Elisa's Prolapse

chrismahon

chrismahon

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Thought it would be worthwhile summarising the apparently successful treatment of Elisa's prolapse.

Elisa is a 14 month old Black TNN. She weighs about 2.5Kg and lays 65 gramme eggs almost daily. Big egg for a small bird. Her vent is tiny.

Couple of blood smeared eggs resulted in her being observed. Her sisters were pecking at her prolapse so she was isolated and given only water and wheat (to stop her laying). The prolapse was cleaned and pushed back in after the application of Anusol. She laid again which really messed things up! 5 days of repeatedly pushing it in appeared hopeless. All the scabs were soaked off anyway as they had healed. Put onto Baytril as a precaution which then became a necessity as poos green.

She was removed to a secure rearing unit outside and left to live her last days scratching about. The anusol was still applied once a day but I then tried re-inserting the prolapse and leaving my finger in the vent, allowing the reflex muscle spasms to straighten things out inside and find a natural place. This was repeated with Vasceline as a lubricant every other time it came out. It didn't seem to be working though but I was persuaded to give her another day at least.

After another day of that approach the prolapse appeared much smaller. In fact just touching it resulted in muscle contraction pulling it in. It has now been in place for four days. She remains in isolation scratch feeding with only wheat and a tiny bit of rearer pellets. Basically we don't want her to lay for a few months to let it heal properly.

Think the important points I think are:-
Spot it early and isolate.
On to wheat straight away (so keep some in stock).
Apply Anusol only once a day (powerful stuff for a chicken).
Keep your finger in (lubricated with Vaseline) and let the natural muscle contractions straighten things internally. Ignore any comments that you are perverted!!!!
Check regularly -every half hour.
Keep at it when all seems lost!!!

Hope this helps.
 
Yes I meant to say that's very helpful to know, Chris, well done for pulling her through. Not sure if it would work on an older hen who had more internal slackness and general wear and tear, but worth a try.
 
Thanks Ncotb and Marigold. Still OK and now she wants to go back with her sisters having recovered from the stress of the prolapse. Perhaps an older hen would not recover but still worth a try. Having said that given sufficient time not laying perhaps recovery is really possible- forced hens laying (albeit by breeding) isn't ideal.
 
Excellent post.

That's what I love about this forum, there is so much help and advice. I know I dont get to post much these days, but I do like to catch up regularly, and posts like this tend to stick in my mind. So thank you, all of you, who take the time to put things down :-)08
 
Thick question maybe Chris, but is a "wheat" diet actually one of the sweet corn and corn mixes you buy for treating your chooks?
:(
 
Thick question maybe Chris, but is a "wheat" diet actually one of the sweet corn and corn mixes you buy for treating your chooks?
:?
 
Yes it is BB. But in this case she is getting only wheat (Ble in France). It does work, as she has not laid again. Her skin is getting rather flakey as a result, without the oil they add to feed. She is probably losing weight as well. She spends a lot of time scratching for grubs and seeds on the ground. She is in a rearing unit in the middle of the enclosure in sight of her sisters and Claude and regularly visited by the others that are now free ranging whenever possible (we keep them all in their runs on Chasse days). I'm back to England at the end of the month and when I return we will try and reintroduce her. But I don't want to rush it because if she prolapses again that's it for her.
 
To update you all of Elisa's condition. She has begun to lay again. We gave her some layers pellets with her wheat and presumably she has found grubs in the run as she has dug it to bare earth. The first egg arrived while I was back in the UK and was bloodstained, but no prolapse. Several eggs later, none of which were bloodstained, and still no prolapse. We are now going to re-integrate her with her sisters and Claude. Her eggs are smaller than they used to be so hopefully when she goes back onto a layers pellet diet they don't become so large as to cause her to prolapse again -fingers crossed!
 
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