Separated, cleaned and put homey on it. It has gone down considerably.
Photos is from today. It was clean prior to photo. I cannot get get it to go back in. It feels like it is trying to adjust into place. But will pop back out. I tried holding it closed for several mins and it pops back out
I’m wondering now if the tissue is too damaged or dead?
Do you think she has a chance of serving or should we put her down?
I had a very similar situation just recently. Took a random walk to the backyard (first time in days, as I was ill) and happened to notice one of the hens with something dark and bloody sticking out, similar to your photo here. This was about - probably around the same time as you posted this, actually. And today, I just returned her to the flock. I believe she's made a full recovery.
So here's what I did:
First things first, gave her a bath. Get the dirt off to get a better view. My chickens sleep in the coop but free range during the day, they don't care much if they step in poop. So it was shower before bath. I used a bucket for her because I didn't want to have that directly in the bathtub.
I did some frantic googling, this was the first time I encountered anything like that. I wanted to call a vet but social anxiety (as well as the fact that I was still ill myself) kept me from it... So I did best I could with what I had. I used sharp scissors to trim her vent feathers, to see better and to prevent poop from sticking to them (this was also a pain to clean). I did not cut them completely, just a bit, careful not to reach the quick.
Then I left her to soak in warm water for a while, all the time gently massaging her vent to clean it off. I had not been observing chicken vents before so I couldn't even tell if what I was looking at was normal, scar tissue, or just caked-on poop. There was some minor bleeding, I believe the other chickens had been pecking her, or maybe she did that to herself.
I checked if I could feel an egg, as i've read prolapse is often associated with egg binding, but there wasn't any.
When I cleaned as much as I dared (didn't want to accidentaly remove scars and make her bleed more) i tried to push the vent back in. But no matter how many times I tried, it came right back out. Eventually I gave up for the time being, blow-dried her, and placed her in an old rabbit cage in the garage. I gave her water and fed her cornmeal & flax seeds. Normally they eat corn and kitchen scraps and whatever edible they find in the backyard, but this one was caged for the time being and I was afraid to give her whole corn because I didn't have extra grit. She was eating and drinking normally. She was able to poop, although she visibly strained.
So I kept that up.. she was in the garage, mostly in the dark (i REALLY didn't want her to start laying at this point), with cardboard and paper towels for bedding. I fed her daily but not very much as I figured it will be good if she doesn't poop as much. Water was available at all times however.
Every two days or so, I would give her a bath again. I was not able to get epsom salt so I improvised with baking soda. I don't know if it helped, but with every bath I was able to remove a little more of the scar tissue/dried poop (still not sure what it really was).
Yesterday I was finally able to clean it off completely. The prolapsed vent was now bright red (not bleeding), soft and squishy, no longer crusty. I was finally able to push it in without it falling out... Until she pooped. But this time it seems it did not go quite as far out as before. (This is my life now, I thought. Spending who knows how much time looking at a chicken's butt. Welp)
When I checked her over today, her vent was clean and just about fully retracted (the bright red part no longer visible). So I figured she's fine and can return to the flock.
I placed her next to the food trough and she immediately started eating. Shortly after she was joined by the roosters. Thankfully she still kept her place in the pecking order, she wasn't treated as a newcomer.
I saw her poop - just fine. Her insides stayed inside, and the poop didn't stick to her feathers. At night, she went to roost normally with the other chickens.
So, that's that, my experience. I don't know if I did everything just right or if I was just lucky. I hope I won't have to deal with this again, but if I do, I'll have a better idea on what to do.
