Prolapse and egg binding ?

[ChickenLovingGramma]

I have a 25 week old Rhode Island Red that I noticed was prolapsed this afternoon. She definitely was not in this condition yesterday. So we brought her inside and realized she had an egg inside the prolapsed . Couldn’t find any information on a prolapsed egg bound chicken. We soaked her for 20 min and when I took her out of the water the egg had broken. We thought we had found the opening and spent over and hour getting every shell piece out and cleaned her up. She immediately perked up. I examined her and realized that the hole we were taking the pieces out of was a small tear. I did find a video where someone had to remove a soft egg after making a small incision but can find no info on an egg breaking while in a prolapse outside the body. Right now she is isolated in my pantry in a dog crate with water and hay for bedding.Any info or help would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone every dealt with this and has their hen survived?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Has the prolapsed tissue gone back inside? If not, try to keep that clean and moistened with ointment, honey, etc.

The egg breaking inside, I absolutely would begin administering antibiotics as soon as you can get them. I would fear infection.
Do you have anything on hand?

If not, check your local TSC and see if they have any Fish Antibiotics, Amoxicillin would be a good choice. Sometimes those are on the shelf, if not, maybe they can get them for pickup next day(?)

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. There is a video on youtube - probably the one you saw. I have not watched the follow up video. I suppose I should!

 

[ChickenLovingGramma]

It is back inside, and she is isolated. What is a local TSC?

 

[Eggcessive]

Tractor Supply feed store is what some call TSC. Aqua-Mox is amoxicillin available online, but getting it faster to start it would be best. I hope that your hen gets better. If her prolapse comes back out, you can try soaking in warm water and applying more ointment to her tissue. Calcium tablet given orally may help to pass any other eggs. You can temporarily stop her from laying eggs by placing her in darkness for 16 hours each day, but that can take 3 days or so.

 

[ChickenLovingGramma]

I cannot get it to stay in she seems better I did have some amoxicillin on hand after all and gave 125mg orally. She keeps pushing it back out. I have tried honey it will stay in them she pools, but there isn’t much just white which is because she is drinking and I wanted that to continue to prevent dehydration. I am withholding food and she is making quiet sighs like she’s in pain when I gently try to push it back in. I am reluctant to keep trying because I don’t want her in pain. Her tissue is still pink but there is a section that is looking worse.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do not withhold food or water.

 

[ChickenLovingGramma]

Haven’t really been able to. I read we weren’t supposed to feed for 24 hrs. She would poop while she ate so because it was overnight I picked it up as usual( she ate up until about 4:30pm) today she has eaten very little. We have a large coop in the barn and a run. We have an area where they free range my husband let her walk around in and stretch her legs. She is having another soak in a warm epsom bath. Prolapse will not stay in. Any more advice?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

All you can do is soak, keep it clean, keep it moist with your ointment/honey.
The antibiotic may help with infection. Amoxicillin dosing is 57mg per pound of weight given orally twice a day for 10-14 days.

Give her 1 tablet Caltrate a day the extra Calcium can help with retention.

Sometimes with a prolapse the tissue is swollen and will not stay in until the swelling goes down some. Other times, there's just too much damage and it can't be fixed. All you can do is keep trying and evaluate how she's doing.

 

[Jhs51684]

Haven’t really been able to. I read we weren’t supposed to feed for 24 hrs. She would poop while she ate so because it was overnight I picked it up as usual( she ate up until about 4:30pm) today she has eaten very little. We have a large coop in the barn and a run. We have an area where they free range my husband let her walk around in and stretch her legs. She is having another soak in a warm epsom bath. Prolapse will not stay in. Any more advice?

Any update on this bird? I'm having a similar problem with the prolapse not staying in. Did you manage to have any luck?

 

[TKM]

Hello,

I know this happened a while ago, but this seems to have happened with many other people, and there isn't much information online about how to fix this.

So this is what we did when it turned up for us.

Instead of breaking the egg, we made a small incision into the prolapsed tissue using a sterile blade. Then we removed the whole, un broken egg. The reason we didn't break it was because it could have caused an infection (with bacteria feeding off of the egg). Next we, like you did, put her in a crate with food and water. We put the prolapsed tissue back in. However, some of the tissue still stayed out. There was one youtube video that we saw which was dealing with exactly our situation. In that video, the little bit of tissue still staying ended up drying up and falling off ( kind of like an umbilical cord). As others have said keep the room dark so she won't lay any eggs while healing. Apart from antibiotic ointment around the area, we took care of her as normal in the crate. After the tissue fell off (about a week), she was completely back to normal.