Is a female duck with a prolapsed vent a death sentence?

[Galaxyfalcon]

On Friday I noticed one of our girls, Freya, had something happening on her behind. After inspecting, it looked like a prolapse. We live in a rural area, and our vet is closed on the weekend. Not only that, but the only avian vet in the region won't be back until Monday/Tuesday. We weren't sure what to do to help her, so we drove 2 hours to a vet hospital with avian specialists. They put her back together, put a suture in, and gave us some pain meds and antibiotics.

This morning was extremely hard. Freya was fine in the early morning, but around 8:00 AM she needed to lay an egg. It was heartbreaking to watch. She just couldn't lay it. She was straining, grunting, and fumbling for the next two hours trying to get it out. We gave her two warm baths and lubed her vent up nice and good, and eventually she passed the egg.

She obviously prolapsed again. We were supposed to have the suture taken out on Monday/Tuesday when our main vet returns. She's been dripping clear liquid out of her sad vent area on and off again all day today. Aside from that, she's had good energy. We have her separated and have spent most of our day with her since she might pass away soon. She's had an okay appetite and been drinking lots of water, took a few baths.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do. Her prolapsing again immediately after having her issue taken care of doesn't seem good. I'm really concerned for her, and after this morning I think we might need to put her to sleep. Is a prolapsed vent area always fatal? Can a duck ever recover from this?

When Freya hatched she had a lot of issues the first week. She barely survived and had some life-long issues, like one eye that was permanently squinty. She pulled through, though, and hasn't had a single issue since she hatched. We've always called her our little survivor. The thought of losing her so suddenly and without warning has been really traumatic.

Is there anything we can do for her that maybe we haven't thought of? What do we do in the future if another girl prolapses? Is it basically a death sentence?

I'm so heartbroken to think we might need to put her down tomorrow if she doesn't recover.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Just a quick update for everyone. Freya is at the vet, and they got her all patched up. They called my fiance with the details so I heard second hand, but it sounds like they're expecting her to make a full recovery. They want to hold her for 24 hours to watch how she handles her next egg and see if the prolapse needs any extra attention.

So relieved, thank you everyone for your input and feedback. Not out of the woods yet but it sounds positive. I'll update again once we have a chance to talk to the vet tomorrow.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

How’s Freya doing today?

She's doing better! The vet says that the swollen bit that's still outside is inflamed tissue and not a prolapse proper. She showed us how to put it back in, which is the same technique we can use to put a prolapse back in in the future. Apparently, she'll be more prone to prolapse again in the future but she should make a full recovery once the scar tissue/swelling go down. Doctor recommends continuing with antibiotics but otherwise letting it heal on its own. We could use some vetricyn spray, but spraying her might cause her to be irritated and pick at it.

So prognosis is good overall. Still can't believe how good she's doing, Sunday was extremely hard and we thought we might lose her. So glad to see her doing good. Doctor didn't say how long the swelling tissue might last but she expects it to go back in on it's own.

The vet staff also discovered that Freya enjoys polka music, since she was chortling along with the vet staff working late last night apparently, and she seems to have charmed the staff.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

I would give her baths a couple times a day. It will help keep the area clean and can even reverse the prolapse sometimes. If the tissue can go back inside on its own that will be much better. If it doesn't, then you can put it back in. You don't want to force it, but looking for the way it will go back in easily itself.

You can give her moisten and broken down feed. This will make it a bit easier on her vent when she poops.

I don't know if your vet gave you an antiinflammatories drug, but you can give her some. Ibuprofen or Aspirin will also work. The idea is to get the inflammation down so it easier to pass eggs and allow the tissue to stay in.

With my girl, I left her eggs with her so she would go broody. That allowed her to stop laying eggs and take a break. It is also recommended by some to put the girls in the dark to stop them laying. You can try keeping her in the dark, but I never got that to work for me.

Thanks for the reply. We were prescribed an oral anti-inflammatory given once a day (metacam) as well as an antibiotic. I'll go out in a bit and giver a tub to take a bath in. We currently have her separated from the other ducks in the duck run (she has enough energy to be upset about that at least).

She may have laid an egg this morning and spent some time in her favorite nest box warming her eggs. I'm almost considering getting some ceramic eggs so she can sit on them all she wants. Her prolapse is a bit drippy, so we've just done another spray with vetricyn and hopefully keeping it moist. I also saw her do a gigantic runny/soft poop so at least she's pooping still.

Aside from all of that she still has good energy. She's eating and drinking and wants to go outside and play in the grass, so she mostly has her normal energy level aside from just dealing with the prolapse.

 

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

She's doing better! The vet says that the swollen bit that's still outside is inflamed tissue and not a prolapse proper. She showed us how to put it back in, which is the same technique we can use to put a prolapse back in in the future. Apparently, she'll be more prone to prolapse again in the future but she should make a full recovery once the scar tissue/swelling go down. Doctor recommends continuing with antibiotics but otherwise letting it heal on its own. We could use some vetricyn spray, but spraying her might cause her to be irritated and pick at it.

So prognosis is good overall. Still can't believe how good she's doing, Sunday was extremely hard and we thought we might lose her. So glad to see her doing good. Doctor didn't say how long the swelling tissue might last but she expects it to go back in on it's own.

The vet staff also discovered that Freya enjoys polka music, since she was chortling along with the vet staff working late last night apparently, and she seems to have charmed the staff.

That’s wonderful news! She’s so lucky to have you taking such good care of her. I hope that she has a smooth continued recovery and no future relapses!

 

[Quatie]

The hydrocortisone will help with the inflammation and swelling. It can be used 3-4 times a day.

While calcium can be a factor in egg laying issues, it is not the only one. You may want to look into other possibilities. Vitamin D is one. Too many treats can also lead to reduced calcium levels, especially treats like spinach which reduce calcium absorption. Even the soil can affect it. I recently read someone who had elevated levels of lead in her soil. So if calcium isn't helping, you may want to ask your vet about other potential causes.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Hello everyone, thank you for the replies. Here are some photos from last night of her condition, I'm sorry the photo quality isn't the best.

As far as I can tell (all things considered), it's a minor prolapse. As least compared to what else I've seen is possible.

@New duck mommy 2021 if you push the prolapse back in, do you push from the center? Or do you sort of fold it in from the outside area?

We do have some hydrocortizone ointment. We went ahead and lubbed her up pretty good. We also have calcium supplements (tums) which isn't ideal but we gave her a half of one last night (she couldn't swallow it whole). The girls are on a layer pellet right now, and we supplement the feed with oyster shells and add a poultry multivitamin to their food mix.

She had an extremely hard time laying her egg yesterday morning. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's what caused her to re-prolapse after her emergency room visit. I'm not sure if the hard time laying her egg was because of a calcium issue or if the prolapse condition made it so much harder for her.

Aside from these issues, she has good energy and is eating and drinking. We saw poop in her little area this morning, so she's been pooping some too.

I called our main vet and she can't see Freya today, but we can drop her off tomorrow for an exam and see if she recommends taking the suture out (emergency room put a suture in to try to help keep her from prolapsing again).

I'll see if I can run out and get some calcium citrate with D3 today. Aside from that and hydrocortizone, is there anything else we can be doing for her? We've also been spraying her backside with some vetricyn.

To me that looks like gleet build up on the outside
If you slightly stick your finger in do you feel gleet inside as well
This is how my girl started with her issues but after going through it all I know what steps to skip and take action on instead
Can your vet give you medicam
This helped my girl so much woth swelling and pain pushing
Dashers prolapse was from swelling and fungal infection in her urethra and outer glands
Laying eggs was harder cause she had to push through swelling but medicam did help with that
I would push that slight prolapse In but would clean the gleet off and put cream on those areas
I used monistat inside and out as well as colloidal silver spray on the outside

 

[Saveria]

Did you see this article about prolapse yet? Let me know if it helps at all.

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

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

I’m so sorry that you are going through this with your lovely Freya! I can’t say if it is always a death sentence, but I lost my oldest dearest duck, Daphne, to a prolapse last month. In her case, they said the only option would have been surgery to fully repair the prolapse + she would need to be spayed as they thought she would prolapse again otherwise. They couldn’t tell me when they would be able to do surgery, and it was likely that she wouldn’t survive. I ended up having her euthanized, which was also sadly traumatic as it took forever. Looking back, I think I made the right choice, although I would have found someone to dispatch her more quickly and with less suffering.

They do have hormone implants that can stop a duck from laying, something which I recently had done for another one of my ducks. However, the implant can apparently take a couple weeks to work, and it doesn’t last forever, only a few months.

I can’t tell you what is right for you and your precious girl, but I do hope that she is able to recover.

Thank you! I'm sorry to hear about Daphne. We're trying a couple of things to see if we can help Freya, but a big part of our decision will be based on how she does tomorrow with her egg and if she can hold out until our vet returns for another opinion. If we have to put her down we're hoping to make it a house call but it depends on what the clinic can do.

When it comes to implants, I asked about them at the emergency vet hospital yesterday, and the vet said that it's currently illegal to do since they're not FDA approved. That really concerns me since we were considering an implant for our oldest girl who has been laying some soft shells despite rich calcium intake.

For Freya's case, should we try to treat the prolapse topically, or should we consider trying to tuck it back in? I'm so worried she won't pull through.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

His bad is the prolapse ?
Could you post pictures
I just had a girl with not a bad prolapse but it started in December 2022
We finally got her better after 4 antibiotics then 90 days of fungal antibiotics plus several vet trips and constant cleaning the vent from gleet
She just ended her last meds end of may
So 6 months and 3000 in vet bills
I don’t regret any of it but the hormone shot to stop her from egg laying ti give her swollen vent a break
Unfortunately after 2 shots 2 weeks apart she never stopped laying but her shells did go from perfectly hard shells to very thin
So since April I am having to give her calcium daily 1ml durvet calcium this could help your other girl
You can gently push the prolapse back in
Some even use honey and Lube to help you may need to do this several times a day
As long as she is eating and drinking I wouldn’t give up yet.
I’ll pray your girl can survive this

@Daphne_loves_mealworms im so sorry yoy lost your baby. Sometimes there is nothing more we can do
I was told by my avian vet that spaying them is still not 100% and if they do lay an egg after it’s fatal
A chance I decided not to take
Yoy did the right thing as that surgery is very risky and hard on them