- Nov 14, 2009
- 8
- 0
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Waylon Jennings is a 9-month-old Leghorn in our flock of four hens. Three weeks ago this Sunday, me and my husband came home from a friends house and noticed what I thought was blood coming from her vent.
We'd never experienced a prolapsed oviduct before, so I went into a mad panic when I realized that the "blood" was two lumps of tissue pushed out of her vent upon trying to clean her. My husband did some quick research online and noticed this prolapse looked a lot worse than anything he found on the web. We rushed her to the emergency vet.
Dr. Erbes was our veterinarian. She initially seemed to lean towards us culling her (the tissue had gone necrosis on one duct) until I stepped outside to "get some air" i.e. cry. While I was out, my husband explained that our hens are pets and their ability to lay eggs is an added bonus, not a requirement. By the time I came back in, she'd already started working on a game plan.
Since we don't have credit and our cash had already been spent towards bills for the pay period, she did everything at as much of a discount as possible. She had us assist her while she gave Waylon sutures (two stitches on either side of her vent to keep everything in). She even walked us through how to do it ourselves "farm style" should it ever happen to another hen. She gave us veterinary grade liquid calcium (recently expired) and some syringes to feed it to her that had been reserved for donation to the humane society. She instructed us to get some antibiotics and maintenance feed, keep her in the dark at least 15 hrs a day and secluded in a warm area.
So we moved Waylon to her temporary apartment in our sewing room closet, set her up with a timed light and a space heater, cleaned her and fed her calcium daily, and monitored closely.
For the first 4 or 5 days, I expected her to pass on any minute. Infection was the big worry and she had a sickly smell. She made almost no noise, after having been our loudest, most lively bird. But she was still eating, drinking water, and had yet to pick out her sutures.
On the fifth day, she perked up, started clucking again, made a giant mess of some bread we gave her as a post-bath treat. She smelled better, had better color in her comb and wattles. When we took her back to the vet after a week, they decided to keep the sutures in an extra week since they hadn't been bothering her and her stool was still a little loose from antibiotics. Dr. Erbes said she was amazed at how well Waylon seemed to be doing and that she seemed like a "different bird entirely".
Sutures out for 5 days, she's doing just fine! But since she has such a small build and was a prolific layer, Dr. Erbes recommended we have her spayed if we wanted to keep her as a pet, which we do. So until we save the money to do so in the next few weeks, we have to limit her light intake/outside time. She's moved to her new temporary dwelling, the garage, and has timed foraging in our hand-made portable run daily.
I know for lots of people here, this probably isn't a realistic solution. But for those of you who are as crazy as I am, this whole debacle cost less than $100, as we already had a most of what was needed. The spay will cost a lot more, but unless the prolapse is severe, most birds can recover and begin laying again once they are fully healed. I will say that bathing the area and force-feeding calcium is a two person job, no matter how docile the bird. So I guess you need the help of at least one other crazy person.
If you're in the Salem, Oregon area and have a chicken emergency:
Salem Veterinary Emergency Clinic
3215 Market St SE Salem OR 97301
(503) 588-8082 (503) 362-6764 (Fax)
Email: [email protected]
They were so awesome, even called to check on her progress between visits.
We'd never experienced a prolapsed oviduct before, so I went into a mad panic when I realized that the "blood" was two lumps of tissue pushed out of her vent upon trying to clean her. My husband did some quick research online and noticed this prolapse looked a lot worse than anything he found on the web. We rushed her to the emergency vet.
Dr. Erbes was our veterinarian. She initially seemed to lean towards us culling her (the tissue had gone necrosis on one duct) until I stepped outside to "get some air" i.e. cry. While I was out, my husband explained that our hens are pets and their ability to lay eggs is an added bonus, not a requirement. By the time I came back in, she'd already started working on a game plan.
Since we don't have credit and our cash had already been spent towards bills for the pay period, she did everything at as much of a discount as possible. She had us assist her while she gave Waylon sutures (two stitches on either side of her vent to keep everything in). She even walked us through how to do it ourselves "farm style" should it ever happen to another hen. She gave us veterinary grade liquid calcium (recently expired) and some syringes to feed it to her that had been reserved for donation to the humane society. She instructed us to get some antibiotics and maintenance feed, keep her in the dark at least 15 hrs a day and secluded in a warm area.
So we moved Waylon to her temporary apartment in our sewing room closet, set her up with a timed light and a space heater, cleaned her and fed her calcium daily, and monitored closely.
For the first 4 or 5 days, I expected her to pass on any minute. Infection was the big worry and she had a sickly smell. She made almost no noise, after having been our loudest, most lively bird. But she was still eating, drinking water, and had yet to pick out her sutures.
On the fifth day, she perked up, started clucking again, made a giant mess of some bread we gave her as a post-bath treat. She smelled better, had better color in her comb and wattles. When we took her back to the vet after a week, they decided to keep the sutures in an extra week since they hadn't been bothering her and her stool was still a little loose from antibiotics. Dr. Erbes said she was amazed at how well Waylon seemed to be doing and that she seemed like a "different bird entirely".
Sutures out for 5 days, she's doing just fine! But since she has such a small build and was a prolific layer, Dr. Erbes recommended we have her spayed if we wanted to keep her as a pet, which we do. So until we save the money to do so in the next few weeks, we have to limit her light intake/outside time. She's moved to her new temporary dwelling, the garage, and has timed foraging in our hand-made portable run daily.
I know for lots of people here, this probably isn't a realistic solution. But for those of you who are as crazy as I am, this whole debacle cost less than $100, as we already had a most of what was needed. The spay will cost a lot more, but unless the prolapse is severe, most birds can recover and begin laying again once they are fully healed. I will say that bathing the area and force-feeding calcium is a two person job, no matter how docile the bird. So I guess you need the help of at least one other crazy person.
If you're in the Salem, Oregon area and have a chicken emergency:
Salem Veterinary Emergency Clinic
3215 Market St SE Salem OR 97301
(503) 588-8082 (503) 362-6764 (Fax)
Email: [email protected]
They were so awesome, even called to check on her progress between visits.
