My Chicken Has Tissue Protruding From Its Vent — What Do I Do?
Pink tissue protruding from the vent after laying is a prolapse — treatable if you act immediately, fatal if the flock sees it first.
Most likely causes
Prolapse after a hard lay
What points to it: Red/pink moist tissue outside the vent, a distressed hen, often after passing an oversized egg; caused by big eggs, obesity, calcium shortfall, or lay resuming too fast after winter.
What to do: ISOLATE FIRST — flockmates peck red tissue with fatal enthusiasm. Then: wash the tissue gently (warm water), coat with plain sugar or honey to shrink swelling, lubricate, and ease it back in with a gloved finger. Keep her in a dark, quiet crate (darkness pauses laying) with water and light feed. Repeat replacement if it re-emerges; many hold after 1-3 tries.
Why it happened
What points to it: Recurrences cluster in obese hens, calcium-short flocks, and production breeds pushed hard with light.
What to do: After recovery: oyster shell free-choice, treat-budget honesty, and consider not supplementing light for that hen — prevention is diet plus reasonable expectations.
Check these first
Distinguish prolapse (tissue outside, hen distressed) from a normal briefly-everted vent during lay (retracts in moments). Check for a stuck egg alongside — binding and prolapse travel together.
When it's probably nothing
The brief moment of eversion during a normal lay — if you happen to be watching — is not a prolapse. Prolapse means it stays out.
This guide is experienced-keeper guidance, not veterinary care. When a bird is crashing or a symptom is spreading, a poultry vet or your state extension lab is the right call — fast.
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