Quail hen with terrible hernia

[User635240]

Hi, wt* is this? How can I help her?

 

[Nabiki]

That is prolapse. Start with a warm (quail body temp or a couple degrees warmer epsom salt bath. If it doesn't go back in after 15 minutes or so, you can try using a q-tip with vaseline on it to GENTLY put things back inside. I have heard that Preparation H may also help, but I have not tried that.

This looks pretty bad, but she might still make it.

 

[sourland]

That's a severe prolapse. @Nabiki has given good advice, but it may be necessary to euthanize her. The quail not Nabiki.

 

[Nabiki]

That's a severe prolapse. @Nabiki has given good advice, but it may be necessary to euthanize her. The quail not Nabiki.

 

[User635240]

Thanks, it seems to have resolved itself. Is there something in their conditions that I could improve to prevent this?

 

[Nabiki]

Thanks, it seems to have resolved itself. Is there something in their conditions that I could improve to prevent this?

I'm glad to hear that she's doing better. Is she getting enough calcium in her diet?

 

[007Sean]

Even if she does make it, I wouldn't want her to be laying anymore eggs for fear it might prolapse again, and not recover the next time.

 

[Susan Skylark]

How do you stop a hen from laying besides to stress her out on a regular basis or expose her to less than 14 hours of light (asking for practical situations like this). You stop milking a cow and she’ll dry up but do you have to stop exposing a hen to light?

As for your prolapse, the calcium suggestion is spot on (definite contributing factor in bovine uterine prolapse (don’t ask!)). Hopefully it was just a big egg and after the edema subsides she never looks back. Check her a couple times daily for the next few days just to be sure (the sooner you catch them the better and you don’t want other birds pecking at it). If it becomes a chronic issue euthanasia or taking her out of production (controlled lighting) is recommended. Does anyone know if there is a genetic component, uterine prolapses are freak things in cattle but vaginal are hereditary, maybe you could get a PhD thesis out of this: cloacal prolapse in quail, sadly they’ve published worse! Glad it went in easily, let’s hope it stays there!

 

[Nabiki]

You can give her a break from laying by keeping her in the dark with only a few hours a day of light for a while. She will stop laying.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Does that also work for males? Can you keep a pen of boys together more or less peacefully if they get less than 8 hours of light daily and don’t become sexually mature or activated?