How do you properly necropsy a dead chicken?

[dawg53]

I wont spend 1 penny for postage to send a bird off for necropsy nor see a vet.
Contagious diseases can be avoided if biosecurity is practiced.

 

[Folly's place]

I try very hard to avoid contagious diseases too, and have been lucky, in that there are (so far!) no close neighbors who bring sick birds home to infect mine. When I started with chickens, I was a bit less careful, and again, lucky.
Mary

 

[Mtnboomer]

You take it to a vet pathologist. Sure you can open it up yourself and spot worms or lesions, tumors assuming you understand the rest of their anatomy. But professionals can spot things that seem normal to you plus take samples etc.

I am biased on this matter as that is my wife's profession but I watch assist in every necropsy she performs at the house and she is always pointing out "indicators" (abnormal condition that may implicate other issues) that looked fine to me. She almost always grabs the brain, spinal cord, and stomach contents for further analysis and any organ that looks wrong.
I didn't "put her through" (hope she never reads that ) 10 yrs of college to not get her expertise and find out what actually killed my animal.

 

[dawg53]

You take it to a vet pathologist. Sure you can open it up yourself and spot worms or lesions, tumors assuming you understand the rest of their anatomy. But professionals can spot things that seem normal to you plus take samples etc.

I am biased on this matter as that is my wife's profession but I watch assist in every necropsy she performs at the house and she is always pointing out "indicators" (abnormal condition that may implicate other issues) that looked fine to me. She almost always grabs the brain, spinal cord, and stomach contents for further analysis and any organ that looks wrong.
I didn't "put her through" (hope she never reads that ) 10 yrs of college to not get her expertise and find out what actually killed my animal.

You are very fortunate. Congrats.
Most of us wing it on our own as you know and our pockets arnt deep.

 

[Molpet]

I wont spend 1 penny for postage to send a bird off for necropsy nor see a vet.
Contagious diseases can be avoided if biosecurity is practiced.

How do you keep wild birds out of 10 acres with hundreds of trees

 

[Eggcessive]

I almost always recommend sending a dead bird to the state vet for a necropsy whenever I post on a thread @Folly's place . If the person cannot afford the cost and postage, then I usually suggest a home necropsy and give links where the organs are labeled. I just finished a necropsy on one of my old hens this morning.

This thread is about asking for advice on doing one, and I learn so much when someone post’s their pictures from their own home necropsies. Many people criticize others here for trying to help or give advice, but it seems few vets or former vets on here seldom bother with advice. My state only charges $23 for a basic necropsy, and then charge extra for each test or the histology. Some states state at $150 and go from there. My lab is 3 hours from me, and I cannot take a whole day to drive to Columbus round trip , although I would love to (and may someday) get a professional one done sometime.

 

[Mtnboomer]

You are very fortunate. Congrats.
Most of us wing it on our own as you know and our pockets arnt deep.

I know that I am. I have no illusions about that. My pockets are not deep either, more like inside out at the moment. And i am not discouraging DIY investigations. No need to pay money to open a bird up and find its liver is purple or its GI tract is blocked with worms. Of course, the exact cause of the purple liver may be of interest. But, if a bird dies and you don't know the answer, its best to take it to someone who can find out why before the next one dies or the whole flock.
An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure so do all the things to promote good health but when disaster strikes, its my humble opinion, it is prudent to limit the damages to one bird.

My chickens are livestock, not pets. But they are an investment of my time, hardwork, and of course money. So when one dies i see dollar signs floating away and want to protect the rest of my investment. I also dont wa t the currently healthy bitds to suffer from a disease that may be incubating in them before they become symptomatic and it may be too late.
My wife does do the necropsy herself and all the lab work but we still have to pay for use of the equipment at $50 per specimen.

Instead of looking to local vets who may or may not do poultry in their private practice, look into vet schools or vet teaching hospitals. The animal is worked on by students supervised by the pathologist and it is usually cheaper.

Sometimes you can send it in for "disposal" and a necropsy must be performed to ensure that there was nothing infectious. I think the owner still gets a copy of the report.

Sorry, dont mean to preach. I'll step down off my soapbox. I said i was biased on this matter

 

[Eggcessive]

@Mtnboomer, you are fortunate to have a wife who can do necropsies. I would love to learn from someone. When I lose one, I just do a brief necropsy to look for reproductive disorders or ascites which are the main things we deal with here. My husband is a human pathologist, and he would help me if I needed him to. He can look at a lot of pictures that I show him from threads each day, and give me advice about what the lesion looks like. He has diagnosed many tumors just for my interest. He just is not as interested in the chickens as I am.

The two main things I wish more people would try to necropsy birds, is when they are dealing with a respiratory disease or possible Mareks. I certainly would want to know if my flock was dealing with one of those, and what disease. I cull any sick birds, and choose not to use antibiotics or drugs on my birds. I used Tylan once, but I will try to help suggest the right type one or suggest they don’t use one if antibiotics are not useful.

Some people with access to antibiotics will throw everything at a bird with a virus, or they may continue to post multiple threads of the same disease asking the same questions. I remember one particular lady who has used probably 20 different antibiotics on her flock with chronic respiratory disease, but she never heeds advice to stop adding birds, or get a diagnosis. Sorry for the rant, but most of us just are here to offer help and suggestions, but people need to understand we are not vets, and some of the advice given is not always right.

 

[dawg53]

How do you keep wild birds out of 10 acres with hundreds of trees

Get a logger to do some thinning and get paid for the trees.

 

[Molpet]

Get a logger to do some thinning and get paid for the trees.

The old small paddock doesn't have trees and the poultry don't go out there much. They stay under the trees and brush so the hawks don't see them I guess.