We performed chicken-butt surgery - here are the notes I posted to www.backyardchickens.com message board:
Came home at lunch to check on my year old laying hens (Chanteclers). One hen (who started slowly molting last week) had recently laid an egg. She now has a mass about the size of a small egg hanging out of her, as though she was trying to expel her insides like an egg.
Hen is not displaying signs of stress, is eating and drinking and moving fine. Mass is red gives slightly to pressure but did not show any inclination to pull back into hen when I gently pushed. Hen is not straining to push mass out any further.
I've isolated the hen in a clean mesh bottom cage with fresh water but no pellets.
We got the insides back where they belong, hen seems ok. We're keeping her seperate and quiet for the next few days in case they pop out again.
After consulting with our vet, doing some internet research, and rereading a bit about a cow with a prolapsed uterus from the James Herriott stories, we took care of Paprikash's butt.
Thought I'd post a detailed account for any other chicken newbie faced with a prolapsed vent (aka prolapsed oviduct)
What we did:
Per our vet, kept her calm and quiet for a few hours to see if the insides would spontaneously shrink and return to their proper positions. Things did shrink somewhat but not enough.
We prepped the kitchen:
mild soap
large plastic container with hole in bottom
elizabethan collar
extra set of hands
warm salt water (human body temperature and salt barely detectable)
sugar
antibiotic ointment
oil
My husband provided a second set of hands to control Paprikash and help position her butt.
We attached the elizabethan collar to the large plastic container to make a hen containment unit.
After washing well, we carefully tucked Paprikash into the containment unit feeding her head through the hole in the bottom and keeping her legs gently stretched out behind her. This kept her from accidentally breaking her neck through struggling, kept her wings close to her body so she couldn't beat us or get away, and her legs couldn't get any purchase for escape. It also allowed us to position her butt optimally.
We used the warm salt water (which we thought would be less painful to mucous membranes than plain water) and mild soap to wash the debris from her vent and clean her butt so we wouldn't push a bunch of contaminants into her body.
An unexpected side benefit of the salt water was the swelling immediately was reduced and continued to reduce as we washed her.
The sugar was intended to draw the edema from her body so the insides would shrink enough to be pushed back in. Turned out to be unnecessary.
Once things were as clean as we could reasonably make them without further stressing Paprikash we smeared antibiotic ointment over the remaining mass. Next I dribbled oil on my fingers and very gently guided everything back inside.
I oiled my (very small) forefinger again and carefully carefully felt around her insides (depth=second joint) to ensure everything was tucked into place and no kinks or wrinkles were messing up the works - I didn't want to tuck stuff back in and kill her because she had a knot in her gut.
Final wash down to catch the soap/oil/salt water that remained. Also trimmed butt feathers to make a future prolapse easier to handle.
Paprikash remained alert but calm throughout (there's a reason she's my favorite hen).
Paprikash is in the garage tonight to keep her away from drafts and other hens. There is no litter in her cage in case she prolapses again, and the cage is relatively small to help keep her calm. I'll check on her several times tonight and monitor her closely the next few days. Paprikash typically lays every other day, so I'm hoping her insides have a chance to reseat themselves before another egg comes along.
