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

[Miss Lydia]

Do you have hydrocortisone ointment? @Quatie says it really can help. Lube her up real good. Do you have her on any calcium supplements? Since she’s having trouble laying?

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

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.

 

[Quatie]

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.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Oh good she has medicam
You can give her probiotics as well because of the meds and her body fighting this she will need the extra
I got mine on Amazon said it was good for birds
Depending if you want to spend the money I would get that gleet tested for fungal
I wish my vets had done that at the start instead of waiting 4 months and tons of bacterial meds

I will definitely ask the vet tomorrow to see if they can test for any kind of fungal infection! The metacam we have last through today. How long did your girl stay on it for pain relief? I'll ask the doctor about it again as well.

What probiotics did you get for her? I think we have a poultry electrolyte + probiotics but I'll need to double check. Let me know what you gave your ducky and I might pick some up! We're really hoping she can make a recovery, it's really scary.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I will definitely ask the vet tomorrow to see if they can test for any kind of fungal infection! The metacam we have last through today. How long did your girl stay on it for pain relief? I'll ask the doctor about it again as well.

What probiotics did you get for her? I think we have a poultry electrolyte + probiotics but I'll need to double check. Let me know what you gave your ducky and I might pick some up! We're really hoping she can make a recovery, it's really scary.

Yo be honest they had dasher on it for months but they didn’t test for the fungal for so long that it got worse
They focused on bacterials
She was my only duck to have it out of 16 and through it all never missed a day of laying eggs
She had a lot of runny poo that would almost shoot out that cleared after the fungal cleared as well as the swelling
About a week before the 60 day mark of fungal meds her vent finally was normal and I was no longer having to clear her and clean her but they kept her on the meds for a full 90 days cause of how long they waited to find the issue
This is the probiotic I purchased
I would just give her s separate bowl of peas and mix it in. She gobbled it right up
The good news is dasher is fine
They can survive depending on what’s going on

 

[Saveria]

You all are making an amazing "info on prolapse" thread. Thanks everyone. I am going to bookmark it.

Does anyone else meet resistance when you take an animal to a vet and ask for specific tests?

I saw that with some vets. They probably think you don't need it because they don't know that you need it, if that makes sense . My current vet doesn't mind, so maybe they are just overwhelmed and don't want to have to take more time to set up another test.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Such good news!!

 

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

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.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

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/

That does have some good info, thank you for sharing. When it comes to the prolapse, should we leave it alone, or should we try to tuck it back in? We just got back in from giving her some of her prescription meds and we follow some tips from the guide, lubbing her up and giving her a good spray with vetricyn. If we try to tuck the prolapse back in, should we push from the center, or from the outside?

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

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.

Oh good she has medicam
You can give her probiotics as well because of the meds and her body fighting this she will need the extra
I got mine on Amazon said it was good for birds
Depending if you want to spend the money I would get that gleet tested for fungal
I wish my vets had done that at the start instead of waiting 4 months and tons of bacterial meds