Dead girl

[casportpony]

Well the gal from the Ag Center called me back yesterday evening. The prognosis is not good. She pointed to two possibilities; poisoning or disease. If it was a poisoning event, then it is likely all of the chickens would have died about the same time considering they would have likely consumed the poison at about the same time. If it’s a disease, then it is likely that the whole flock has already been exposed to it and is already sick; albeit with no symptoms.

She told me that I could bring one of the dead chickens to the diagnostics lab for a necroscopy and it would cost $35. It would also take me about 4 hours round trip to bring it and the results might be inconclusive. My wife and I have decided not to bother and hope for the best. The rest of the chickens seem happy and healthy and are laying every day so perhaps all is well.

Thanks for all of your comments and sympathies.

UC Davis lets people use their FedEx account number so people can send their birds and save on shipping.

This is what I do:

Refrigerator, do_not_freeze! Then you need to find a box, line it with styrofoam (I use the 4'x8'x1" stuff from Home Depot... you can also get smaller pieces at an art store like Michael's, but is way more expensive). Click here to see foam options. You'll also need at least one ice pack. Here are some pictures that I took of the last bird that I sent:

Box lined with foam on four sides and bottom. Seams of foam taped sealed.


Box, sides, bottom and and top.


Frozen ice pack in ziplock baggie.


Brown paper on top of ice pack.


Hen in ziplock baggie on top of brown paper.


Brown paper on top of hen.


Ice pack on top of brown paper.


Lid on top of brown paper.


Inside the box you should also include a submission form in a ziplock baggie. Do not tell anyone at FedEx that you're shipping a dead animal... that seems to really worry them. Just make sure that nothing will leak.