I had a guinea hen prolapse and unfortunately, I didn't know that was what was wrong with her until it was way too late. Which brings me to my question, has anyone successfully treated prolapse in a bird? I read some on it, and it sounds as though you only have a chance if you get it early and it isn't too bad.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), October 20, 2001

Answers

We've had it happen to ducks. If the bird is laying eggs on a regular basis it's pretty hard to keep it from recurring. Ours looked so miserable that we decided to put her out of her pain. Large animals are different because they give birth only once a year or so, not every day.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), October 20, 2001.

Yes. It definitely is horrifyingly unpleasant. I felt so bad with this bird becuase I noticed ten or twelve days ago(!) that her rear end wasn't looking right, but I couldn't catch her because where she roosts is impossible for me to get to. Finally she was too weak to go there, so I netted her and discovered what had happened. Poor thing.

I read that some nutritional aspects can cause prolapse, like not enough protein and not enough feed. All the rest are laying like crazy, and they all seem fine, but I am keeping the feed out at all times now instead of just feeding am and pm. Just in case.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), October 20, 2001.

A am in trouble for prolapse in my breeding farm for prolaps

-- liaqat ali (abbasliaqat@yahoo.com), July 13, 2003.

I had a day off work today (for a change) and thought I would have a good look at our six chickens. We have only had them about 2 months and they seemed to be laying OK but noticed that one of the eggs had a residue on it. Upon closer inspection I noticed one of the hens back parts was in a terribly mess so it was off to the vets. He diagnosed a prolapse and nothing would be done for her. He gave her an injection and she gently slipped away while I waited. I know its silly to be like that with a chicken but I certainly couldn't kill her myself. I felt SO bad that I didn't notice before but it would have only been a couple of days that she was ill. I'm told this is not a usual thing to happen to hens but I will closely inspect the others more often. I am very sad today as they have been so friendly and give lovely brown eggs.

-- Anne Patterson (annepatt@optusnet.com.au), September 23, 2004.