I opened up the hens this morning as usual and I noticed one hen had a rather red looking lump sticking out of her backside. The first thing that sprang to mind was a prolapse and the second thing was egg bound. She was eating and drinking ok but I couldn’t leave her like that because the other hens would peck her prolapse causing all sorts of problems. I also needed to ascertain whether she was egg bound or had a growth. So I set about carefully examining her, she was easy enough to catch as she is rather greedy about her food.

I carefully pushed the prolapse back in with my finger using warm soapy water and a rubber gloved hand. The prolapse immediately came out which gave me the first clue something was stopping it going back in. I then examined her further by carefully inserting my finger into the vent and I found an egg. So it was clear she was egg bound and I also suspect she is the one that has recently been laying soft shelled eggs and tiny eggs. I managed to hook my finger behind the egg to see if it would move, it did a little but the hen was too tense in the muscles to allow full movement. I then sat her in the warm soapy water to relax her whilst gently massaging the vent and abdomen to move the egg along. It did the trick and moved it enough for me to get a good grip with my finger behind the egg. I moved the egg far enough up to the vent for massaging to pop the egg out and her I popped her back in the water to assist this. The hole process in gentle stages took about hour and the hen although exhausted after was clearly relieved.

The egg was not particularly big but this hen may have a problem with laying and may have to be culled for her own health if it happens again. The egg has been thrown away as I don’t know how long it had been stuck.

She is currently resting in a warm coop on her own where she will stays for at least 24 hours and I am hoping she will make a good recovery, certainly the prolapse appears to be staying in and the swelling going down. But only time will tell. MLA will be looking into prolapse and egg bound hens later this after so he can understand what happened.  He has also been warned the hen may have to be culled.