Poor Isabel

Isabel is the name I gave to the hen whose uterus was coming out that I treated for several weeks earlier this year. She got better quit and quit laying for a while then started laying eggs again. She's one of the hens who lays her egg in a nest I have set up in the house for the weird ones who prefer to lay inside for some strange reason.

I heard a hen cackle earlier and went to get my egg. Isabel had just hopped off the nest and I saw blood on her eggs, looked at her and saw she had a wet butt. I knew immediately that she had prolapsed again. I saw this morning that a hen must have been spending the night inside in a dog grooming cage that was not closed. The cage pad was damp and had chicken poop on it.

Isabel is smart as far as chickens go. She remembered what had happened last time and that I made her better so she set herself up for me to fix her again. She's a good hen too, considering the fact that she's not a pet. She never gave me a bit of trouble when I picked her up, took her to the dog grooming tub and washed her dirty butt and cut the feathers close to her vent.

The prolapse isn't nearly as bad this time as it was before. I put pressure on it while I was blotting her wet butt dry and it went in by itself. Still, I shot some antibiotic cream up her and held pressure on it with a paper towel soaked in Witch Hazel.

I put her in a clean cage with a waterer and boiled her some corn. I don't think she'll need more than a few days of soft food and watching. Since she's smart enough to come in to sleep in the cage on her own I may even let her out tomorrow and just leave the cage open for her.

So many of my other Bielefelders have decided to molt and quit laying. I wish Isabel had done that because a good long rest would have helped her heal but she still lays an egg every day. I have read that once a chicken prolapses it is likely to happen again. Apparently that's the case here.

Isabel is such a lucky hen to have you for a mom Liz :D Hopefully she will rest and quit laying. It's that time of year anyway. :D
Pat

I'm not an animal rights crazy but I know how chicken are treated in the huge chicken houses that raise layers and fryers/roasters. They don't even treat them like they are living things. I can't do that. Mine give me eggs and in return, if one of them has a problem that I can fix I will do my best to fix it. With Isabel it felt like she came to me for help.

You did good Liz. Be proud.
Barb

Nice Liz. I have found chickens and ducks to have much more personality than folks think.

Every time I check on her now her butt is hanging out. I put it back and the next time I check on her it's out again. I thought that it would be easier this time because I caught it quickly. Maybe not...

She has given me one gift. She is teaching me slowly how to speak Chicken. I already speak fluent dog. I'm only so so at speaking horse. I wish I knew how that worked. I'm sure that it mostly has to do with the animal trusting you and you paying close attention to them. I always found it impossible for me to turn a chicken into a pet. I was always amazed when I saw a video running full speed toward it's owner to be picked up and loved. I see now that could happen to me if I devoted enough time to it.

I decided that no matter what I did I couldn't fix that poor Isabel's butt maybe a month ago so I just quit trying. Two weeks ago I got to thinking that once she quit laying for the year it might be able to fix it easily with one slit of the scalpel and a couple of tiny dissolvable sutures. I talked to my vet and she said that it should work. But the darned hen kept laying an egg. I have 13 hens and all but she and one other are taking a break until the days get longer.

I noticed 4 days ago that her daily egg didn't have blood on it. I looked at her backside a few times and every times her insides were out. After she laid yesterday afternoon I gave her *** a glace and didn't believe what I saw. She let me have a closer look by allowing me to pick up her tail feathers. Can you believe that after all this time, despite my greatest efforts, despite planning a surgery, her vent looked perfect! All the insides in and the outside looking normal.

This really should not have happened but it did. Sometimes good things happen when they shouldn't. Sometimes terrible things happen when they shouldn't. Life is what it is and all I know to do is be thankful when the good stuff happens.

Great news Liz :D So glad insides and outside look good as new :D
Pat