Blood work

[EdnaAndEdith]

ok, this is going to be a long shot...

I paid to have some blood work ran on my hen who has been generally having problems for about a month thinking that maybe the outward symptoms I was seeing and dealing with were in fact stemming from something related to internal organs, etc. My vet reviewed the labs and said they didn’t look very out of the ordinary for what the average avian profiles look like but that standard reference ranges for chicken’s biochemistry and CBC values are not readily available (I guess most people don’t blood test their chickens). I found this hard to believe but when I tried to search online, in veterinary books, and text books... he seems to be right. I can find normal ranges for almost every other bird.... except poultry.

Has anyone got any idea where to get this information?

 

[Audrey Watson]

I apologize but I have no clue. Lack of veterinary knowledge in the field of poultry has been an increasingly annoying and alarming issue for me too. I recently had a chicken die from an unknown condition(I secretly suspect kidney failure) but was shocked by the lack of compassion the veterinarian had for my animal. Chickens are not normally treated by veterinarians and it was hard enough to find a veterinarian that could and would treat my chicken, let alone one that could do it right. The vet simply stated that there was "nothing she could do" and gave my chicken IV fluids and said she wasn't going to make it. I made the decision to have her humanely euthanized the next day, however, she didn't make it through the night, as the veterinarian had predicted. But I still wish that veterinarians would pay more attention to these inquisitive animals. I am aware that chickens are not as popular as, say, a cat or dog, but they should still be given equal and appropriate care and knowledge.
Sorry for crowding your page with my rant.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

I apologize but I have no clue. Lack of veterinary knowledge in the field of poultry has been an increasingly annoying and alarming issue for me too. I recently had a chicken die from an unknown condition(I secretly suspect kidney failure) but was shocked by the lack of compassion the veterinarian had for my animal. Chickens are not normally treated by veterinarians and it was hard enough to find a veterinarian that could and would treat my chicken, let alone one that could do it right. The vet simply stated that there was "nothing she could do" and gave my chicken IV fluids and said she wasn't going to make it. I made the decision to have her humanely euthanized the next day, however, she didn't make it through the night, as the veterinarian had predicted. But I still wish that veterinarians would pay more attention to these inquisitive animals. I am aware that chickens are not as popular as, say, a cat or dog, but they should still be given equal and appropriate care and knowledge.
Sorry for crowding your page with my rant.

It was a good rant

 

[EdnaAndEdith]

Agreed! My vet is great and sees every animal that fits through the door and is very compassionate and knowledgeable about all exotic/avian animals but I know many vets aren’t. It just seemed like he was telling me he couldn’t know this knowledge because it’s not out there to be known.... so bizarre. I mean, chickens are popular pets and millions of them are raised for meat and eggs every year... why wouldn’t SOMEONE know this information?

 

[madreofchickens]

It’s so alarming that you were all discussing this two years ago in 2019, and I’m having the same problem in 2021. I actually came on here today with the exact same question as EdnaAndEdith. Got my hen bloodwork and her vet says the results were normal, but a bunch of her ranges are off, so what metrics are they using?? I don’t know. There are zero resources online and I can’t seem to get a straight answer from them. I want to know what everything means. Our hen is the Love of our lives, and it’d be awesome if she’d be given the same considerations as our cats. It’s almost like I need to preface every vet conversation with, “Just so you know... I DO love her.”