Prolapse - What to do?

[sevenchickens]

Can I do any/all with a 4 day old chick?

 

[sledzeppelin]

Update:

Last night I left her in the garage by herself. This morning I went out and found the garage door open. It doesn't always latch properly and it was really windy last night, so it blew open. I found her outside walking around our barn, with ice on her butt! I brought her back in and cranked up the heat and went to the store for preparation h.

When I got back, I soaked her in warm water for about 20 minutes and while I did that my wife set up our dog crate in our utility room with a blanket over it. She loved the bath.

I got her out of the water and wrapped her up and my wife tried to clean up her butt. She was selected for insertion duty because her fingers are smaller than mine.

We got it pretty well cleaned up and I felt better because it didn't look all that bad. She was bleeding a little from one side, but the protrusion wasn't very large at all - certainly not the golf ball/fist size people talk about. It was only sticking out maybe 3/4". I wanted to take a picture to post here, and as soon as I asked my wife to get the camera, we watched in amazement as the hen pulled it back in herself! Maybe it was being held out by the dried poop, or maybe she was relaxed enough now to do it. At any rate, it went back in. She looked like she was still sort of pushing/pulsing a bit, but it didn't ever come back out. We decided to still put a little preparation h on the area, but other than that we're leaving well enough alone for now. She's in her cage in the dark with water and calcium. I'll check on her again in a few hours.

Am I right in thinking we should just leave it alone for now?

Thanks again everyone. Hopefully we're on the road to recovery!

 

[sledzeppelin]

One more thing - what about protecting her against infection? Like I said there was a little blood, and we weren't able to get rid of every bit of poop.

 

[sledzeppelin]

I checked on her yesterday about noon and it had prolapsed again. We did the same procedure - bath and then preparation h, though this time we actually did push it back in. When I took the towel off of her to put her back in the cage, she struggled a bit and it popped back out. We pushed it in again and it stayed. This morning it was out again.

It's barely out, but it sure seems like she just can't keep it in. I'm hesitant to keep applying preparation h.

I think I'm going to just keep her in mostly darkness until Monday and then call our vet and see if he can help.

Any other ideas?

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

The Prep H is a good thing to use.

I never force the prolapse back in, I allow it to move back in naturally, otherwise the hen will strain and pop it back out and could possibly cause more damage.

Have you applied any honey at all? Honey will help fight the infection and makes it smell a bit nicer. *Warning* Do NOT lick your fingers. I did not do this but wanted to warn in case the honey drew your attention...

My hen had a much worse prolapse than the one in the photos. It took her nearly 1 week to completely draw in the prolapse. She wound up getting another prolapse that was even worse than the other. Was going to dispatch her but the next morning she had already passed. Pushed all of her innards out. I felt awful.

 

[sledzeppelin]

GRAPHIC PICTURE AHEAD!

Here's a picture of what I'm dealing with. As you can see it's not sticking out very far. It stuck out twice that far at first, but now it's not as bad. There's one hardened glob of poop on there (right in the middle) that just doesn't want to come off.

 

[verthandi]

Sometimes a takes 2 or 3 days for the prolapse to stay in place. I just keep them in a dark and warm place. It looks like you are on the way to healing if it only out a little.

 

[sledzeppelin]

I didn't get a chance to check on her last night due to sick kids, but my wife and I looked this morning and we were happy to see clean fluffy feathers back there. We looked closer and saw no prolapse. I'm keeping her in the dark for another day and then I think we'll put her back out and let her get back to business.

Thanks everyone!

 

[tamlynn]

thank you for this post! My chicken just had a prolapse this morning and I was able to find this info immediately! She had a huge ball of poop stuck in there. I helped her get that all out, and pushed the tissue back in with a gloved and neosporined finger. I'm keeping a close eye on her because today is her regular day to lay. crossed fingers that all will be okay!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Today my son noticed that his favorite guinea hen, Minnie aged 3, had a prolapsed vent. I was in the middle of doing a bunch of other chicken chores so she had to wait for treatment. While she waited she first stood up almost vertical & was straining, only passing tiny bits of poop. Then she wandered off to another part of the yard. When I was ready to administer treatment I told my son to go fetch her. He returned holding her by her wing joints, far away from his body. "Why are you holding Minnie like that?" "There's all this stuff coming out of her!"

When he handed Minnie to me there still was stuff coming out of her -- some blood & some poop, a tiny shell-less egg, some fluid, and some stuff that looked like scrambled egg. And her bottom was a fright, big red protrusion & a second one that looked like a balloon.

But thank the Lord, I just took a folded paper towel, squirted some antibiotic ointment on it, & pressed it to her bottom, and everything slid back inside. Then I took another folded paper towel, squirted some Prep H on it, & pressed it to her now inverted vent. I held her upside down for a few minutes, holding the paper towel to her vent. Then I put her in the hospital pen with some water and her favorite food, some chick feed wetted with water.

We're praying for her full recovery, and will keep her confined & under close observation for several days or more, to see if she will need further attention. I myself expect to have some alarming dreams over the next few nights...