How to Send a Bird for a Necropsy - Pictures

Thank you so much for all the info!! I was a mess with my first loss and was in evening so "chickened out" ;-) and had my hubby take care of her body- buried her and we made a headstone as she was pretty special and our first adult to die...

SO when my beloved Woodsy passed at some point night before last (found her yesterday am and had on ice before 11am...) I was determined to do better by her! I have suspected internal laying issues and EYP for some time with her- she did Great with first round of SQ antibiotics and even laid one egg on Easter Sunday! but alas as I'm told it would, it did recur and she did not really respond to a different oral one that was actually the suggested one- not that it was the problem.

I am at as much peace with her passing as I can be-at least she's no longer suffering. I found her outside before the auto door opens two days prior and thought somehow she'd missed it despite the extra time given...as she was still walking about and tail up- eating a bit here and there but maybe just pretending to... (low 'man' round here!) but then that next night I saw her go over to lay purposefully in a spot to sleep for the night- she was too weak to jump up on even the little platform to the ramp...to get inside- that last day she fell over twice that I saw as well... ;-( So she was at her worst to be sure!!! Weighed as much as a peanut suddenly too... (had been monitoring to gauge fluid gains/losses) with treatments.

SO... I gave her a warm Epsom Salt soak the night prior as she did seem pretty miserable...and we were able to enjoy one last real quality period of time together- had her all wrapped up in a towel- burrito style ;-)- and rocked her for over an hour after switching to a new dry towel... she fell so deeply asleep, I thought she'd passed in my arms but nope- woke up with a start, but I got her super chilled again before laying her down in a "bed" with a dry towel under her and with one little piece pulled over her to keep her from feeling chilled- just in case ;-)

Anyway- she must have gone peacefully at least as the towel had not moved... I pulled out the paper towels I'd put down between her rear and the towel as she had soiled them and wrapped her up in that towel and put her in a smallish (just big enough to fit her perfectly) cardboard box- put a clean rag on bottom and over the top too before sealing box up and then wrapped it like a package with a very heavy plastic and taped it up tight- worried about ice packs leaking on box as they inevitably melt some...
Had a PERfect spot in the garage freezer that is mainly used for all those ice packs that come with my refrigerated meds- so put her in there for ~ an hour or so- read it was good to cool quickly if it had possibly been hours.... and since then she's been in an old hard cooler with ice packs that I have checked and changed as needed a few times and box is still very cold to me...

OK- even here can't just spit it out! ;-) Sorry!!
I wanted to report more recently from last posts- that I called the closest lab on the list by metzerfarms that I'd gotten somewhere on here- excited that it was close enough to drive her- about an hour or so...but no answer that afternoon or the next am- weird- SO called the "main" lab in Harrisonburg here in VA and they have no idea what lab is in Ivor- so no such luck!
She was very compassionate and nice on the phone but did not mention at ALL about offering their account number to ship- acted like most people don't ship- said I "COULD ship her overnight I guess- some people do..." and said how she wanted her repacked from what I told her as explained above. Ok. Had seen their 'new' price list from Jan/'23 and had "owner portion" as $40 for "backyard chicken" necropsy- as long as grant still available.... and a $2 fee to accept her and $20 to dispose of the body....so I was shocked when she told me it would be a total of $112!
Still not impossible, but then there is the shipping- buying a cooler (I thought till I saw your post with using the pieces of lined styrofoam! great idea!!) so "overnight" with UPS with the box size it would require for the cheaper disposable coolers I could find thru Walmart was gonna be around $140 for "next day air" and that was not considering it being 'cooled' or anything- just an estimate going by zip codes, weight and dimensions of box. Do you have to tell them it is "something" on ice?? Saw not to tell what's in it as they'd surely freak... can't get over some of the costs (even a few years ago!) being well under $40 for the necropsy and like $20 to ship using their account!

All that is putting this into the range of being a bit nuts, SO called the only vet around that sees chickens and though it was an hour before closing, they texted back to say they'd be happy to do it- but she'd have to ask the doctor in the am what the cost is when she's back in the office...;-( (had no initial answer and requested a text message)

SO looks like I'm waiting until tomorrow (today now!) at least to make any decisions- but THANK YOU so much for all your posts and questions on this thread- hadn't seen it yet even with looking and stumbled on it tonight- at least I feel like I have a bit more time- thought by am would be too late...
We are at about 40hrs on ice/cooled as of 2am- now- since I found her around 10am or so on 7th... WORST case, she died right after I left and was laying there like that from around 830pm til almost 10am... All I TRULY need to confirm is if she had EYP and what internal laying issues she had... may not see maybe inflammation by then for something like Salpingitis but EYP is pretty hard to miss on necropsy! So are tons of small unformed eggs or tumors...

Not sure why this woman seemed intent on "overnight air"... and seemed to think it was unusual... def not a 'hey use our account and we'll bill you' offer... guess I could always call again if I HAVE to...

Guess we'll see but thanks again!
I just want to confirm that my diagnoses were correct and treatment was appropriate- as I have others now going thru the same, or will likely before too long, as they were all "bred to produce" as so many of these chicks are! If I was way off base, then I can adjust course and stop worrying so much maybe..... Thanks!