AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi There!
Was wondering if anyone could help. One of my Golden Laced Wyandottes appears to have a prolapse of some kind out of her rear end. It is slightly off to the side. She is much quieter too. She is still eating and moving around etc though.
I have heard about chickens getting egg bound but she is only about 15 weeks old (maybe slightly more) and I would have thought this would be too early for an egg!
Any ideas on what it could be - seems to have appeared all of a sudden!
Thanks in advance.

Their was a thread about a similar thing recently ,I'll try to find it and bump it up , I know of people who use ordinary "piles-cream" for prolapse in chickens with success , So that may be a start for you ,

It can be reversed by applying haemoroid cream eg Anusol which is sold in supermarkets.
Need to isolate bird as others will peck at it causing haemorrage and shock.
May have been caused by other chickens picking at her especially if roosts are positioned that allows this to happen,chicken is too fat.
Hope this is of some help

Thanks for the back up , Macl

Thanks so much again for all the advice. Will try anusol and hopefully it helps. Thankfully the others seem to be leaving her alone - but that is when I see them during the day (free ranging) - so they could be at her during the night.
Re: she could be too fat? I must confess I never knew chickens had the ability to get simply too fat. I need to perhaps monitor how much feed they are getting. They do get quite a few kitchen scraps each day on top of their poultry feed! My other chickens of the same age are about the same size as her so I will get onto it. Is that the likely cause of the large lump? Being too fat?
Like I say -thanks again!!

By way of follow-up ... I just went out and had a look at the chicken in question again and she appears to have this white gunk around her feathers around the large lump as well. Is what usually happens or is there an infection??

Could the white "gunk" be urates ?

Hi There - yes, the white gunk is likely to be urates. I had a bit of a search on the net too and wondered if it could be LL as described below:

1) She is entering maturity so perhaps the right age
2) could the lump be a tumour?
3) She is covered in white urates
4) She is v. quiet and spends time on her own a lot (and usually all of my 5 chickens are running around together) - could this be depression?

If this LL is a possibility - will my other chickens get it???

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LYMPHOID LEUKOSIS
Big liver disease, LL, lymphatic leukosis, visceral lymphoma (one disease in the leukosis/sarcoma group)

Incidence:
Common world wide

System affected:
Entire body

Incubation period:
14 days

Progression:
Usually chronic

Virally induced cloacal malignancy of the bursal-dependent lymphoid system.
Caused by certain members of the leucosis/sarcoma group of avian retroviruses.
Occurs naturally only in chickens.

Virus.
Affecting chickens
Transmitted through egg or brought in from adult infected birds to young
Egg borne or transmitted to very young chicks from infected older birds.

Symptoms:
In birds 16 weeks or older (especially those nearing maturity): depression, death
In birds over 6 months of age, death without symptoms or pale shrivelled comb, loss of appetite, diarrhea, and emaciation. Weakness; sometimes bluish comb, vent feathers spotted with white (urates) or green (bile); sometimes you can feel enlarged kidney, cloacal bursa, liver, or nodular tumors through skin
In hens……….. reduced egg production, enlarge abdomen, loose droppings
Weight loss.
Green droppings, tumors, enlarged liver.
Sick birds usually die.
Deformed, thickened leg bones- sometimes

Percentage affected:
Sporadic

Mortality:
Up to 25 percent (rapidly following first symptoms)

Cause:
A group of retroviruses that primarily infect chickens and do not live long off a bird’s body


Prevention:
Defies good management, but can be controlled by buying and breeding resistant strains (heavier meat birds are more resistant than lighter laying birds)
Don’t mix younger birds with older birds
Identify and eliminating breeders that produce infected chicks
Not reusing chick boxes
Raising chicks on wire
Thoroughly cleaning facilities before introducing new birds; thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting incubator and brooder between hatches
Controlling blood sucking parasites
Brood away from older chicks
Isolate sick or infected birds, and separation of adult from young birds.
Avoid using the same needle for flock wide injections

Treatment

There is no treatment for lymphoid leukosis. Although the disease cannot be prevented completely, there are certain steps that can be taken to help control the level of infection within a flock. Some steps are:
·Buy resistant strains of birds since genetic resistance is a deterrent,

·Brood in isolation and do not mix birds of different ages, especially through six weeks of age,

·Keep the incubator clean and disinfected,

·Control blood-sucking parasites,

·Good care, limiting stress, and adequate ration will be of benefit.




Transmission:
Contact with infected birds
Spreads from infected breeders through hatching eggs (this is the main source of transmission)
By infected chicks to non infected chicks through droppings
Mechanically by blood sucking parasites or unhygienic vaccination method
Shed by hen into the albumin or yolk (or both).
Congenitally infected chickens fail to produce neutralizing antibodies and usually remain carriers for life.
Horizontal infection after hatching also occurs.
The earlier the infection, the more likely it is to lead to tolerance, persistent carriers, and tumors.
Tumors are more frequent with congenital infection.
Tumors are composed almost entirely of B-lymphocytes, which often have IgM on the surfaces. Common in liver, spleen, and bursa.
Found occasionally in kidneys, gonads, and mesentery.
Can be prevented (even up to 5 months of age) by treatments that destroy the bursa.
__________________

This is not sounding good considering the other symptoms of the chook.
"The virus infects the clocal bursa of chickens and induces a lesion to form in the cloacal bursa.The first tumorous change occurs at four weeks of age but the tumorous white blood cells are dormant until 16 weeks of age when the cloacal bursa shrinks due to sexual maturity of the bird.The affected white bllod cells are shed into the body and lodge and invade internal organs.The tumor cells multiply and cause massive tumors,particularly of the liver and spllen and the birds will eventually die"
Your other young birds will have been exposed to the virus if this is what your bird has and may develop symptoms like what you are seeing or they become carriers of the disease and may go on to infect the next generation.
A chicken infected by the egg mode of transmission is more likely to develop the disease than a chicken infected by environmental contamination.

Just an update. The chicken in question regarding the "suspected prolapse" died this afternoon. Am very worried it may have been LL and not a prolapse. Concerned my other chickens have too been infected. Anyone know how long till they could start coming down with the same syptoms and is there a chance they may be okay if it is fact as sinister as LL?