Hormonal or something else?

[Worleyfarm]

First i will say this is my Rhode Island Red Hen. She is now 2 years old. Always been a great layer and sweet girl! loves to be around people and loves my niece and nephew! anytime i have them she is following them around letting them hold her and jump the hay bales with her in tow! Its great!
now the saga of all her issues...... She is one of the dominant girls as well. No one messes with her and if she wants the food, treats or water all others get out of her way.

Spring (may/june)- we noticed she was loosing feathers where her crop is. Her skin sometimes was bright red other times normal. posted on BYC and no one had seen that but said to check for mites/lice and treat skin with topical cream such as neosporin. We checked for mites/lice and there were many eggs on her feather shafts all around her vent as well as mites. So we went to work checking all 16 chickens, no one else had them (very odd), but we treated the whole flock, sanitized the coop and all nesting boxes. We did our second treatment 11 days later, repeated the coop/nesting box sanitation. Eggs stayed on the shafts of feathers, we were told we would not get them off but when she molted they would fall off with feathers.
August/September- she has no signs of molting, a few of the other older chickens had started. We again got on BYC and it was suggested we trim her feathers as close to skin around vent to get the eggs off, even tho they were dead. That hopefully she would molt by end of september and all feathers would grow back.
September went October came and went November came and went no molt. All other girls were done, new feathers and laying again by end of December.
My RIR still had not even grown back feathers over her crop breast area. But she is eating great laying great and still being a boss.
yesterday - 1/21/2020, i came home from work and she was by my porch eating and i noticed something hanging from her vent. So upon investigation it looked like a prolapse oviduct, i had never seen one in person but it def was her insides hanging out with feces and slimy stuff hanging off of it. i immediately brought her in and put her in a warm iodine bath and let her soak. Then i rinsed off all the nasty, dried her off, lubed up and proceeded to try and push it back in. She kept pushing it back out at me. in one of her pushes it looked like a piece of shaving was coming out. So i pulled it but it was not shavings! so i gently kept pushing it back in and everytime she pushed out a little more would come out. it was a membrane of an egg. So it busted inside her....i have no idea if she got all the inside of egg out or not. Her whole vent area was very swollen but she was pooping, normal poop by the way, and trying to walk around. i called my neighbor and he said get preparation H and coat it in that to help reduce swelling and keep pushing it in. Did all that, got her in her private cage in my shop with heat lamps, put vitamins in water, egg shells in her food. She seemed okay and went to eating and drinking and walking around. Left her for about an hour, went back more prep H and pushing back in. This morning went out there and she laid a perfectly normal egg and her poop all looked normal. i did a warm iodine/water cloth soak. Cleaned area lubed up pushed in. She still with every breath pushes it back out. I decided i needed to call vet to get antibiodics since i do not know if the egg membrane broke inside of her and if she got all of it out. I did not want an infection to start (had a chicken die from that).
Took her just a bit ago and here is vets finding/suggestions. I need to know if any one has any answers.
1 -Prolapsed vagina
2 -oviduct/rectum all in good shape.
3 -no fever, feces normal nothing showing up under microscope
4 -Her left lung wheezes, like asthma??? Vet has never heard this. Said if she ever had pneumonia there could be scare tissue in there but she said it sounds like a human with asthma! She has never heard of a chicken with asthma????? anyone have a thought/same issue?
5 -not sure why she has never molted? why feathers have not grown back? hormones?
6 - what caused prolapse? hormones?
7 - why she wheezes and with every breath she also breathes thru her abdomen pushing out her vagina even more. so its not really her pushing it out its when she breathes! Anyone????
8 - Allergies??? could that cause wheezing? feather loss?

so she did give her a shot of antibiotics and a steroid to help with inflammation and she sent me home with two more shots to administer friday and sunday. Told me to try and make a prolapse harness for her. Also suggested i look into hormone deficiencies in chickens causing prolapsed vaginas and feather loss and non-molting. She is not a chicken expert but was thinking it had to be something along the hormone lines. She did look at the food i feed them and she said all ingredients were great, nothing bad in the food (its a natural non-gmo non soy food). another thought she had was one ovary atrophies or is dysfunctional and in turn not producing enough estrogen, so not making eggs, but her other one is working properly and producing eggs. i have read a little on this.....again it is a hormone thing.

I am reading books and looking online (with a grain of salt) on hormone deficiencies in chickens. so far my books are not helping.....
I am reaching out to my BYC experts!
Anyone had any or all of these things in a chicken?
Are there hormones i should be or can add to her diet to help?
Are there essential oils i can apply to her to help?

I know this was alot but wanted to get it all out there because i knew many of you would ask me many questions.
i think that is it. oh her weight was perfect as well.

thanks i really appreciate this!

 

[Eggcessive]

First, hens only have one functioning oviduct. Prolapse may be caused by low calcium level, dehydration, or being overweight. A shell-less egg can also be from low calcium or infection of the oviduct. She was probably egg bound with the harder to pass soft egg, and egg binding can be common with a prolapse. It may take several days or more to get her prolapsed cloaca to stay inside. I would switch to something milder, such as coconut or vegetabel oil to keep the prolapse from drying out. The daily soak may be good to keep up to keep her clean, and you might try some Epsom salts next time.

I would get her drinking well, even putting water into a small bowl of her feed. Give her some extra calcium such as 1/2 Tums or human Calcium tablet orally once a day for several days. Calcium helps the muscle contractions in the vent. Prolapsed vents can be frustrating to treat and may recur. Here is a good article to read:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/prolapse-vent-causes-treatment-graphic/

 

[Worleyfarm]

i was so hoping you would read this! i always read your tips and advice to people! are you sure you are not a vet???

 

[Worleyfarm]

she is actually drinking and eating very well. i did add some vitamins to her water. i always crush up their egg shells and put them in the food but i will add some extra calcium to her food. So i should do an epsom soak instead of iodine? i will also use coc. oil now to keep it moist. thanks so much!

 

[Eggcessive]

You’re welcome. No, I am not a vet, just a member of the BYC community. The betadine is fine to use, if that is what you have. Even salt water is fine. The soak is the important thing, and to keep it as clean as possible. Hopefully you can get it to stay in soon. There are quite a few threads about prolapse that you can look for on the search forums heading at the top of the page.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

7 - why she wheezes and with every breath she also breathes thru her abdomen pushing out her vagina even more. so its not really her pushing it out its when she breathes! Anyone????

I'm sorry about your hen, I hope she she gets better soon.
It's hard to know all the answers to your questions - one thing that struck me, you mentioned when your hen breaths, it seems to push the prolapse back out. Since the tissue is swollen, then likely the action of the abdominal air sacs is pushing it out. It can take time for prolapses to reduce so you can get them back in and stay. You may find the below video of the avian respiratory system informative. The other video about the reproductive system is a bit longer, but I feel it's worth watching, I find it very good in explaining a hen's reproductive system and how an egg is formed and eventually laid.

Your vet mentioned a prolapse sling may be beneficial - here's a link about making a sling. Also read that whole thread, post #8 one girl finally suspended her Leghorn because every time she was on the ground she'd squat and push the prolapse out - good thinking out of the box there.