A Chicken Miracle

July 18 was a very sad day at Sublette Chicken Ranch. We discovered that one of the Rhode Island Reds had prolapsed. At 20 weeks she laid her first egg, but it got stuck, then the next day she laid another egg which also got stuck in her extruded oviduct.

We separated her from the other hens so they wouldn't peck her. Then we soaked her and released 1 whole egg and a 2nd broken one. We isolated her from the flock, put her on antibiotics, then searched our books and the internet for treatments. Sugar, cleansing, massage and Preparation H is what we were told to try. We also consulted the poultry judge at the county fair, as well as a local vet who handles birds. We were told the condition is often fatal for a hen and that we should consider killing the hen because she would probably never lay normally.

But we didn't have the heart to kill poor "Sick Reba" so we kept her in the "poultry hospital" and kept treating her with Preparation H. Finally, after a week of treatments 3x daily, her oviduct finally stayed inside! Then we slowly integrated her back into the flock over the next 5 days.

We put a leg band on Sick Reba so we could identify her from the other Rhode Island Reds and kept a close eye on her. On August 8 - just 4 weeks after she had prolapsed - Sick Reba laid another egg... a small brown egg came out fine. We truly felt like a poultry miracle had occurred!

Here she is 9 months later.
Although slightly smaller than
the other Rhode Island Reds,
Sick Reba's a healthy, contributing
member of the flock!

For more information:
Sublette Ranch
23066 68.75 Road
Montrose, CO 81401 US
Email: SubletteRanch@earthlink.net
970-252-3352