I went down the new place last night and found that one of our chcikens had had a prolapse while laying an egg.
Not a very nice thing to experience, I can tell you.
I cleaned her up as best I could last night and made her as comfy and as clean as I could - after pushing everything where it should be.
Polly, as I've named her for obvious reasons, was a little better this morning when I got there earlier, she still had a prolapse, but it was only half as bad as it was the night before.
I found our plastic pet carrier and took a towel down to the new place along with a nice clean newspaper. Once there I managed to catch her quite quickly and easy (my confidence at picking them up is improving every time I do it) and put her gently into the carrier, where she sat nice and quiet on the newspaper.
I put her in the back of the car, and driving carefully so not to let her slide around in the back, I drove down town to get some Preperation H. Prep H is a hemorrhoid cream, non greasy. (I used to use it on my tattoos to keep them nice).
When we got home, i brought her out of the carrier and covered her front half with the towel so I could work on her back half. A washing up bowl filled with warm salty water was by my side along with lots of sheets of kitchen roll to dry and clean with.
Once everything was clean, and covering the tips of my fingers (I wore surgical gloves) with prep H, I made sure everything was where it should be. Holding my hand there for a few minutes, she sat nice and calmly.
Polly was then put into our old rabbit hutch, a lovely big hutch - 4' x 18" x 2' high, that I had transformed into a comfy rest home for her for a few days. She had everything she needs, food, water and a soft towel to rest on, plus I put a black bin liner over most of the door so she remains calm in the darkness, but can still see enough to eat and drink.
Hopefully tomrrow it will be better than it was this morning, and maybe soon she will recover totally - I hope so, because the alternative is not a good one.
7 comments:
Hello, I just found your site. It's a very wet afternoon here and I am relaxing at the computer and listening to the cricket.
I read your post about the rescue chickens. I can't believe it's Tesco again - have you seen all the stuff on the Chicken Out! campaign? Do Tesco just hate chickens or what? Well done to rescue some.
Hope the ailing hen is well soon.
Thanks Susi!
We're trying our best - and as Tesco's says....
.... every little helps!
Stiggy, you are the man. You really went the extra mile with this poor hen. Was this one of the battery hens? I am glad to read what you did, you just never know. Please keep us updated on Polly's condition.
Thanks Don, although it really isn't looking good for her...
...two days on and nothing is changing, it's she's still prolapsing after fixing her 3 - 5 times now.
Today maybe the day.
:(
wow Stiggy, I've never met a hen gynaecologist! that's really impressive what you did for Polly.
Thanks Carol, I wish I'd been able to help her more though.
The problem was I didn't catch it quick enough - that's the problem with not living there at the moment.
I'm sure when we DO live at the new place things will be different and hopefully I'd be able to catch it a little earlier.
You did really well all the same... and handy we still have the hutch. At least now you are genned up on chicken ailments. Lets hope though that you dont have anymore poorly chickens to practice on in the near future. :0(
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