Prolapse: 1) how long to heal? & 2) confine to dark room?

[JennsPeeps]

Hi all, been absent for a long time but popping in with a question.

We've got 2 polish who lay enormous eggs: ~58g (roughly the same as our BR and BA!). This is Beaker's egg on the right:

I noticed last weekend that Beaker had a mild prolapse. It's about the size of a small grape. We've been treating it with Preparation H and pushing it back in gently for the past 2 days. The prolapse seems to irritate Beaker but she's otherwise fine and the other hens are not picking at it.

Question #1:
From your experience with prolapses, what's the estimated time for recovery? I don't expect immediate results but would like to get a sense of how long before we start to see any improvement.

Question #2:
Should we put her into a dark room to try to interrupt her laying cycle? She's in the run w/ her flockmates and is still laying. In fact, she lays about 5 eggs/week. If so, how many hours a day of "night" should we shoot for to stop/slow her laying?


What was that about polish being poor layers?!? Beaker started laying at 17 weeks and is a crazy egg machine.

 

[peaceful]

I cured several chickens with prolapsed vents by rinsing their behinds gently with warm water and applying honey. I remember reading there can be some problem with Preparation H so you might want to look into that. However, whatever works!
(Raw honey is anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and anti-viral.)
I can't remember exactly but it seems to me that it took from one to three days for the prolapse to stay back in.

 

[MotherJean]

Beaker is a special case because she's laying abnormally large eggs for her breed. She's also special in that she started laying at such a young age. Unfortunately birds like this often suffer from reproductive problems, with prolapse being one of those. Fortunately, Beaker didn't experience a dramatic prolapse. From your description it sounds like only the vagina has prolapsed, not the uterus (or shell gland). That's encouraging. The problem with prolapse is that it can result in permanent nerve damage and inhibiting the peristaltic contractions that help her lay the egg. This can subsequently lead to egg binding problems. In Beaker's case, I think it's imperative that you slow down her laying cycle in order to give that prolapse a chance to heal before facing the pressure of another giant egg. Personally, I would replicate the approximate winter daylight hours you experience in late December or January - 8 to 10 hours would be my guess. You should be aware that doing this will be forcing a molt, too, not just a reduction in egg laying.

Good luck with Ms. Beaker. Those are some spectacular eggs.