Prolapsed Vent/Egg Bound Pullet!

[cochinswede]

Please help! One of my hens looks like she has a bound egg and prolapsed vent! We tried pushing it in, but it keeps coming out. We’re soaking her in our sink with warm water. We have Prep H and sugar. We are deep in the Swedish countryside and no access to a vet, what can we do? Can we save her at all??

 

[cochinswede]

Bumping for visibility. We made a call. There was no exit point in the oviduct we could see no matter how much we looked. We made an incision to remove the bound egg. It was her first. Minimal bleeding, we incised the thinnest part to remove the egg. Inserted the prolapse, coated in olive oil, sugar and preparation H. She is resting in the crate beside the fire now. I still need help and advice. I believe she would be dead either way, but more so if we didn’t intervene at all. Please if anyone out there can help me, I would be so appreciative.

 

[Eggcessive]

So sorry no one answered your thread earlier in the day. Glad that you could get the egg out. I normally would not try to cut an opening, but a vet might do that. Was it a hard shell or soft shell egg? The prolapse may come back out if she strains to poop or if another egg comes. If or when that happens keep the prolapse tissue from drying out with oil, petroleum jelly or honey. It may become swollen and not go back in so easily. If you can get human calcium tablets with vitamin D, give her one (300-600 mg) orally to swallow. That can help with muscle contractions. Many times the prolapse may recur. Let us know how she gets along.

 

[cochinswede]

So sorry no one answered your thread earlier in the day. Glad that you could get the egg out. I normally would not try to cut an opening, but a vet might do that. Was it a hard shell or soft shell egg? The prolapse may come back out if she strains to poop or if another egg comes. If or when that happens keep the prolapse tissue from drying out with oil, petroleum jelly or honey. It may become swollen and not go back in so easily. If you can get human calcium tablets with vitamin D, give her one (300-600 mg) orally to swallow. That can help with muscle contractions. Many times the prolapse may recur. Let us know how she gets along.

What I noticed initially was the poop vent was visible, but not the oviduct. Every way we turned showed that the exit for feces was pressed out against the egg that was forming behind it. The egg was the texture of sandpaper, with thin shell and a tougher membrane. At this moment, about 3 hours after the surgery, 2am our time, she took some few drops of water from a Q-Tip, and ate a single mealworm. I reapplied olive oil to the vent which is less prolapsed but still showing slightly. She preens when the light is on, she is still damp from her warm bath, but we intend to keep her inside the next few days in the dark to discourage laying if we can. I am terrified, and am going through enormous stress at having to do something I have no experience in. She is of course my favorite hen too…

In the morning I’m going to give her an Epsom salt bath and disinfect the vent as best I can and keep it clean through the day with a saline solution. I’ll give her a calcium tablet as well.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would hold a small cup or tuna can up to her beak to her beak, and dip her beak into it. See if she will take some. Mix a little mushy water chick feed and offer that as well up to her beak. Is she passing any poop? Calcium tablet with vitamin D can be placed into her beak to swallow today or in the morning. I would hold off on a soak until she poops, and do that once a day to help her heal and clean her. Do you have any chlorhexidiene disinfectant or can you make some saline to rinse her vent area before you apply more oil? Saline is 2 tsp or 9 grams of table salt mixed with 1 liter of water, and dissolved. Spray it on or dab it on.

 

[cochinswede]

She’s not passing at the moment. She’s hardly had anything to eat for 10 hours. The last time she passed was when we first attempted to push in the prolapsed egg before intervention (the time I first made this post). We made saline (exactly as you described as well) for the surgery. Cleaned the area well after the egg was removed. We had first aid disinfectant wipes as well to clean up the vent about 2 hours after the fact as well. I will try tuna tomorrow, I would like to see her drink more first.

Thank you so much for your help and for answering me. I’m so appreciative of your time to do so. I will provide an update on her condition tomorrow.

 

[Eggcessive]

I will check back in the morning.

 

[cochinswede]

She survived the night. When I went to check on her in the morning, she was standing expectantly, facing me at the door like she was ready to leave the coop. She pooped. It was soft, not hard at all, a rather significant amount like she had been holding it in all night. She’d had some blood in the prolapse but not even a dark drop, it was more of a small streak, the prolapse was a little bit out, but we had disinfectant wipes to clean the area, saline solution for wound care that my husband found in his work car. We cleaned the area of feces, washed everything out in a saline solution, applied disinfectant as we held in the prolapsed egg before for a few minutes, and then sugar to draw it in, olive oil to keep it moist, and preparation H to reduce swelling. We’re giving her 6 hours of sunlight before we put her in darkness again. She’s rather alert. She’s free ranging our living room right now, vocalizing, preening. She seems rather normal, but we’re not taking any chances right now and will have her on a strict regime. I took your advice to hold off on the Epsom bath, I think I will leave this to later before we put her in the crate to rest.

 

[Eggcessive]

That is wonderful news. It sounds like she will recover. It can take several day of darkness for 16 hours a day (I would do it overnight while you are sleeping) to stop her from laying. She can be in daylight for up to 8 hours. I hope that she continues to do well.

 

[cochinswede]

UPDATE: I wanted to provide an update for anyone who needs help with what we went through. As of today, our chicken is not only doing exceptionally well, but the prolapse is gone, she is laying regularly, is quite active and getting used to foraging outside again but still separated from our flock and sleeping in our home in a crate. I want to thank @Eggcessive for their help as well when we desperately needed it. Our Pumpkin is still under observation so this is not a guarantee in survival.

Day 1 - When we first noticed Pumpkin's prolapse, we immediately separated her from the flock, brought her in to review the problem and prepared a warm bath. After hours of seeing if she would pass the egg, and the prolapse unable to be replaced back in her, we evaluated the next steps. We removed Pumpkin's first egg surgically on our kitchen table after all options were exhausted. We do not under any circumstances recommend doing such a risky operation if a vet or experienced hand is available. The oviduct exit was not visible with the prolapse and she was becoming more agitated. The table was sterilized, Pumpkin was washed, and my husband wrapped her body and head in a towel and gently held her on the side while I incised the thinnest part of the membrane of the oviduct to remove a thin, sandpaper-like egg with a sterilized knife. A saline solution was prepared in advance to wash the wound. There was minimal bleeding as we did our best to avoid incising any blood vessels. We sterilized the wound and vent as best we could with the materials we had, and placed her immediately in a clean crate with water while she recovered overnight, hoping that she would be with us the next day.

Day 2-3 - Pumpkin survived the night. The prolapse was still present. Twice a day I continued with providing her a bath, morning and night, to keep the area clean and prevent further infection. I also limited her exposure to light but this in reality didn't seem to help us. The following day the egg bound prolapse reappeared when she was walking around our living room. She was trying to lay an egg. At this point I believe she wasn't going to make it, but I prepared the bath for her again and let her relax for about half an hour. I cleaned her prolapse and dabbed olive oil to keep it from drying before I placed her back in the crate. She laid the egg about an hour later.

Day 4 - The prolapse started developing a greenish-white, grey and black crust. I assumed this was necrosis, and I began a strict regime of preventing further infection. I was determined at this point to do everything I could for her. I went to my local pharmacy in Sweden and picked up the following:

-Calcium and D3 Tablets
-Klorohexidine Fresenius 2 mg/ml 1000 milliliter Bottle
-Medical Grade Honey
-Latex Gloves
-Cotton Pads

DAILY ROUTINE: Morning and night routine would include the following: a 30-minute Epsom salt bath with a drop or two of dish detergent. Pumpkin was submerged to the point that the prolapse was under water. With latex gloves on, I would GENTLY check the prolapse and remove as much of the urate buildup as I could, even if I was just agitating the water to loosen it. I did NOT force this, as the bath would do most of the work for me. During the bath, I would mix a crushed calcium tablet and mix it with plain greek yoghurt, a little sugar, and meal worms to help encourage her to eat it. I fed her with a little spoon while she was in the bath and she greatly enjoyed this.

After the bath, I would place her on a dry towel and pat her as dry as I could. No rubbing. I was careful where I was placing the towel and making sure the prolapse wasn't being handled. Once she wasn't dripping wet, I would prepare the next steps. New gloves are always put on for each step. I washed the wound and the prolapse/vent area with klorohexidine. During the first week, there was a little bit of blood on the cotton pads mixed with the white urates and some fecal matter. I blotted the crusted prolapse liberally with the klorohexidine, but made sure it wasn't soaked. Immediately after, I put on a fresh pair of gloves and applied medical grade honey. Not a thick blob, just a thin layer over everything, including the vent, around the vent, and on the prolapse itself. Finally, with a cotton pad, I applied olive oil to ensure nothing dried out. A new pair of gloves was put on for this step as well.

While Pumpkin was preening herself, I would go immediately and remove the dirty towel in her crate and replace with a fresh clean one. Clean water with a little apple cider vinegar was added to her bowl, and a small handful of food. She would be placed in the crate to rest and dry off while my husband started the fireplace to keep her warm (we live in a 300 year old cottage so we only have a fireplace for heat).

Day 5-6 - This process was repeated without fail twice a day. Pumpkin started laying normal eggs from this point onwards almost every day. By the end of Day 7, I noticed the necrotic crust that had developed was in fact a scab. I trimmed her feathers carefully around the area to keep it from getting further infected and this was a huge turning point, so I highly recommend trimming. This was the best case scenario for us as epithelialization (new tissue development) was clearly visible with bright red tissue under the scab. We made no attempts to remove or pick at this scab under any circumstances. Like clockwork, we continued our routine until a big part of the scab sloughed off in the epsom salt bath on Day 7.

Day 7 - A major part of the scab sloughed off today, and the prolapse was smaller on this day than ever before. We continued the critical care routine but once a day from here on out.

Day 8-11 - On day 10 the prolapse was completely gone. Critical care routine was continued once a day at night with excursions outside of the cage for half an hour to explore and stretch wings and legs.

Day 12 (TODAY) - Pumpkin is spending time outside now. We did not provide an Epsom salt bath today, instead she spent the majority of her time outside in the dust bath and foraging in our garden. If we notice a change in temperament or health condition, we will revert to a gentler routine of simply an Epsom salt bath, electrolytes, and observation indoors. I don't believe she is ready to return to the flock for a few weeks.