- Thread starter
- #181
Wanted to clarify too that her issues started about 2 weeks ago, but i didnt think much of it at first until about a week ago when i picked her up for something and felt she was actually skinny (and she was never a light bird to begin with). Thats when she was brought inside and started eating grains, so she was inside and eating something at least for about 5 days before she got worseAlexis was put down two nights ago. She started not moving one leg and refused eating. She finally started eating some beer oat filler stuff i have for winter, and came inside (Xerox went down to the barn, where he has a 2nd toe already nearly gone [plus the ones already listed previously] despite it not going below freezing since then). She started spasming when i picked her up her last night, eyes closed and head flailing frantically. This was far worse than she had ever been (but similar to how mom descibed Rose's last hour). So i hurried to put her out of the pain she was obviously in.
Now, of course again, I'm terrified its mareks. She was a breeder's bird, so she was never vaccinated, and all 3 of them have now died within months. She has alao beem around Xerox, who is now around a dozen or so birds that themselves wander around probably 40-60 birds all day every day.
So we go and open her up the next morning. I didn't get pictures because i didnt expect anything odd. It was either something that made her stop eating and she got so weak that killed her, or it looked like mareks.
But it was neither. It looks like her gallbladder began leaking into her liver (don't ask what causes that, i have just one thought which I'll get to in a moment) and right where her intestine connected to the gizzard looked dead or incredibly bruised. The inside of her gizzard looked bruised too, but she had eated some decently sized rocks about a week or so earlier while gulping down grit. But the gizzard seemed to be working because the grains shed been eating were all mashed down properly (they're fed as whole grains, since the fermented water is what the people are after).
I think Xerox may have accidentally hurt her, and while i dont think he fully caused the problems, i don't think he helped the situation either. He's so clumsy and was constantly tripping over her and landing on her while trying to run around.
I'm fairly certain this is also what killed Rose, though we never looked at her since we assumed it was a failure to thrive issue like in rabbits. But Alexis was also incredibly heavy for her breed. She weighed as much as a standard, and the few things i could find about her issue seemed to come from broilers growing too fast.
