- Apr 8, 2012
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Long story short is last year we had some illness in the flock that I was worried about so we took some birds in to be culled/necropsied. They found nothing. This spring the chickens that were left that I still wondered about were showing breathing issues so I culled them. They had a fat pad an inch to an inch and a half thick that was the consistency of a latex mattress pad, it was insane. They had mustard yellow livers that were huge and membranes(air sacs, right?) that were a little cloudy but not horrible and while the trachea didn't seem oddly colored, inside there were stretches of mucous. We burned their bodies instead of eating them, and I figured that their underlying health issues (that I'm assuming came from their previous owner because I have NEVER seen the inside of a bird look like that!) left them susceptible to the beginning stages of something. I wasn't as worried about the rest of my birds because they're all ducks and haven't shown signs of illness, but I decided to watch for signs of MG (basically cloudy/thickened air sacs as far as I can tell?) in future butcherings.
Yesterday one of my Silver Appleyard hens had a repeat vent prolapse and I decided to put her out of her misery. Same with a hen who has limped since she was small and too many drakes got on her- it seemed like she was having trouble walking now (2 yrs later). We also decided to reduce our drakes so we culled a Mallard drake who was just about a year old and our old Cayuga drake who may have been more than 4.
I did the Mallard drake first and everything seemed perfectly healthy. The old drake next, and his membranes were a bit cloudy and harder to break but nothing that set off red flags. I wondered if some thickening and cloudiness is normal as the bird ages. Then I did the limping hen. She had definite cloudy membranes and even seemed to have a separate cloudy sac around her heart. I also noticed veins and white lines in the membranes around her trachea and esophagus. Her liver looked darker, maybe bruised a bit. Then I did the hen with the prolapse. She had the same veins and lines in the membranes on her neck- I wondered if any of that could be due to mating and how rough the boys are with the hen's heads. This hen's intestines were very swollen and distended and her membranes were definitely cloudy and yellow (egg yolk peritonitis I'm assuming- makes sense w/ the prolapses). Her liver was huge and mustard yellow. And her heart was whitish and there seemed to be pools of dark blood various places around her body. She also had weird brown marks in the tissues of her lower abdomen. Her trachea had splotches of pink along it instead of being all white. She also had bumblefoot. We burned her body and the organs of the other hen and the rest of the entrails from the other birds.
So I guess my question is- is the air sac all of the clearish membranes inside the body that keeps everything in place? Does it ever thicken/get cloudy with age or rough handling? (I've never butchered hens before). Does seeing cloudy membranes automatically mean MG or other respiratory disease? I was going to call the vet to find out about the blood test for MG, any other recommendations?
Thanks!
Yesterday one of my Silver Appleyard hens had a repeat vent prolapse and I decided to put her out of her misery. Same with a hen who has limped since she was small and too many drakes got on her- it seemed like she was having trouble walking now (2 yrs later). We also decided to reduce our drakes so we culled a Mallard drake who was just about a year old and our old Cayuga drake who may have been more than 4.
I did the Mallard drake first and everything seemed perfectly healthy. The old drake next, and his membranes were a bit cloudy and harder to break but nothing that set off red flags. I wondered if some thickening and cloudiness is normal as the bird ages. Then I did the limping hen. She had definite cloudy membranes and even seemed to have a separate cloudy sac around her heart. I also noticed veins and white lines in the membranes around her trachea and esophagus. Her liver looked darker, maybe bruised a bit. Then I did the hen with the prolapse. She had the same veins and lines in the membranes on her neck- I wondered if any of that could be due to mating and how rough the boys are with the hen's heads. This hen's intestines were very swollen and distended and her membranes were definitely cloudy and yellow (egg yolk peritonitis I'm assuming- makes sense w/ the prolapses). Her liver was huge and mustard yellow. And her heart was whitish and there seemed to be pools of dark blood various places around her body. She also had weird brown marks in the tissues of her lower abdomen. Her trachea had splotches of pink along it instead of being all white. She also had bumblefoot. We burned her body and the organs of the other hen and the rest of the entrails from the other birds.
So I guess my question is- is the air sac all of the clearish membranes inside the body that keeps everything in place? Does it ever thicken/get cloudy with age or rough handling? (I've never butchered hens before). Does seeing cloudy membranes automatically mean MG or other respiratory disease? I was going to call the vet to find out about the blood test for MG, any other recommendations?
Thanks!
