Lame Chicken Exam - Necropsy Pictures Added

casportpony

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Jun 24, 2012
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Yesterday a friend asked if I could look at his chicken's broken leg. I started by watching her in her cage and she appeared to be alert and not in distress, but she could not use one leg and the toes on that leg were curled. Her owner thought the break was up high, which is a hard fracture to treat. I very gently caught the hen and verified that the lower leg was not broken. She had very limited range of motion from her hock up, and there was a mass on her femur. Sadly, there were two more masses in the general area, all were soft and more like tumors, so probably not fractures. Next step was to check for feeling in her feet, so I poked her good foot with my fingernail and she flinched, then did the same thing on the bad leg and she did not flinch.

The decision was made to euthanize her and I asked if I could do a necropsy. Haven't done the necropsy yet, but will post pictures when I'm done.

-Kathy
 
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Following... Thanks for educating us!
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Following... Thanks for educating us!
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You're welcome and thanks for following. This one will be interesting since I have not seen tumors like this before. I think the owner is also on BYC, so hopefully it will help him as well.

-Kathy
 
My first chicken with Marek's had tumours like that on her leg and abdomen muscles. When I cut them open they looked a bit like sausage meat with egg unevenly mixed into it. I will be following this thread with interest. I didn't find anything else untoward in my chicken but she had also developed wry neck and was struggling to eat and could not even lie down without tipping over, even when propped up.

I also found it a relief to know that culling her had been the right thing to do, especially as it had been the first bird(in fact the first animal) I had ever euthanized. .
 
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