Chicken Coop Cam
Goat Stall Cam
One night, when I got home from work and opened the hen-house door, everyone popped out with their usual enthusiasm – except Gold Dust. She stayed huddled in a pile in the pen, and upon closer investigation, it was clear she had a problem. Egg was stuck all over her tail feathers, and a mass of tissue was hanging from her egg vent.Pulling out Carla Emery’s Encyclopedia of Country Living, we quickly determined that Gold Dust had a prolapsed vent. The Encyclopedia says:
Prolapsed Vent. This is most likely to happen to pullets who began to lay before they were fully grown. A mass of tissue will hang from the vent. It can be fixed more easily than it looks. Wash the protruding mass with warm water and a gentle antiseptic. Lubricate it with medicated Vaseline or mastitis ointment. Then push the prolapsed mass very gently back into the vent. Isolate the recovering hen from the rest of the flock (which might be tempted toward cannibalism). Feed her drastically reduced rations for a week to slow up the egg laying. But supply plenty of fresh greens and water. Clean her vent area each day and apply ointment. By the end of the week she will probably be fine again and able to return to the flock. Later she will begin to lay normally. If, however, she prolapses repeatedly, turn her into stew.
Gold Dust In Solitary
So, we isolated Gold Dust from the other chickens (to prevent any cannibalism), cut back her rations so she’d quit laying, and gave her lots of greens, grapes, and water. She laid eggs for three more days, and each day we’d have to push the vent back in place – but it wasn’t as badly prolapsed as the first time. We also cleaned her up each time with warm water, and applied an antiseptic ointment (Preparation H will help cut down on the swelling). Then, she quit laying and pretty much seemed back to her normal self. After about a week of this, we removed the isolating cage and let her mingle with the other chickens again.
Gold Dust’s comb changed from red to pink, indicating she wasn’t laying anymore – but about two weeks later she started producing eggs again. She produced jumbo eggs before and after the prolapse; but she never prolapsed again. So, we didn’t have to turn her into stew!
Gold Dust Recovered from Prolapse
Helping a hen recover from a prolapsed vent is often not as difficult as it may first appear – it often just takes some time and a little attention. We’ve had several hens develop the problem and have always dealt with it the same as with our first:
After a hen has been separated from the flock, it is normal for them to need to redo the pecking order. So, sometimes it’s necessary to let a little pecking go on. You should monitor to make sure she’s not getting seriously hurt, and step in if you see blood. Sometimes it helps to put the hen being reintroduced into a cage within the run – then everyone can see each other and get re-introduced without so much pecking going on.
Thank you Lesa!
Well we kept her separate and treated her. It was not as bad as I originally thought. There has been no prolapse since that first day. She is all healed from what I can see under there and cleaned. However, we tried to put her back in with the other hens and rooster yesterday. She automatically stayed away from them. A few of the hens would run by and peck her. Then the rooster chased her into the hen house. She stayed in there for the night unharmed with all of the other chickens. When I went down at dawn this morning all of the chickens were out in the run except her, she stayed in the hen house. Then all of a sudden the rooster went in and chased her out. He held her down while the other hens pecked at her. My husband got in there as fast as he could. He had to trap the rooster in order to even get to her. It all happened so quick. We got her separated and looked her over. There are no visual signs of harm or injuries on her. I am just wondering if this is normal? Will they ever let her back in there or is she a loss? any advice at this point would help. I can not keep her separated forever.
Ginger, if it is prolapsed you will see tissue hanging out of the vent that needs to be gently pushed back in. The reason you cut back drastically on the feed is to get them to stop laying eggs so that she doesn’t keep prolapsing. I would just limit the feed until she stops laying, yogurt certainly should help, and I would put antibiotic ointment on it. It sounds like you’re doing the right things – keeping her isolated is so that the other chickens don’t peck at the injury. And if she loves bananas then that’s fine instead of grapes, ours just love grapes.
I am not sure what exactly happened to our hen. She was perched by herself up high and when my husband went to peek at her she had blood coming from her vent. She had, had a broken egg come out or it broke right after while she was still over it and it has cut her. We found the egg shell and it was not in a lot of pieces. The whole thing was there it was just broken in half so I am confident this did not happen inside her. We isolated her from the rest of the hens and the rooster. Then we gave her a light leuk warm soak. I tried to get a really good look at her vent while my husband held her. I gently washed her some and but honestly i am unsure what is what. She does not seem to be in any distress, only in the beginning staying away from the other birds. She seemed to enjoy the soak also. She is not continually bleeding. Every time my husband took her out of the soak for me to try and see what was going on there was this bulge, like a prolapse? This is something we have never had happen with our hens so i am sort of unsure what it looks like. I am just sort of unsure what all we could be doing for her. We plan to soak her again today, she is isolated and has food and water. I noticed that you said to limit her feed. Should I take the whole bowl away or just limit it? Since she is injured should I give her some yogurt so she does not get any sort of gleet infection? Antibiotic ointment on it? It is sort of difficult to see where she is cut ( I am sure it is the vent area though and not internally). Please help me if you can I do not want her to suffer or anything. I will also make sure she gets a lot of greens. She loves bananas, is that ok instead of grapes? Thank you so much!
I have a problem with one of three BR pullets (10 months old), that started laying last October and free range daily. The first pullet to start laying had blood smears on the shell. The shell wasn’t “covered” in blood, just some smears, which I was told not to worry about. She continued laying such eggs for a few weeks, then stopped altogether. She hasn’t laid an egg since early December. The other two pullets consistently lay every day or close to it. I’ve maintained 16 hours of light daily, and all pullets get the same laying mash (and appropriate treats) and seem quite healthy. The non-laying pullet’s hind quarters don’t look any different from the other pullets and she doesn’t seem to be at all distressed.
Will the non-laying pullet ever lay again? Is that even possible? She’s not even an official “hen” yet!
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Hi Ted, I guess that I’d see what happens with her as spring arrives, maybe time and the arrival of warmer weather will encourage her to start laying. Eventually though, if she never lays…………..
I have a hen that is going through the same problem right now, and I really do NOT want to have to put her down. I simply refuse to give up on her.
But your story here has given me a little hope, and it sounds to me like all you really need is a lot of patience and time. Today however she tried to lay an egg that was a bit too big for her, and I literally had to crack it and work it out of her vent. Her vent seems to almost have a mind of its own, the first day it was staying out, the second day in it stayed in (after I tried the “apply honey” remedy) and then today the incident with the egg. Overall, she acts like nothing is amiss.
I noticed that you said you cut back on her rations, but gave her “lots of grapes, greens, and water.” Obviously water is something you should never cut back on, but how much greens and grapes did you usually give her on a day to day basis? Also, any suggestions on things that I can apply directly that may help? I have been letting her out twice a day for a few minutes to stretch her legs and catch bugs. Should I stop this? Thank you!
Hi Jill, I’m sorry you have a hen going through the same thing – the good news is that they do sometimes recover. Gold Dust did.
Anyway, the idea is to cut back on the normal laying rations for a week so that they stop laying, and during that time we fed about as much green stuff as she wanted, but kept the grapes more like a frequent treat.
You can apply Preparation H or anitiseptic ointment – I think we alternated, but used the Preparation H to try to reduce swelling.
I don’t think letting her out twice a day should be any problem, she just needs to quit laying eggs, slow down, and heal up. Good Luck!
cool dont turn her into stew!
She didn’t get turned into stew!
I’m really enjoying your website and so glad that Gold Dust did not become stew! I also read with interest about introducing new birds to an existing flock and found it very helpful and good advice. Thanks so much!
Gold Dust is the smallest of our birds, yet she has so much spunk she’s head hen; and, she makes the biggest eggs. We’d be pretty upset if we had to stew her.
I just wanted to drop you a short note to inform you that I really enjoy your articles. Thanks! Keep on the good work
Well, it looks like Gold Dust is not in hot water! Hope all is well.