alright, here's my situation. i've got this sweet girl she's a buff orpington hen. she's about eight months old and she's been laying eggs for maybe a month or two. this morning i went out to the coop and i found basically her insides hanging outside of her body so i've been soaking her in warm water for 30 minutes
then taking her out, laying her on her side i've been using a scissors to snip some of the the little fuzzy feathers around her bum and i've been using petroleum jelly to sort of work around the egg. it's stuck pretty good. but she's just been soaking again. and this time
i'm going to try taking a little syringe and seeing if i can push the egg back inside of her, just a little little bit this is just warm water. so i'm going to see if i can put a little bit of warm water inside of her to try to loosen up that egg. i'm doing this by myself, so hopefully this video angle is ok.
alright, i'll get her... come here, honey. (sound of water dripping) she doesn't like this part. tip her sideways... (startled chicken noises) it's ok, it's ok. yeah, she still has a lot of energy, which is i assume a good sign.
she does not like being on her back. so i've just been this is not a great angle. so i've got her on her side here. and i've been taking the towel to fold over her head so she's just laying on her side right now. then i've been taking this towel up here and
draping it over her head and that seems to calm her a little bit. but you can see... this chicken has a prolapsed egg. this looks a lot cleaner than it did when i started. but you can see the egg... it's still in, and surrounded by her body. there's just this tiny little opening up top. i'm trying to work the egg out of it.
and that's the vent. so, i'm going to drape this towel over her head, which she doesn't like. but she doesn't need to see what's going on here. ok. stay down, honey. then i just have my plate of petroleum jelly. i have that right next to me so that i can
dip my fingers in it whenever i need it. so i'm going to try to sorry, i'm blocking your camera view here. i'm just going to try to push the egg back in a little bit. because right now, the skin here is so so tight. i can't even swivel the egg. or move it. i'm sorry honey...
sorry... her feet are twitching...this is painful... and when i ok, this is uncomfortable for her but it's loosening the skin a little. shoot. there's blood. yeah, she doesn't like this. alright well the egg is
spinning around when i do that. i'm dipping my finger in some petroleum jelly. i'm trying to see if i can get some on the inside. (uncomfortable, anxiety breathing) i've never done anything like this before. (stressful heavy breathing) (deep sigh, uncomfortable) so i've
done quite a bit of research up to this point. when you've got a chicken soaking in your kitchen sink for 30 minutes at a time, there's not a whole lot else to do other than to research. from what i've read, if the egg breaks inside of her, that's it for her, she's going to die. so you need to be really gentle.
...with this part... it's just... well now i've got it so slimy that i can't even... can't even work with it. ok... oh, every time i push it, push it back in a little bit, her feet just twitch. i'm so sorry, honey. i'm sorry.
ok, she's calm again... i'm trying to get just enough loose skin so that i can put a little bit of water in her. ahhhh... ok, it's a little oh there's blood. now it's oozing blood. it's coming out.
the egg just keeps turning, every time i try to grip it... i'm rotating it so the smallest point is facing that top hole. ugh, that just keeps turning every time i try to grasp it. ok, i need to get another cloth. stay still, honey. (rustling noise) i don't know if this is good or not, but i'm going to try to dry it off. at least a little, so i can at least hold onto that skin on the outside.
i've put so much petroleum jelly on it that i can't grip it anymore. this is... (deep sigh) i'm shaking trying to do this. i feel so bad for her. oh. i'm sorry you can't see a better angle of this. i'm just going to try to wrap the washcloth i mean, you can see that this is
totally alive tissue. this has veins. all of this "coating" that's outside of the egg right now is supposed to be inside of her body. this is called a prolapse vent. basically what happened is for some reason or another, the chicken's body didn't open wide enough
and she kept pushing the egg out. so now her insides are outside of her body. step one is getting the egg out. step two is pushing it back all back in. my issue here is that this opening up top is just not big enough. for an egg to come out. i don't want to tear her.
that's my biggest concern, is just tearing her. but maybe that's what needs to happen. sorry, sorry... i do have a vet appointment for her in a few hours. that was the soonest they could see us. so if i can't figure this out for her, she can see a vet who has seen this happen before.
oh my gosh, honey... i don't think you can see this very well, but so chickens lay their eggs and they poop out of a similar hole. and, this poor girl you can feel
down here, she's backed up. this is really uncomfortable for her. then there's some caked on that i well, when she was in the sink soaking, i was trying to scrub her. just really gently. oh! oh my gosh
ohhhhhh... ok - egg is out, egg is out. oh my gosh... ok, so we've got our egg out. the way i did that was i sort of got it from behind and gently, but firmly, just started pushing.
oh my gosh. and this is this is all her inside body. oh my, so now, from what i've read, i need to i need to rinse this off. then once it's well rinsed off, then i just slowly and gently push it back inside of her.
and then we dry them off right now it's winter in alaska. it's 10 degrees f outside. so i can't stick her right back outside. not with wet feathers. and also i've read that other hens will start to pick on them if they realize there's something going on. so i'll keep her
inside for at least a week. we did it. there is it. i'll keep your updated. see how she's doing.
