My hen died after we cleaned around her vent... how could I have prevented this?

[ellangdon22]

One of our Lavender Orps has had an issue keeping her vent clear of poop for as long as I can remember. Recently the feathers under her vent have been falling out and the skin underneath was very red and inflamed. Today we used warm water to try and clean the remaining poop off so the area could maybe heal and as we were cleaning her, her vent prolapsed and she died, I’m assuming due to being scared. I am beyond upset and feel so incredibly guilty, because this has to be my fault, if we didn’t try to clean her up she would still be here. She was only a year old, and spent her last half hour of life being terrorized by us as we tried to catch her and then this.

I would love any advice for dealing with this issue in the future, as I’m too traumatized to try and repeat this.

 

[chickentrains]

She was probably just stressed out. Next time I'd take breaks in between cleaning your bird, and only do it if you really have to. I recently had to clean pasty butt off one of my girls, and I had to take several breaks because she got stressed.

 

[LaFleche]

I am sorry you lost your hen.

For any kind of treatment it is best to grab the bird from the roost at night, so there will be no chasing around.
When you hold them, talk to them in a low and friendly voice, so they will know it is you and not a predator.

 

[ellangdon22]

She was probably just stressed out. Next time I'd take breaks in between cleaning your bird, and only do it if you really have to. I recently had to clean pasty butt off one of my girls, and I had to take several breaks because she got stressed.

We had only had her for maybe a minute and that’s when this happened, she was definitely stressed but I didn’t realize how bad it was. Cleaning her was definitely necessary though, I didn’t take pictures but she had to have been in pain for a while because of this. It was SO inflamed. But I feel awful, I wish I would have called the vet first.

 

[ellangdon22]

I am sorry you lost your hen.

For any kind of treatment it is best to grab the bird from the roost at night, so there will be no chasing around.
When you hold them, talk to them in a low and friendly voice, so they will know it is you and not a predator.

Yeah we tried calming her, but I think it had to have been painful for her because we weren’t rinsing the area for more than a minute. I honestly don’t know if we could have prevented this doing it at any other time because of that, but I definitely won’t be trying to clean any of the other girls again without calling the vet first.

 

[ladybrasa]

I don’t have any experience with this situation, but I am personally skeptical you stressed her to literal death. More like she already had something very severe going on internally, maybe even a heart issue or something, and maybe the stress just tipped the scale. As in, she was probably sick enough that death may have been her fate anyway. I’ve never heard of vent prolapsing just from stress. I mean, people doctor on their chickens all the time, even literally cutting open things like bumbles, some people still do caponizing, fixing major wounds and even fixing prolapses. No anesthesia or pain meds, and you know it’s gotta hurt. And various levels of tameness in the birds, too.

Again, I have not had this experience or know what might have been going on, I just think you didn’t directly kill your girl, and if you technically did, she probably had something major going on and would have died at some point anyway. I mean, feel sad you lost you’re girl, but don’t feel bad or guilty that you may or may not have caused her death from trying to give a simple bath for her well being.

 

[ellangdon22]

I don’t have any experience with this situation, but I am personally skeptical you stressed her to literal death. More like she already had something very severe going on internally, maybe even a heart issue or something, and maybe the stress just tipped the scale. As in, she was probably sick enough that death may have been her fate anyway. I’ve never heard of vent prolapsing just from stress. I mean, people doctor on their chickens all the time, even literally cutting open things like bumbles, some people still do caponizing, fixing major wounds and even fixing prolapses. No anesthesia or pain meds, and you know it’s gotta hurt. And various levels of tameness in the birds, too.

Again, I have not had this experience or know what might have been going on, I just think you didn’t directly kill your girl, and if you technically did, she probably had something major going on and would have died at some point anyway. I mean, feel sad you lost you’re girl, but don’t feel bad or guilty that you may or may not have caused her death from trying to give a simple bath for her well being.

Thank you for this. I’m trying to reassure myself because it was such a freak thing. Like literally had some warm water running over her vent area for maybe a minute, and she was not being held upside down (which I have read can cause them to aspirate) and she went limp. But I still can’t help feeling guilty she was alive and then just gone, especially because she and our other lavender orp were buddies.

 

[LaFleche]

Don't feel guilty. You tried to do the right thing.

Just like @ladybrasa I think that the underlying internal issue killed her and not your attempt to clean her off.

When did she last lay an egg?

 

[ellangdon22]

Don't feel guilty. You tried to do the right thing.

Just like @ladybrasa I think that the underlying internal issue killed her and not your attempt to clean her off.

When did she last lay an egg?

I wish I knew! We have a broody hen who has been kicking the others out of the egg boxes in the main coop (she’s a bully normally anyways) so the other girls have started laying in random spots in the yard, as well as our smaller secondary coop, so I have only been able to really keep track of the colored egg layers. This has definitely spurred me to try and keep better track of things though, I hate that you have to learn from loss a lot of the time, but that seems to be chicken keeping in a nutshell.

 

[LaFleche]

I wish I knew! We have a broody hen who has been kicking the others out of the egg boxes in the main coop (she’s a bully normally anyways) so the other girls have started laying in random spots in the yard, as well as our smaller secondary coop, so I have only been able to really keep track of the colored egg layers. This has definitely spurred me to try and keep better track of things though, I hate that you have to learn from loss a lot of the time, but that seems to be chicken keeping in a nutshell.

With chickens it is often very hard to tell anything is amiss, as they hide it so well.

Reproductive disorders (salpingitis, egg yolk peritonitis, cancer etc.) leading to death are very common with chickens and often referred to as "occupational disease". Sadly, in most cases there is not much one can do to save the bird when they start to show illness/decline.