.

Hopefully she will be able to expel the egg and not prolapse.
It's natural to see some tissue when a hen lays an egg (or even poops) if you watch closely. Look up some videos of hens laying an egg.
 
Get extra Calcium into her ASAP.
You can find Calcium Citrate with D3 in the vitamin aisle of stores like Walmart, CVS, etc. Give 1 tablet daily, just pull down on her wattles, pop the tablet into the beak and let her swallow.

Provide her with food/water, she needs to stay hydrated. Not sure why you want to simulate night, being in a shady area or having the cage covered for privacy may make her feel a bit more settled.

Hopefully she will be able to expel the egg and not prolapse.
It's natural to see some tissue when a hen lays an egg (or even poops) if you watch closely. Look up some videos of hens laying an egg.
I'll definitely give her some calcium, but I'm not totally sure it's an egg - I didn't feel one at all.

I read that if there is a prolapse, to let her rest and avoid having her lay additional eggs (this the simulation of night).

I've seen my other hens lay eggs, and it never looked like this. Poor thing looks to be in pain. That being said, hopefully it is just an egg and nothing worse!

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll give her some calcium.
 
I'll definitely give her some calcium, but I'm not totally sure it's an egg - I didn't feel one at all.

I read that if there is a prolapse, to let her rest and avoid having her lay additional eggs (this the simulation of night).

I've seen my other hens lay eggs, and it never looked like this. Poor thing looks to be in pain. That being said, hopefully it is just an egg and nothing worse!

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll give her some calcium.
Is she pooping? What's that like?

A hen needs to be in total darkness for at least 16 hours a day to help stop them from laying eggs. Even at that the production cycle can take a few weeks to fully stop.

Do you feel an egg inside the vent?
 

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