Holy smokes! I have never had that happen, but let me ask you this: do you live someplace in extremely cold or hot? Are your supplies delivered to you?

I'd report it to Hollister. Hopefully, that's isolated to a single box/lot number. 

Glenn, I can’t quite see - did the plastic rim actually separate from the bag, or did the coupling come apart at the bottom? The second has happened to me several times, I cannot figure out why.   Ps - I use a 18113 also.

Hi Glen,

That has happended to me but not frequently. I attributed it to my own fault of pulling too hard when removing the pouch.

@llholiday

Yes.  The plastic rim separates from the bag.  

Some thoughts on what I might be doing if it is my fault.  I wear a support belt often for hernia prevention.  Maybe the ring on the belt is putting pressure on that area (it always happens on the bottom).  Or, I always rinse out my bags after emptying by filing with water from the outlet, then closing the bag and sloshing the water around.  I do tend to get a bit forceful doing that.  Or, I use unfiltered bags and I do tend to balloon at nighttime, but not excessively.  

I'll call Hollister to see if they have any input.  

Thanks!

@veganostomy

Eric.  I live in Colorado.  It's pretty cold this time of year.  My supplies are delivered via FedEX.  

Hi Glenn,

I use a 18113 ... looks just like the bag your photo from what I can see. I have never had that problem.

Looks like a total fail!! Good advice to contact Hollister. Good luck.

Posted by: @fred

I attributed it to my own fault of pulling too hard when removing the pouch.

Don't blame yourself for something like that. That plastic flange should not fail in such a spectacular way.

Posted by: @glenn-giroir

 I wear a support belt often for hernia prevention.  Maybe the ring on the belt is putting pressure on that area (it always happens on the bottom).

I've used all kids of support products, including those that go tight around the flange, and I haven't experienced this. That's not to say that the hernia belt you are wearing isn't shearing the flange, but I'd be surprised if that was it. 

How long have you been wearing the belt vs. when did these problems start?

Posted by: @glenn-giroir

I live in Colorado.  It's pretty cold this time of year.

I had to laugh after checking what your current temperatures are. You guys have what I'd describe as "warm spring weather" 😂  I don't think the temperature is the problem. If you were getting orders when it's -20 Celsius outside then I'd be more suspicious. 

@veganostomy

Hi Eric.  I have been wearing a support belt (Nu Hope 4") pretty much since I got my stoma (14 months), and this problem has happened only this month.  I'm pretty active, and I feel more secure with the belt.  So, I do suspect that the belt is not the issue.  

Yes.  You are right.  We are beginning to get pretty toasty right now.  :)  It was down in the -15 to -12 Celsius range last week, and it snowed about 9 inches. Then it quickly warmed up  and it is mostly melted already.  It's supposed to be somewhere around 8 degrees Celsius today.  Love this time of year!  I certainly don't think cold is the cause here.  Thanks for all of the replies!

@glenn-giroir

Glenn, I had a couple of my Coloplast bags to the same thing, but at the top, rather than the bottom. It was just two and they were from the same box, so I wrote it off as a glitch. I thought maybe I had been too rough with them, but it hasn’t happened again and I haven’t changed the way I handle them. If it happened more though, I would call Coloplast. 

Posted by: @squeakyandliza

I had a couple of my Coloplast bags to the same thing,

There is where it would really be helpful to know whether a manufacturer changed something with their product, no matter how small the change is. 

But when problems like that happen, I tend to let the manufacturer know, not only so they can investigate but also because they tend to send replacements 😁👍 

i had 3 out of a batch of 5 separate on me a few weeks ago, I thought at first that I might have caused it myself (nails or frequent bag changes) but I was extra careful with the last two from a different box and no problems .

Maybe a bit off topic, for my two piece system, I am going to reuse a bag maybe once a month so that if a bag should fail I could have plenty of replacements. I'll just pick one that's pretty clean and rinse it out for reuse. I could build up a small supply - half a dozen - extra bags should I need to change pouches because of pouch failure before it's time to do a full replacement.

A while ago I changed appliances and found in about an hour there was a pin hole in the middle of the back of a Hollister bag. I just replaced the bag, but of course had one less bag than the number of base plates. I wrote Hollister with the part number and lot number and they sent me two bags with information that this lot may have had a manufacturing fault. I noticed a note in one of these forums that someone else here had the same problem.

Posted by: @dickie

I am going to reuse a bag maybe once a month so that if a bag should fail I could have plenty of replacements.

I've heard of other people doing this with success. Are you doing this because you're paying out of pocket for supplies? 

I find that the newer (thinner) Hollister bags are not as durable as the older ones, so reusing them would be out of the question for me as they develop tears near the folding part at the end of the outlet. 

Good luck!

@veganostomy

I'm not doing this because I pay out of pocket for my supplies. My insurance covers my needs. I can see that for folks who have out-of-pocket costs that reusing bags might help with their finances.

I just think if there is a problem with a pouch I've got some spares to carry me through. I use Coloplast appliances and the non-filter pouches seem pretty sturdy to me. I've had my ileostomy for 18 months and had only the one defective bag - a Hollister bag - with a pinhole during that time. This thread seems to indicate a fairly large fraction of a particular Hollister part has a serious problem. Hollister will likely make good for those folks. So far, no problems with Coloplast parts.

As an aside, for folks that might use one piece appliances if the bag is defective, the only option is to change the whole appliance, which takes quite a bit of time. Replacing a defective bag for a two-piece setup takes seconds. Hopefully, one finds the defect when a spare is readily available!

@dickie Are you able to stock up on your supplies or can you only order exactly what you need?

Although I had been using insurance to cover my supplies up until last year (now I pay out of pocket), I built up several months worth of supplies in case there were any shortages or unforeseen issues that would prevent me from purchasing them when needed. 

@dickie Yes, I agree with Eric, a backup supply is peace of mind.I have had my ostomy for almost three years, and there were a couple of times that I forgot to order until I was down to just about nothing - the supplier gets these to me very quickly, but I still had some anxious days. Now I make sure to re-order while I still have some, and am slowing building a reserve supply.

Re-using pouches would not work for me - I am quite a pancaker, and even burping the bag at the top can be risky. Changing out pouches (I have tried this) is really a mess.

The snap-on of the newer Hollister pouches seem to be a little flimsy. They are softer and more flexible, but mine have unsnapped at the bottom several times. Again, for a pancaker, a real mess.

@veganostomy

My insurance is US Medicare with a Part D supplemental plan and between the two they pay for everything. This includes 20 appliances per month, 20 Eakin slim rings, and other things like stoma powder, Cavalon spray and pouched "sponges", adhesive remover spray and wipes.

I'm able to keep a pretty good backup supply of all the things I need. I change appliances every three days so typically use 10 or 11 appliances per month, though that depends a bit on how things feel, but for quite a while I've been able to keep that schedule with no leaks or bad skin problems. I found that going four days I began to feel the need to change, though my skin looks ok.

I try to keep a 90 day supply of everything. Remember, some Hollister stuff is made in Northern Ireland and Coloplast stuff comes from Denmark so international situations might slow things down. That has never happened but be prepared. Eric's friend, Laura Cox, in one of her videos mentions that one should keep a three month supply of materials. She works for a mail order retailer, so she's interested in making sales, but I think that's good advice. Once the 90 day supply is established, use reduces it maybe to 75 or 80 days, just reorder a 30 supply again.

I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and use a local ostomy supply store, OSTOMY INC., operated by an amazing young woman. She moved here from Florida where her grandmother and now mother run a store of the same name and she learned the trade. One advantage of the situation is she keeps a pretty good supply of materials if a customer runs into a supply problem. She also helps out some folks who might not be able to afford supplies. She orders from a company called Cardinal and they arrive in a couple days by a delivery company.

@llholiday

I have not seen any problem with Hollister two piece appliances. I still have a couple of month's worth of them because for travel, the base plates are flat  and don't take up any room in my travel bag. Haven't done any overnight travel for a year because of Covid. The appliances I have are 18193 pouches and 15103 base plates. This Hollister set allows use of a belt attached to the pouch which makes it pretty secure. The Coloplast appliances attach a belt to the base plate, which I use, but I'm not sure it's needed, particularly since I use base plate extensions. The advantage of the Coloplast pouches is they can be rotated whereas the Hollister ones can't be rotated if you want to use a belt.

One of the problems I've had with both Hollister and Coloplast bags might be pancaking. The problem seems to be with bags with filters. These bags tend to collapse around the the flanges and the stoma in use. The Coloplast bag filters seem to act like a pump, really causing a problem. For the Hollister bags, I cover the filter with tape and I've switched to filterless Coloplast bags with Osto-Ez-Vents. I can then keep an air pillow in the bag and avoid its collapse and resulting pancaking. Hollister two piece appliances are easily burped, but the mechanical flange on the Coloplast systems are a pain to burp by themselves, so the use of Wz-Vents.