Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

They’re all out now, but no sign of Arizona. Jaffar is looking everywhere too.

Oh No! I hope read further and she has shown up. Please please please.

 

[BY Bob]

Oh indeed poor baby and for you, Mrs BY Bob and Sylvie I give
Will they do further testing for Marek's? Like a PCR or examination of the nodules? It sounds rather vague in the preliminary report and it would be good to have certainty.

I'm not certain. They will do what they do and I will get a final report. No input from my side.

 

[BY Bob]

I’m quite relieved myself. (These birds are going to make me insane (eventually)

I'm so glad to read that she was found. That's a good rooster you have there.

 

[featherhead007]

I'm so glad to read that she was found. That's a good rooster you have there.

Jaffar is an excellent rooster. (I’m a privileged man, to have him as a buddy) !

 

[BY Bob]

BY Bob I wonder if this deformity is the technical name for what is referred to as vaulted skulls? I recently learned of it with my silkies as Poppy has a vault. It is very common in silkies but I've since learned that it can happen in most crested breeds. It creates a bigger crest, and Poppy has the biggest crest of my 3. I've tried to research it as best I can since she hatched because I was worried with her being in a mixed flock if she would be more susceptible to injury and was fully prepared to rehome her to a silkie only or bantam flock if need be. The people in the silkie thread assured me that she should be ok in a mixed flock, as many of them have mixed flocks with silkies with vaulted skulls and they do just fine. I've also learned from them that about 90% of vaulted chicks at least for silkies are female. I will admit that can be extremely helpful in a breed that is notoriously hard to sex before 4 to 5 months old without dna testing. I'm not going to lie, if Legethera did have a vault, and she really did not fall all that far my worry about Poppy is going to through the roof again. I'd finally convinced myself that even though she is tiny, she's accepted and was going to do just fine in my flock and I love that little thing. Looking at her baby picture her top hat looks sorta like Poppy's did at hatch. Becuase when they hatch the vault is very obvious if the others do not have it.
Here is poppy with her siblings at a few hours old, you can pick her little head out in the crowd.
View attachment 29079412 week old Poppy
View attachment 2907942Poppy now at 5 1/2 months. She is also incredibly tiny, officially the smallest chicken I have now that frick and frack are 2 months old they are even bigger then her. She eats well and has grown well but she's just petite. I really do not think when she's done growing she'll be as big as her sister Lil Bit is now.
View attachment 2907950View attachment 2907951

edited to add.
I also should point out that the parents of my silkies came from hatchery stock, I think My Pet Chicken. Higher quality bloodlines and show stock silkies can have even bigger vaults and larger crests.

My understanding at this point is that they are actually similar things.

Meningoencephalocele is a type of encephalocele, which is an abnormal sac of fluid, brain tissue , and meninges (membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord) that extends through a defect in the skull.

The vaulted skull is a similar thing where there is a hole in the skull when they are chicks but it normally closes over in silkies (and other breeds with head tufts like Polish) as they grow.

Lergetha's hole never closed. The result was abnormal brain growth with a portion of her brain outside her skull.

It is likely that the fall did not kill Legertha. The fall was caused by the meningoencephalocele. It was likely that at that point she could not walk well which was why she had not found her way to the coop. Mrs BY Bob put her on the roost and she still had some balance and was able to stay there until some time during the night when she worsened and was unable to remain.

I am basing all of this on what I know so far and extrapolating the most likely sequence of events. I'll know more when I get the final report and an official cause of death.

 

[RoyalChick]

I'm excited to see what you come up with but don't be sad if they don't use it.

I will be furious with them!

 

[Marie2020]

Initial Necropsy Results are Back

It seems to have been a congenital defect. There was an abnormality in her brain/skull.

It does rule out trauma as the cause. The hemorrhage in the skin at the base of the skull is likely from her falling off the roost that night.

Here is the text of the initial report.

The most significant macroscopic findings in this chicken involved a suspect meningoencephalocele with adjacent subcutaneous hemorrhage, subcutaneous masses within the neck, and subjective thickening of the right sacral plexus. A meningoencephalocele is a congenital abnormality that occurs when there is improper formation/fusing of the bones of the calvarium and portions of the meninges and/or neuroparenchyma are external to the remaining bones. In this case, there was hemorrhage within the overlying subcutaneous tissue and at the base of the skull which may suggest trauma. While there was evidence of trauma in the head region, there were no obvious fractures of the bones indicating the brain exposure was a pre-existing condition and not secondary to trauma. In addition to this finding, there were masses within the subcutaneous tissue along the neck and subjective thickening of the right sacral plexus which may suggest this chicken had Marek’s disease.

My poor baby......
View attachment 2907775

I'm so sorry Bob.

Her time wasn't long but her life was wonderful living in chickens paradise with you . She had it all

 

[RoyalChick]

BY Bob I wonder if this deformity is the technical name for what is referred to as vaulted skulls? I recently learned of it with my silkies as Poppy has a vault. It is very common in silkies but I've since learned that it can happen in most crested breeds. It creates a bigger crest, and Poppy has the biggest crest of my 3. I've tried to research it as best I can since she hatched because I was worried with her being in a mixed flock if she would be more susceptible to injury and was fully prepared to rehome her to a silkie only or bantam flock if need be. The people in the silkie thread assured me that she should be ok in a mixed flock, as many of them have mixed flocks with silkies with vaulted skulls and they do just fine. I've also learned from them that about 90% of vaulted chicks at least for silkies are female. I will admit that can be extremely helpful in a breed that is notoriously hard to sex before 4 to 5 months old without dna testing. I'm not going to lie, if Legethera did have a vault, and she really did not fall all that far my worry about Poppy is going to through the roof again. I'd finally convinced myself that even though she is tiny, she's accepted and was going to do just fine in my flock and I love that little thing. Looking at her baby picture her top hat looks sorta like Poppy's did at hatch. Becuase when they hatch the vault is very obvious if the others do not have it.
Here is poppy with her siblings at a few hours old, you can pick her little head out in the crowd.
View attachment 29079412 week old Poppy
View attachment 2907942Poppy now at 5 1/2 months. She is also incredibly tiny, officially the smallest chicken I have now that frick and frack are 2 months old they are even bigger then her. She eats well and has grown well but she's just petite. I really do not think when she's done growing she'll be as big as her sister Lil Bit is now.
View attachment 2907950View attachment 2907951

edited to add.
I also should point out that the parents of my silkies came from hatchery stock, I think My Pet Chicken. Higher quality bloodlines and show stock silkies can have even bigger vaults and larger crests.

I did a bit of looking in academic papers and from what I could tell it is not the same as vaulted skull which does not expose the brain to any issues.

 

[BY Bob]

I'm so sorry Bob.

Her time wasn't long but her life was wonderful living in chickens paradise with you . She had it all

Thanks Marie.

 

[BY Bob]

I did a bit of looking in academic papers and from what I could tell it is not the same as vaulted skull which does not expose the brain to any issues.

They are both holes in the skulls. My understanding is that the hole in the case of a Vaulted Skull closes as the chick grows. What Legertha had was similar in that it was a hole in the skull but it was a different kind of hole and it did not close.

Legertha's brain was likely growing outside the hole even as the hole was not growing.

In vaulted skulls, the brain is exposed but it is not growing outside the skull and the skull usually grows over the hole to cover the brain completely as they grow.