There are more then a few difficulties in dealing with a cloaca prolapse in birds. Prolapses normally occurs during laying of the egg. Hens that are obese or hens that go into lay too early are both at risk of developing this issue. Once prolapsed they are at risk of trauma, cannibalism and edema formation. The biggest risk of injury is when the mucosa dries out or if the tissue becomes strangulated and starved of oxygen. All these conditions will prevent retraction.
How do you control this control this condition from happening?
Get use to monitoring the body condition of your birds. This is especially important when coming into lay. Feeling the breast condition and palpating the abdominal fat pads are a great way to get an idea of the birds condition.
Chicks that are hatched in the fall can be predisposed when the light begins to increase in the following spring as they tend to come into lay but are physically immature.
In these cases it becomes important to control (reduce) the light hours come spring time and drastically reduce the daily feed to prevent ovulation.
In any case however, isolation of the affected hen, in conjunction with the above will help reduce any issue. Keeping the tissue moist and the swelling down using medications or pain relief will also help until the tissue can retract. This is effective in mild cases.
In more severe forms of this condition medical and/or surgical options should be considered.
Be cautious in reducing the tissue manually or with the help of a prolapse device. Care must be taken not to damage the tissue and prevent additional problems. As well, in some cases the protruding oviduct was reduced into the intestinal part of the cloaca instead back into the oviduct where it belongs.
