Prolapse in young hen

[shae902]

My 1 year old Austrolorp prolapsed last Tuesday. We isolated her in a dog kennel with bedding, water and food in our heated garage. Minimal food -mainly just to try and limit poops while we try and help her heal. She is alert, red-combed and looking very healthy besides the obvious issue, although losing feathers on her undercarriage due to nowhere to perch.
We bathe her daily in warm water for 20 minutes, try to clean the prolapsed tissue carefully, and then apply Vetericyn plus, and gently work the tissue back in her vent. Hold it there for 5 minutes- although the last 4 days it does stay in on its own for those 5 minutes. But it is soon popped right back out once we put her back in the kennel. It does have a thick layer of poop which we haven’t been able to remove due to being a little dry and the fear that we might accidentally damage her delicate tissue underneath. We can see under this layer that the tissue is red and viable. I’m at a loss on how to get this caked poop off without hurting her, and also how to keep her tissue inside her vent

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have any pictures of the dry skin on the prolapse? It sounds like a little scab or necrotic tissue that will probably slough off eventually with the continued soaks daily. You can gently rub it a little with soap and water to help remove the necrotic tissue. I might use a bit of plain Neosporin or vaseline to soften it and keep it moist. Hopefully within a couple of days, the prolapse will stay in.

 

[shae902]

Thank you for the help! Maybe it is just necrotic and I’m assuming it’s poop. I will get a picture tomorrow and post it. We will add gentle soap cleaning and Vaseline. Is it a bad sign she hasn’t laid an egg since then? I’m ok with having a hen in the group that doesn’t, I just didn’t know if her body will expel all the egg material ok.

 

[Eggcessive]

As long as she is pooping, that is good. It is probably good that she is not laying, so she can rest her vent.

 

[shae902]

Just a quick update- we kept up with the regimen for 3 more days, and finally a big chunk of poo fell off the prolapse, and it then began staying inside her body! We put her back with the flock 5 days ago and so far she so doing great!