Urgent! Please Help! can baby chicks a few days old get vent proplapse

[wannabe_goatmom]

I got my very first chicks on Wednesday (they were hatched on Monday) and most of them are doing well. One is a little wobbly and not eating well so I put her alone and have been giving her sugar water. Another had a poopy vent so I took a wet cloth and wiped it off of her. I noticed once it was off that her vent is red and looks like it is sticking out? (not sure how to describe how it looks) Is this a prolapse? Should I try to push it back in? I have put her in with the other chick who seems a little ill. Is that ok?

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

well the maure on the vent is caused by either the chick getting too cold in shipment or the brooder getting too hot

and when the chick wanted to deficate ity got the prolapse from straining

take and put a little preeration H on the vent and try and push it back in
the preperation H will hold it and help out

keep the chicks at 95 degrees in the brooder for first week then down 5 degrees each week

email me any questions

 

[wannabe_goatmom]

I put on the prep-h and tried to push it back in with my pinky finger and it just kept coming back out. She seems very distressed now and I'm afraid I may have hurt her worse. She is so small and I don't know how hard to push. Should I use something even smaller than my pinky like maybe a pencil covered with a rubber glove? I think tomorrow morning I will try the warm water and honey from the other threads I've read.
The brooder is about 92 because when it was 95 they were staying at the sides of the brooder and one was panting so I raised the light.

 

[sojeo]

When I had a chick with intestine coming out it's navel, I pushed it back in with a q-tip dipped in bag balm. The prep H is probably better for your situation. I also gave the chick vitamins, electrolytes and made a mash of boiled egg yolk, yogurt and chick starter to make sure it was getting the boost it needed.

Hope your chicky heals!

 

[threehorses]

I would also recommend the preparation H.

Then I would also give this baby (well all of the babies, really) a little plain yogurt. 1 teaspoon per the six babies. They might not like it at first. You can dampen some crumbles with the yogurt and water and let it soak all up to soften the crumbles and feed them this.

Sometimes I've seen babies with pasty vent and partial prolapse because of the reasons Glenda wisely listed. When they have diarrhea, they tend to try to push more out because their intestines feel irritated and they think they have droppings in there when they don't. so they will literally push their vent back out. Sometimes just the right temperatures, a couple of days of preparation H, and probiotics (yogurt) help this.

If it doesn't, then I would still separate the baby to make sure the others don't peck his vent. Give him his yogurt portion. try feeding him a little of the yolk of a boiled egg with that mash - a tiny bit. Then, if you have some, this is the ONE time when you could consider using a tiny bit of neosporin w/pain killer in it. Use that on the vent and push it in. The pain killer will numb his vent and keep him from continuing to push it out. DO NOT let him in with any other chicks that could possibly peck and get any of this on their beaks. Period. He can't reach around to clean himself at this age. Perhaps mix it with the preparation H.

***The 'caine medications are usually very toxic to birds.*** But continued prolapse over more than 2 days in this case can be a very bad situation, so isolating him and using this is one of the very very very rare times I will ever recommend you use it at all. It's worth a shot if the other treatment isn't working and you think it's life-or-death.

Continue his yogurt daily for a week. It won't hurt the others. Then use it for them all weekly (in gradually increasing amounts) during the starter period (1-8 weeks) then occassionally at least during growing (9 weeks to 5 months). Then you can use yogurt weekly when the pullets start to lay.

Yogurt has living bacteria in it (unlike other milk products which are now pasteurized). The lactobacilli in the yogurt colonize the digestive tract. The bird's digestive tract naturally should have bacteria in it to keep diarrhea and digestive illnesses in control as well as helping them to break down food matter into something more absorbable. Babies raised by hens get their living bacteria from her vent and fresh droppings. Brooder raised babies depend instead on us, so I make sure the GOOD bacteria establish themselves by providing some (much more cleanly than a mother hen would) through yogurt.

Doing this and keeping the brooder very clean and dry, and keeping poop out of the feeders and waterers, are also good ways to help keep cocci from causing coccidiosis.

Another hint: raise the feeders up to the level of the chicks' backs when they're 2 weeks old. That makes it less likely that they'll poop in it or walk in it with their little poopy feet.

I hope this helps.