My hen Heather had a prolapse two days ago after laying a very large, stress fractured egg the day before.
I treated her and she's 'kept it all in' for around 12hrs now. Acting more like herself every time I check on her. I've read that it's likely to occur again. They said to keep her in the dark to stop her laying as a treatment (which I have around 24hrs now), but I'm thinking of using it as a preventative.
People provide extra light in winter to encourage birds to lay, I'm wondering if I could do the opposite, that if I convert a nest box in the coop and create a very dark 'bedroom' just for her, that I could take her out late and put her in early so she always experiences a "winter amount" of light per day. This could stop her laying. So she won't prolapse again and can also stay outside with her flock.
Even if it only worked for a few months, this could give her body a good deal of time to heal.
Any thoughts on this or how else I can stop or lessen her laying?
I treated her and she's 'kept it all in' for around 12hrs now. Acting more like herself every time I check on her. I've read that it's likely to occur again. They said to keep her in the dark to stop her laying as a treatment (which I have around 24hrs now), but I'm thinking of using it as a preventative.
People provide extra light in winter to encourage birds to lay, I'm wondering if I could do the opposite, that if I convert a nest box in the coop and create a very dark 'bedroom' just for her, that I could take her out late and put her in early so she always experiences a "winter amount" of light per day. This could stop her laying. So she won't prolapse again and can also stay outside with her flock.
Even if it only worked for a few months, this could give her body a good deal of time to heal.
Any thoughts on this or how else I can stop or lessen her laying?