Prolapse help

[Chickenfan24]

I am new here; I haven't posted before. My husband and I have had chickens for almost 2 years now. Everyone has been fine up until now. I'm posting because I don't know any one else that has chickens. Based on the information below, I think its safe to say we were not fully prepared. We had 8 chickens. We think of them as pets. We might not have done a good job raising them because they don't want to be touched or petted. Our favorite is a leghorn. She is more like a pet than the others. She jumps up on the door when it's open, like she trusts/tolerates us better. She runs toward us more often, and she's more vocal. She has jumped up and gotten between the rooster and a smaller hen a few times. I started calling her our superhero. She rarely pecks at other birds, like she's above the pecking order. She's awesome. I think she had a prolapse, but I don't know what kind. It looked bad. She had a bright red round ball of tissue coming from her backside. There was some poop oozing as well. I would describe the tissue mass similar in size to a lollipop, probably a little larger, bright red. She didn't seem like herself. Not as interested in food. I'm not sure what caused this because the chicken cameras don't show any accidents or trauma occurring. We put her in a soapy bath. We put her in a cage in the garage. We tried cleaning her backside again, but we just couldn't seem to get all of the poop and there was a small amount of bleeding. My husband said he couldn't push the tissue back inside. We looked at books and watched videos. She tolerated our efforts well except for pressure on one area, which I assume was painful. My husband thought we couldn't help her and she lays almost every day. An egg would make the situation worse. He couldn't bear for her to suffer. So he put her down this morning before I was even awake. I didn't get any say in the matter. I don't know if it was the right decision. I wish we would have discussed it. We were both sick and really tired the previous night, so I don't think we were thinking clearly. I'm heartbroken because she was our little superhero, awesome chicken and I don't expect to have another like her. Does anyone know, based on my description what type of prolapse this might have been? Could we have helped her? The tissue seemed swollen, it wouldn't go back inside, like the videos showed and she had some bleeding. Any thoughts?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I am new here; I haven't posted before. My husband and I have had chickens for almost 2 years now. Everyone has been fine up until now. I'm posting because I don't know any one else that has chickens. Based on the information below, I think its safe to say we were not fully prepared. We had 8 chickens. We think of them as pets. We might not have done a good job raising them because they don't want to be touched or petted. Our favorite is a leghorn. She is more like a pet than the others. She jumps up on the door when it's open, like she trusts/tolerates us better. She runs toward us more often, and she's more vocal. She has jumped up and gotten between the rooster and a smaller hen a few times. I started calling her our superhero. She rarely pecks at other birds, like she's above the pecking order. She's awesome. I think she had a prolapse, but I don't know what kind. It looked bad. She had a bright red round ball of tissue coming from her backside. There was some poop oozing as well. I would describe the tissue mass similar in size to a lollipop, probably a little larger, bright red. She didn't seem like herself. Not as interested in food. I'm not sure what caused this because the chicken cameras don't show any accidents or trauma occurring. We put her in a soapy bath. We put her in a cage in the garage. We tried cleaning her backside again, but we just couldn't seem to get all of the poop and there was a small amount of bleeding. My husband said he couldn't push the tissue back inside. We looked at books and watched videos. She tolerated our efforts well except for pressure on one area, which I assume was painful. My husband thought we couldn't help her and she lays almost every day. An egg would make the situation worse. He couldn't bear for her to suffer. So he put her down this morning before I was even awake. I didn't get any say in the matter. I don't know if it was the right decision. I wish we would have discussed it. We were both sick and really tired the previous night, so I don't think we were thinking clearly. I'm heartbroken because she was our little superhero, awesome chicken and I don't expect to have another like her. Does anyone know, based on my description what type of prolapse this might have been? Could we have helped her? The tissue seemed swollen, it wouldn't go back inside, like the videos showed and she had some bleeding. Any thoughts?

Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry to hear about your hen.

It sounds like your Husband is a kind and merciful man. Putting down a beloved hen that is suffering is such a hard decision to make, so don't dwell on second guessing the decision, it was the right one for your circumstances.

I agree, there will not be another one like her, she'll hold a special place in your heart for sure, but I suspect there's room in your heart for another hen or two to find a place there too. Over the years I've had special hens and roosters and I'll never forget them, but all hens (and roosters) are such joyful creatures, it's hard to stay sad for long. Go out and sit with 7 you have, let them talk to you and soothe your heart

I've been able to successfully treat prolapsed vents and the hens have done well afterward. These were straightforward prolapses with tissue that went back in within a few days with care.
I've also been unable to save one with a prolapse and made that hard decision to let her go.

To me from your description, it sounds like your hen was in a lot of pain and she had a complex prolapse that would have been hard to treat if at all.

I hope you stick around, join in the threads/conversations within the community here. If you have photos of your hens, coop, etc. we always enjoy seeing them.