Well, my birds have been through/experienced just about everything over the years. Horrendous diseases that crust their eyes shut so they dehydrate, or make them choke to death on their own blood, a bad batch of food that caused Vit. A deficiencies that scarred eyes and eye lids, a flash flood that killed half my stock. Predator attacks of every sort.
I've never had a chicken prolapse, though never say never.
I did have a meat turkey prolapse her vent a few years ago, after a coyote grabbed her by the tail...broke her tail, tore into her vent and squeezed out an egg all in the same motion. She had a severe torn and bleeding prolapse. I culled her as soon as I saw the damage, and how much pain she was in.
Well, a couple nights ago, during evening chores, I saw one of my BSW girls was very overly frequently stopping to
. I tried to look at her behind from afar, and noticed it was a little messy/unkempt. I determined to catch her next day if she was still doing it, as it was 12 a.m. at that point, and figured it was nothing too serious as looked normal. Next day, doing the spread and squat x 2, I caught her, flipped her upside down and was horrified by what I saw. Her vent was prolapsed, and there was an egg, stuck in her vent, OUTSIDE of her. She'd been pecking at herself, and had caused scarring/ drying of her opening to the point that the egg glued itself to the opening of her vent, which was an inch and a half outside of her due to prolapse/swelling. She was also looking a little droopy at this point, because I think, she couldn't properly, and blood loss. She had left clots and drip everywhere.I hustled her into the house, ran her a warm bath, and the sideways egg promptly came loose from the tissue and I was able to point it down the right way and get it out. She seemed immediately relieved. After drying her back end off, I didn't have any Prep. H., so applied sugar mixed with honey, for their drying, antiinflammatory and antimicrobial properties. I kept her in the house all day, and although she leaked mucus and urea all over, the bleeding was under control, and she wasn't pecking much at her prolapse. and seemed normal. So, I reapplied sugar, put her out in the barn and went to work. When I got home and checked on her, she had her behind SHREDDED (I watched her stick her head between her legs and yank on her guts) , a 3 inch section pulled out, huge clots of blood all over the place, and I decided to do her in.
I swear to the powers that be, that turkeys will always find new ways to die, no matter what precautions one takes. First time I've ever seen one pull their own guts out and eat them, First time I've had a prolapse for no reason, period. The egg that was glued to her opening was pretty small, and only seemed to get stuck there because she'd been picking at herself in the first place. Arrgh. I opened her up after I did the deed, and found normal everything, except some old clotted blood along her oviduct about two inches into her abdomen. I don't know if she'd burst a blood vessel and it itched as it was reabsorbing, or whatnot, but either way, stupid turkey pecked her own behind and got an egg stuck, and then pecked at her own guts until I took her head off. After the fact, I thought maybe I should have made a turkey "cone of shame", so she wouldn't have pulled and pecked at her injury. But if I had, she could have healed and maybe passed on her weakness and her stupid.
Sometimes I wonder wth I'm doing taking care of animals in the first place.
Pet quality wheaten/blue wheaten ameraucanas, welsummers, barred rocks, light brown leghorns; Projects on the go: rhodebars, welbars
