Yesterday afternoon I went out to feed the chickens and put them up for the night when I noticed one of my Buff Orpingotns was not herself. She had a huge bulge coming our of her rear end, and feces smeared all down her backside. Oh, no! I went to read up in one of my chicken books and sure enough, her oviduct is prolapsed. It is protruding outside her body, and it is large and hard so there is probably an egg stuck inside. It was like there was the membrane covering the egg, because you can't see the egg, and I don't know how to get it out. We tried to work it around a little, but with no luck.
Hens that have prolapsed and that are left to the natural instincts of flock members, will be picked at on their exposed tissue from the vent. This will result in hemorrhaging, shock, and death.
We isolated her last night. I leave before daylight so did not check on her. My DD said this morning she wasn't moving and is dad going to shoot her when he gets home? Well, I get home 2 hours before DH, so I got a garbage bag and the .22 and headed out to the barn. She was alert and had eaten. The bulge seemed to have reduced in size and I find it hard to kill an animal that still seems to have life and not be suffering enormously. I gave her some more food and checked her water. I will see what DH says when he gets home. Even if she lays that egg, she will never be the same and will be prolapsing often.
Now I know which chicken has been laying the gigantic eggs, sometimes with 2 yolks. While it may seem cool at the time to be getting such large eggs, the downside is that it is ultimately going to cost us the life and egg laying of one of our flock. She is beautiful. She is slightly larger than Rhode Island reds and has golden yellow feathers, with slightly darker feathers around her neck. I know that if the is not put out of her misery tonight, it will be soon. I will keep you posted.
Rose... I don't know if it will work on a chicken but it does a goat. I had a goat with a prolapsed rectum. Just sprinkling plain old table sugar on the prolapse will shrink it enough to gently push things in where it belongs. I sprayed the area with betadine and warm water mixed, sprinkled the sugar on the prolapse, wait a few minutes and you will see it start to shrink and then smear the area with Preparation H or maybe since it's different from a rectum maybe just try a KY Jelly or Vaseline and gently push things back in. Just saying you could try it if you want to try to save her. I had to do this twice with my goat in one week. It's been over a year and she's not had it to reoccur.
ReplyDeleteMamma Bear,
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of that. I didn't even know sugar would shrink tissue. I think our biggest issue with her is that I think she has an egg stuck. Since she is prolapsed. we should be able to see the egg shell, and work our fingers around it to free it. But, it is like it is covered with the turned inside out skin, if that makes sense. I have read to use Prep H and we will see what she looks like tomorrow. I will let you know what we find out and what we can do to try and save her.
That is a shame...but dumplings come to mind.
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