Prolapsed chick/pasty butt

jennjoshc

Hatching
May 6, 2015
2
0
7
Hi everyone,
I have a chick we got a few days ago. I just noticed BAD pasty butt, so I cleaned her up, which exposed her prolapsed vent. What do I do? I put some Vaseline on it and tried to gently push it back in, but it pops back out. Is this deadly? She seemed fine up until yesterday. She started looking just tired, but then today noticeably weaker, so I separated ger and cleaned her. Is it too late for her? She started pooping a tad as soon as she was cleaned up. Any advice extremely appreciated! Thanks!
 
It depends on how prolapsed the vent is. Sometimes with pasty butt it can be a swollen, hemorrhoid-ey vent and the tissue swells on the vent/anus from straining and feces stuck on the skin irritating it, but it isn't technically "inside" tissue prolapsing out. But since you said you pushed the tissue back in and it came back out I am guessing it probably is a true prolapse. Do you have a pic so we can see how bad it is?

Keep her away from the other birds as they will want to peck at the red tissue for sure. Make sure she is drinking and eating. If she was unwell giving her water with some electrolytes/vitamins like (Sav-A-Chick powder) usually helps a ton. The powder mix is at the feed stores and is super cheap ($2 -ish for four or five little packs of powder).

She may need to be culled...but first I would give it a few days to heal and give her some of the vitamin water, and some boiled egg yolks to eat too in addition to feed (it is the perfect baby chick food technically nutrient wise). You can also throw in some greens from the fridge or outside to keep the poo flowing. Chickens love dandelion greens from outside and grass chopped up in small pieces to nibble on, and it has lots of vitamins that boost their bodies too.

I would also try to place the prolapse back by perhaps working with a q-tip and lots of Vaseline/lube. Since this is a teeny baby chick, pushing the tissue back in with a finger won't work as easily, so I was thinking that using a q-tip with plenty of lubrication would help to grip the tissue, get it back in, then hold the tissue/block the vent opening for as long as the little one will cooperate (a few seconds/ a minute), so that the tissue can hopefully "grab" and hold itself in better if that makes sense. I wouldn't push the q-tip inside the chick, but would rather use it as a gentle "pusher- back-in-plunger" of sorts that can put the insides back in, then make a nice seal on the outside to block the vent for a moment in hopes that it will take better and stay in place more readily that way. I would also lubricate the q-tip as otherwise the tissue could catch more easily on the dry q-tip if that makes sense.

Let us know how things go and if the injury heals itself or if it won't.
 
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Thank you!!! It is quite a bit better this morning, retracted a bit on its own. Still keeping her lil bum clean. She is able to stand up and drink today, so I'm hopeful! She does have electrolyte/ vitamin water and hard boiled egg. As long as she doesn't take a bad turn today, I think she's on the mend....still critical though. Thanks for the input!
 
I have a chick with what appears to be a prolapse vent also. I will try the q-tip me th of and hopefully it will help. Thanks for the advice.
 

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