Chicken heart attack? *GRAPHIC PICS*

[casportpony]

Do you have pictures of the intestines and liver?

 

[Fredf]

How long has he been eating layer feed and do you feed these treats every day?

Did you happen to take pictures if an other organs?

I did, I had them on starter food but they ate from the big girl feeder.

 

[Fredf]

Should I have them on a different feed other than layer?

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Should I have them on a different feed other than layer?

Sometimes the excess calcium in layer feed can cause issues in non layers (roosters, juviniles, hens that aren't laying anymore, etc...)

 

[ackie]

Great job on the necropsy, wow.

The pics should be fine since you warned in the title.

 

[Kiki]

Should I have them on a different feed other than layer?

I would stop the daily treats immediately.

 

[ackie]

Should I have them on a different feed other than layer?

MANY of us (myself included) are learning that layer feed should realistically only be fed to hens that are actively laying. It might be okay to feed it to everyone, but its safer to feed everyone a balanced feed and have oyster shell on the side for the laying ladies.

 

[casportpony]

MANY of us (myself included) are learning that layer feed should realistically only be fed to hens that are actively laying. It might be okay to feed it to everyone, but its safer to feed everyone a balanced feed and have oyster shell on the side for the laying ladies.

x2

 

[Mrs. K]

I suspect sudden death syndrome. It tends to occur just as a bird is reaching full size. It is a genetic fault of some sort. A single bird, that appears to be healthy, and next check is dead. So discouraging, but nothing to do with feed.

As to feed - long term use of layer feed, but we are talking years, might cause the above mentioned problems, but not a couple of weeks. Stop and think of the junk food you ate in your teens and twenties. For generations, birds were allowed to scrounge behind other livestock and eat whatever they could get. Commercial feed is fine. And so is grain. I feed commercial feed, but I knew a lady that just fed straight scratch and got eggs.

Mrs K