Not unusual for hens to figure out latch systems. I read a study or watched a video where they were doing cognitive tests with hens. I forget the exact details, but they put the hen yet to be tested in a cage while running the test with an other hen. Of course the test involved food reward. Well, the hen in the cage kept interrupting the test with the other hen. She'd watch the latching procedure, and let herself out. They then started testing her with different latches, and every time, she'd study the mechanism, and let herself out. I think some chickens have intelligence that is on a par with parrots! If only they could talk!!!@coopchick, not sure I could have stomped on the rat!. Grabbed a shovel maybe, and struck it, but stomping, I don't know... I've found a rat tunnel into the hoop coop, so I may get a chance to try it out.
My prolapse hen is still alive for odd reasons. I left her in a cage in the coop when I went to work, and DH was thinking he might do her in today. He told me this afternoon that when he went in the coop, she was gone, and I hadn't properly latched the cage. I could have sworn I latched it. The hen was wandering somewhere in our fenced woods and he never saw her.
She came back this afternoon. Nothing was protruding from her vent. I decided if she was going to be alive, I was going in there to get that stuck egg out. She had a bath, and there is no egg that I could feel at all. The prolapse started again though, and since I didn't have preparation H, I used honey (someone on here claims that works). I don't know if the inside of the vent is always that red, or if she has an infection. And why does she keep straining when there is nothing in there? Maybe there is swelling and it feels like an egg? It was getting late, so I put her back in the cage. This time, I double-checked the latch. It is one of those dog cages that you lift the door to unlatch it. Just in case, I took a longish twist-tie and put it on so the door wouldn't lift at all. It barely reached, but I was able to put a couple twists in it.
This evening I went out to count heads and lock up, and there she was on the roost. The twist-tie was hanging free, and the cage door ajar. I should have named her Houdini. I'm not sure she will stay alive for long, but I let her be tonight.
I'm always hesitant to stomp a critter if I'm wearing sandals or crocks... anything where the critter could get teeth into my foot. Otherwise... if my foot is capable of covering it, it gets stomped. My dad once tried to stomp a mouse. He missed, and it ran up the pants leg of his coveralls! Never saw my dad move so fast!!!Bucka, it was pure reflex! DH said he's going to start sleeping with one eye open.
I had a Red Star with prolapse. I cleaned her up then lubed up a gloved finger with Nustock and gently slid it back in. It stayed & didn't return.
Set the traps again. Also made up a tray of rice, plaster of Paris & instant potato flakes recipe with a bowl of water nearby. Don't know if it really works but I only had to buy the PoP so we'll see.
CC: So, you use dry rice, POP, and dry instant potato flakes? Sounds like a yummy concoction for a last meal.
I'm guessing that Houdini has a reproductive tumor that is causing her to feel pressure. When/if you cull her, please do an autopsy. Most of my assisted hatches are glued/shrink wrapped, or malpositioned (or a combination) I never assist until the chick has gotten to the point of being "too dry" to hatch by normal means. It's my theory that, as long as the chick can breathe, but otherwise can't make progress in hatching, it doesn't do any harm to wait a good while before assisting. Case in point: my last assist: The chick wasn't progressing, but had a good pip started. I waited until the end of the hatch. By this time, the chick had stopped even trying and was getting very quiet. Well, the minute I picked that egg up to see what was up, that chick started hollering. So, I did my usual assist: like peeling a hard boiled egg in a bowl of warm water. IMO, this is the least traumatic way to do an assist, and if the chick is VERY ripe, no issues with blood vessels or yolk. Almost all of my assists go on to be healthy chicks that blend in with the rest of the brood, and can't be discerned from their hatch mates 24 hours later.I never heard of the plaster of Paris trick. You'll have to let us know how that goes! I could do that where the rats are coming in, if I am willing to close off the pullet area. They are newly integrated and like to sleep in their pen, so I've been leaving it open, but I could cut off access and put traps or poison.
Is Nustock something I would find at TSC? I also read about giving them calcium, but I'm not sure if that was to help pass a stuck egg or to fix the prolapse. Mine has weird symptoms. There is no prolapse most of the time, but she is constantly straining and trying to create one. It goes back in on its own, but she won't stop pushing.
This hen is just two years old, so I'd like to help her if I can. She is lucky to have lived at all though, -she is one that I had to do all the hatching, including a painstaking bath under a heat lamp to remove all the shrink-wrapping. I named her Crusty, because that was how she looked during most of her chickhood.If she lives, I'll have to call her Houdini.
. I think I might need a therapy vest by the time this is over!
