Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

I check on my chicks 2 times a day, no issues this morning...

Dead hen tonight. Looks like a stuck egg/major prolapse issue.

Anyone have any XP with this? This is my first (and hopefully LAST) one.

I hate it that we could not help her.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

TechGuy, did she die from laying or was she pecked to death?

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

Looks like she died from laying.. Vent was turned pretty much inside out, and was size of egg.

I didn't see any wounds on her anywhere but her vent. Hard to tell if the other hens had a part. A good amount of blood around the coop though.

It was pretty gruesome.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

Is there a protrusion at the vent? If so that is the oviduct. If the oviduct isn't protruding there is a chance it was pecked off or it may have some how been pushed back in. Years ago I worked at a chicken farm and every now and then we would find and treat hens with prolapse.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

I lost one this morning too. Same thing I think. How did you treat it?

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

Hard to tell, the vent area looked like a golf ball under a tangle of blood, tissue and the like.

It was quite a mess, I guess it could have been heavily pecked.

The chicks were in the coop all day since the recent rains had made the pen really wet...so they were litterally 'cooped up' all day.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

We used a simple and quite old fashioned treatment. If you can catch the protrusion early on as it is coming out of the vent, use warm water, a finger coated with vaseline or the equivalent, and gently push the oviduct back up into the vent. A two person job obviously. When it's done, isolate the hen for two or three days where it's quiet if possible.

Now we only treated the best of the stock. The treatment isn't always successful and sometimes it was best to go ahead and make use of the hen for the freezer or table instead.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

My guess is she was pecked to death.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/livestock.../prolapse.html
Often the cause of death is from pecking, but a hen that prolapses and recovers is likely to prolapse again. Therefore a cull. It is actually not a bad thing that this hen died, Though it may sadden you. Natures way of weeding out the weak. Had you retained eggs for hatching from this hen, you might have unwittingly been breeding towards chickens with a predisposition to prolapse. I have quite a bit of poultry and livestock experience, and have decided that treating sick chickens is not very productive or economical, so be glad that it happened quickly, and you did not end up keeping a bird by your bedside treating it, to ultimately have it succumb to the affliction anyway.

Try raising Cornish X Rock broilers, and that will harden you to death loss. These birds are amazing in their growth rate, we process ours at 7 weeks, and roughly 7 pounds. But they are junk physically. Out of 200 per year we typically lose 25 birds or more to respiratory problems, and and weak legs.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

I get all my info from http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/index.php over the past year and that chicken forum has been extremely helpful in these situations. I have one hen that's laying eggs with imprints on it from the duct. I think the egg is not moving out fast enough and I'm watching for a prolapse, but so far she's still doing well and laying. I've heard prolapse is more common in hatchery quality birds than from quality breeders. Sorry that happened to your hen.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

What breed of birds do you have?

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

Rhode Island Red, Australorp, and Buff Orphington.

It was one of the RIR that died.

So now I have:
5 BO
5 Aus
2 RIR hens, 1 roo

If the local feed store has RIR pullets, I may replace them around easter. The hatchery we bought them from will not ship small batches...

All my chicks came from Ideal Poultry in Cameron Texas.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

Are you feeding them oyster or sea shell along with the normal feed?

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

A couple more questions?

How often do you get a double yoak from your chickens? Any signs of blood in coop prior to this?

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

We used to feed them dried and ground up eggshells with some alfalfa in addition to oyster shell. Never had a bacteria problem and the chickens would push each other out of the way to get to it.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

If they get too much shell (oyster/sea) it is possible for the shell (of the egg) to get too thick and hard which could lead to the problem Tech Guy is having, but its rare.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

Ours never seemed to have a problem with too much calcium. There are so many factors that could lead to prolapse. Who knows?

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

thanks for the info on cornish as i may get a meat/egg laying mix from mcmurray. i don't look forward to the killing/cleaning but tis time. any other hatchery recommendations?

i agree about the 'culling' part of u'r post too. sad but i have great respect for ma nature's ways; & i have attempted to defy them & eventually had the bad consequences. sometimes i think i can tip the balance here & there but mostly w/ chickens i do a little comfort/tlc but for the most part let things work themselves out. i guess some would call that neglect.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

I am short on time this morning, but this evening I will start a thread outlining our production model. The best Broilers I have found come from http://www.mthealthy.com/ I have tried many others, but I get the best growth, and least problems out of their birds.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

thanks i'll look forward.

my flock tried to reproduce naturally 2x last summer- first time i let'em try- but between unusual cool temps, & a snake-- all the eggs rotted & i'm down to 5 hens & i'm about done w/ industrial produced meat for many reasons.

Re: Lost a chick to stuck egg/prolapse
 

No doubles yet, occasionally get a larger egg.

As far as the oyster shell? Usually have a small bowl for them if they need it, but have not noticed them gorging themselves on it.