Bad heart?

[GBov]

I just lost one of my egg girls

She was slower than the others so picked her up last week and she was very thin. She didnt seem stressed or in pain or even droopy - flipped her up and checked her vent and gently squeezed her tum to see if she had any hardness or blockages - just slower and sleeper than the rest.

As no one was bothering her I left her in with the other girls and found her this morning dead in her favorite spot in the log pile. She was just nestled down so she seemed to have gone off peacefully.

I have noticed when processing birds raised from the eggs from my layers that some of them seem to have small flabby hearts. The biggest gentlest roo had a heart about half the size it should have been adn was very soft and flabby. Am thinking that his heart kept him slow and gentle.

Would a bad heart have killed my girl?

All the other girls are bright enough so dont think I have any illness in my flock but one cant help worrying.

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

Did you do a neocropsy on her to see if the faint heart syndorme was affecting her?

 

[emys]

Could be heart - did you autopsy her? Same symptoms in that hen could be mites??

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

How to perform an avian neocropsy by DVM: here

 

[Stellar]

You are not feeding your birds medicated feed by chance?

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

Quote:
Medicated food will cause problems, but I don't think it relates to the heart. Medicated feed damages the liver moreso than the heart, unless the unfiltered blood causes heart problems?

 

[GBov]

Nope, didnt necropsy her as we were on our way out of the house and I didnt think we would be back all day. On second thought I should have tossed her into the fridge but just threw her to the dog. Its second nature to throw quail bits to the dog so habit just took over

Feed non medicated feed and I have checked every (well, most every) bird processed for any creapy crawlies and havnt seen any.

As I eat the livers I do inspect them closely and so far they are all nice and firm and dark and tasty

Mites eh, what do they look like when their at home?

Havnt seen any lice or ticks and beaks and legs are all strong and clean but we do have one finch (cages linked by the ends) that is showing feather loss across her neck........

Would mites cause death without showing up? Would have thought it would take thousands of the things to do a bird in?

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

Quote:
Definitely not. You would be able to tell before they killed them. It could be an internal parasite, like coccidiosis since they had no medication.

(Can't live with meds, can't live without them!

)

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
Definitely not. You would be able to tell before they killed them. It could be an internal parasite, like coccidiosis since they had no medication.

(Can't live with meds, can't live without them!

)

or intestinal worms...

 

[GBov]

Quote:
Definitely not. You would be able to tell before they killed them. It could be an internal parasite, like coccidiosis since they had no medication.

(Can't live with meds, can't live without them!

)

or intestinal worms...

Wouldnt a gut load of worms show up when cleaning other birds for dinner duty? Havnt seen worms in guts or poops yet so wouldnt think they could kill one bird in a flock.

WISH I had cut her open now!

All the rest of the girls are doing just fine. Wouldnt coccidiosis show up in more than one bird?