Losing a Pullet Each Month

[casportpony]

Wow, I feel your pain, do what works for you, hand feed, hand water, etc, but don't get your hopes up.

-Kathy

 

[bbkaren]

Ah well...as expected, the chicken died in the night. We pulled her apart today and weren't quite sure what we were looking for. Sure was interesting, though!

I didn't see any worms - the kind I was thinking of anyway. I expected to find probably whitish squiggly things somewhere in the crop, intestines, or gizzard. I cut open the organs and sliced here and there on the intestines and squeezed out the gook. All I found was nasty food in the crop & gizzard, and in the intestines, brownish green slime.

I took some pictures, not really knowing what's normal and what's not. If you're interested, here's a link to the photos.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/102901483699935811374/albums/5922390291374165793

Anything jump out at you?

Thanks again-

 

[dawg53]

Ah well...as expected, the chicken died in the night. We pulled her apart today and weren't quite sure what we were looking for. Sure was interesting, though!


I didn't see any worms - the kind I was thinking of anyway. I expected to find probably whitish squiggly things somewhere in the crop, intestines, or gizzard. I cut open the organs and sliced here and there on the intestines and squeezed out the gook. All I found was nasty food in the crop & gizzard, and in the intestines, brownish green slime.


I took some pictures, not really knowing what's normal and what's not. If you're interested, here's a link to the photos.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/102901483699935811374/albums/5922390291374165793


Anything jump out at you?


Thanks again-

It appears that photo 6 of 6 confirms what possibly couldve been an impacted gizzard or crop.

 

[Farmer Viola]

I took some pictures, not really knowing what's normal and what's not. If you're interested, here's a link to the photos.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/102901483699935811374/albums/5922390291374165793

This is SO interesting, thank you so much for posting photos! I have been following your thread because I have also lost several pullets over a few months without known cause.

Could anyone identify the organs shown in these photos?

\/\/ thank you!!

 

[casportpony]

This might help:
http://borlaug.tamu.edu/files/2012/03/Poultry-necropsy-Manual.pdf

-Kathy

 

[bbkaren]

It appears that photo 6 of 6 confirms what possibly couldve been an impacted gizzard or crop.

The gizzard and crop were both packed tight - although yesterday the crop was spongy and I had thought of sour crop due to the milk smell.

Ah, I was so hoping for something that would explain our recurring deaths - I was actually hoping for a bunch of worms squirming around in there lol

This one could be a one-off I suppose.

And as I mentioned, I still think she might've been blind. She always hung back from the others and toward the end, she didn't respond to food or water until I either made a noise, or dipped her beak in it - at which point she glommed it right down.

 

[casportpony]

Did you open the intestines to check for worms?

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Light-bulb just went on! Given the blindness, I would be very suspicious of Marek's.

-Kathy

 

[bbkaren]

Oh no...! That'd be bad for the rest of the bunch, wouldn't it?

 

[EggresiveAli]

Maybe