What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[Cinnamon]

Just had the most awful experience with one of my new hens, who was fine yesterday,but had a massive prolapse overnight & was haemorrhaging.

I took her to the vet,where she was quickly put to sleep

 

I have never had an experience of a prolapse before & can't believe how quick,messy & brutal it was.

 

I have messaged the breeder to tell her - we had only had this one for 6 weeks or so.

Edited April 27, 2013 by Guest

[Egghead68]

I'm so sorry to hear this.

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear this. I had this happen a while back and I had to cull the hen straight away.

[miller30]

Sorry to hear this i have managed to push a couple of prolaspes back in and put a syringe full of honey in the vent the sugar helps it to shrink but depends how bad it was sometimes this can happen in birds there is nothing you can do to stop it leanne.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Sounds awful, poor hen and poor you .

[Purplemaniacs]

Oh dear that sounds awful for you and the hen.

 

Chrissie

[Cinnamon]

Ok, 2 days ago I found an egg which was heavily blood smeared, which I had presumed was from the hen who prolapsed 7 died yesterday.

However today I have just gone down to find another small egg, VERY covered in blood, & warm,so just layed

I can't see a problem with any of the girls that lay brown eggs vents,but am really concerned for them now.

Any advice?

[miller30]

Hi have they just started laying as you can get eggs smeared with blood a few times leanne

[The Dogmother]

As Leanne has said above, it's not unusual for pullets to lay early eggs with blood smears, although there shouldn't be much blood on them.

[Cinnamon]

There was LOTS - I am used to new layers smearing a bit, but these eggs were coated.

Anyhow, she did have a protrusion of some kind, but it seems to have tucked itself back in now. She hasn't laid for 2 days, which is fine by me if she is healing up.

 

The breeder has offered to replace the hen I lost & this girl too, should things get worse, so I am pleased with that

 

I reckon I have been really unlucky to get 2 proplapses in 2 days

[The Dogmother]

It's a shame Sarah, but the better weather has brought the stragglers into lay and if they lay biggish first eggs, then they might bleed.

[Redwing]

The chances of prolapse is higher in overweight hens, even if not visibly big it doesn't take much to push a layer over a healthy weight, it's worth carefully looking at the sellers set up making sure hens have plenty of room and are active etc

[The Dogmother]

This is true; heavy birds are more prone to it, as are ex-batts (knackered egg tackle) and white stars - the latter lay huge eggs in comparison to their size. Pure breeds are far less prone to this problem though.