We have another first in chicken illnesses, I mean a first for us. I suppose that the longer we do this, the more chicken issues we’ll come across. Yesterday, I had a chicken die as I was trying to save it; but Sue assures me it wasn’t my fault. Today Sue found another chicken with an issue and my immediate response was, “Don’t give her to me!”

Today’s illness is rather a bad one. Prolapsed ova duct. I don’t want to show you photos. Sue did take some, so she could compare to images on some of the chicken blogs. If you want to see what we’re talking about  you can follow the link above. There are a number of reasons this can occur, but one of the most common is overproduction of double yolked eggs. We have had several lately and we’re wondering if this may be the issue for our little bird today.

Currently we have soaked and cleaned her bottom as much as possible, but not nearly well enough. We decided to let her rest until tomorrow. I’ll soak her in the tub; see if we can get her really clean and then try to reverse the prolapse by a liberal application of honey. This is supposed to be a very successful treatment for prolapse. I don’t really understand it that much, but I think it is worth trying if it could possibly save her.

If the prolapse retreats, then we need to keep her isolated for a while. Also, we need to make sure to keep her in the dark. This way her egg production won’t be stimulated and it will allow her to continue to heal. If we are successful, we will need to keep an eye on her for the remainder of her egg laying days. Once they prolapse, it can easily happen again.

Now that we are more familiar with this condition, we will pay more attention to the others and see if we can catch anything else that happens, before it gets as bad as our current case. I’m worried for this little girl, we will do our best and we will keep you updated. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading.