Duck Autopsy Thread

[DuckyDonna]

Awesome i will get that forsure

It's in a huge jar and it's not that much, about $7

 

[Duck Hill]

I want to add a note about an autopsy I performed on a newborn duckling. They are anatomically quite different from older ducks.

A newborn duckling is a large sack of skin attached to the head and bill. A newborn duckling is not "finished" like a human baby. The only thing of size in the sack of skin is the yolk. The organs are minute; they are more like organ seeds. They are much smaller than would be expected given the duckling's size.

The newborn duckling has little, tiny lungs. The cartilage has not yet grown to form any of the air sacks. The little organs are just floating in the body cavity, held there by mere threads which are nearly invisible.

The esophagus is so small, it is a wonder they can swallow anything. And at this age there is no proventriculum, that is, the esophagus does not widen before entering the gizzard. The esophagus enters the gizzard on the top right and there is an exit to the guts on the top left. The exit has a much SMALLER diameter than the entrance. The principle is somewhat like that of a septic tank: only the liquid overflow and fines can exit.

Here are some things I learned from this autopsy:

1) The skin of ducklings is quite tough. It is good protection.

2) The yolk is encased in a very thin membrane. If that membrane breaks, the duckling dies. I have seen a duckling trying to be born, which had a broken yolk membrane, presumably broken while still in the egg. When he tried to be born, the yolk leaked out. Within seconds of the yolk leaking out the duckling was dead. Therefore, I would guess that while the yolk sack is protected from sharp objects by the strong duckling skin after birth, if something were to cause internal damage and were to rupture the yolk membrane, the duckling would die.

3) The respiratory system of ducklings is primitive - i.e. there are no air sacs. Make sure they have good clean air to breathe.

4) Newborns are not finished. In the 24 hours they are slowly pecking their way out, the yolk is slowly being resorbed into the body and the lungs are gradually taking over from the egg membrane which has sustained their breathing during incubation. I suspect that there are also changes to the digestive tract occurring at this time, which would permit them to use the yolk and then eat food.

5) Newborns can't eat much at one sitting due to the lack of a developed proventriculum. This is why they will only eat a tiny bit at a time, at first. I have noticed that during the first day many ducklings actively reject and spit out food. Perhaps the system simply isn't ready yet.

6) An item that is small enough to be swallowed can still be too big to be passed out of the gizzard. if it's too big and can't get ground up, it will be stuck in the gizzard. I think ducklings are pretty good at choosing appropriate food. However, at least during the first few days I prefer duckling food that is finely ground or made of finely ground food made into small pellets - just so I know it will fit on the exit side of the gizzard!

I have not done an autopsy on any ducks of in-between ages, so I have no idea as to the age when they might grow their air sacks, nor how fast they develop a wider proventriculum. (Given how much they soon eat, I suspect it happens quickly.) I have no idea how quickly other parts develop - I wonder at what age the air sacks develop.

 

[casportpony]

3) The respiratory system of ducklings is primitive - i.e. there are no air sacs. Make sure they have good clean air to breathe.

Are you sure about this?

 

[Duck Hill]

Are you sure about this?

When doing an autopsy on a grown duck, there is a network of what I call cartilage (but I don't know if it is). This is a bunch of fairly clear, fibrous stuff which is sort of in sheets and which connects the duck skin to the duck body. When trying to accessing the body of a duck from the front, I have to cut through it.

I don't remember seeing the same thing in the duckling. But it has been quite a while since I did my duckling autopsy, and it is possible that it was finer and less resistant and that I missed it. Has anyone else done a duckling autopsy that can clarify this point? If not, I will note this as something to check if I ever have the courage to do another duckling autopsy.

 

[DuckyDonna]

When doing an autopsy on a grown duck, there is a network of what I call cartilage (but I don't know if it is). This is a bunch of fairly clear, fibrous stuff which is sort of in sheets and which connects the duck skin to the duck body. When trying to accessing the body of a duck from the front, I have to cut through it.

I don't remember seeing the same thing in the duckling. But it has been quite a while since I did my duckling autopsy, and it is possible that it was finer and less resistant and that I missed it. Has anyone else done a duckling autopsy that can clarify this point? If not, I will note this as something to check if I ever have the courage to do another duckling autopsy.

I think that is called fascia which is connective tissue meant to separate the organs and muscles. There are different layers of it too. You can see it when you buy a rack of ribs and there is a sheet of white stuff on top of them that you can pull right off if you get hold of it just right.

 

[Jpat]

Silver skin

 

[DuckyDonna]

Silver skin

Yup! that's what my husband always calls it too. In babies it would be very thin.

 

[casportpony]

When doing an autopsy on a grown duck, there is a network of what I call cartilage (but I don't know if it is). This is a bunch of fairly clear, fibrous stuff which is sort of in sheets and which connects the duck skin to the duck body. When trying to accessing the body of a duck from the front, I have to cut through it.

I don't remember seeing the same thing in the duckling. But it has been quite a while since I did my duckling autopsy, and it is possible that it was finer and less resistant and that I missed it. Has anyone else done a duckling autopsy that can clarify this point? If not, I will note this as something to check if I ever have the courage to do another duckling autopsy.

Air sacs in grown birds is very hard to see, so I think it's that much harder in those just hatched.

 

[Duck Hill]

Newborn ducklings:

Just had a chance (sniff) to autopsy a duckling that didn't get out of the egg and one that died after about four days.

Yes, both did have the air sacks. And yes, very hard to see and tiny. It just seems to be how you separate the skin from the body. But if you look closely, it's not just random, it is little air sacks.

I have questions after the autopsy - I wish I had seen more details while doing it. But while doing it, it was hard, and I could only do so much before I just had to stop.

The duckling that died before being fully hatched had a yolk that was mostly outside of the body but with some in the body. The yolk sack outside the body was firmly connected to the skin of the body - the outer body skin continued as the outer yolk membrane.

However, on the inside the yolk membrane continued and was in the lower part of the body cavity. It seemed connected to the bottom of the gizzard and straight across the body at that point, but I wanted to observe more closely to see if it was really connected or just laying there. As I poked a bit to try to see better, the yolk membrane ruptured. There was yolk everywhere, and just couldn't continue. Maybe I'll be stronger next time. But that yolk sack was sure easy to puncture!!!

That hatching duckling had a huge vein that reached from the heart area, straight down the body cavity in the middle, and it disappeared into or behind the yolk.

I know that when my normal ducklings hatch, the yolk has just gone in, and what is left is a group of veins connecting the duckling to the membrane on the egg shell.

I am therefore guessing that perhaps the huge vein from the heart area goes down through/into/around the yolk, and then connects to the egg membrane (which provides oxygen during incubation).

I was very surprised that when I opened this egg, the duckling with its yolk sort of fell out on my paper towel. I did not have to 'snip' any connection to the egg shell membrane. However, I do have to admit I did not look as closely as I could/should have. Now I wonder if I didn't look well enough, or if a poor connection between the duckling and membrane was this one's cause of death.

The duckling that was born for four to five days later had a little tiny remnant of yolk, fairly firm (not liquid). This remnant was at the bottom of the body cavity and was not connected higher up. I did not see the large vein that I saw in the other duckling, but I did not look (I autopsied the younger ducklings after this one, so I did not know to look for that vein). Again, I hope to be stronger next time so I can get more details.

I was struck by the fact that the little chest plate (ribs, connecting tissue, etc) was very tiny in both ducklings. It fully covered the tiny heart, but not much else. If the entire body cavity opening was somewhat more than two inches, the little chest plate was, I'm guessing, slightly more than half an inch. In the adult ducks that I have autopsied, the ribs seem to cover slightly more than half of the body cavity, I think. (I'll have to start measuring!) This seems to be a big difference between ducklings and grown ducks.

By the way, the older of the two was in the refrigerator door for a full week before I got the courage to do the autopsy. It did not smell and was in excellent condition, except for the eyes which were fairly dry. The younger was in there for about four days. Again, it was in very good condition except for slight drying of the eyes.

 

[DuckyDonna]

Good job! Very interesting.