"Natural" Death - Can you still eat it??

[HidingInTheHenHouse]

I found one of my meat birds dead this morning next to the waterer. I think it died of a heart attack, since there was no wounds at all on the body, and we are only 2 days away from butchering day. These chickens are HUGE!!

So, can I still eat this chicken? It was still slightly warm, so I went ahead and processed it like normal. The blood did not flow for bleed out; it must have all been coagulated already. None of the other chickens had pecked or picked at the body at all. The breast side is bruised looking, since I think this side was down, so gravity pooled the blood there after death.

The butchering didn't reveal anything unusual that I could tell, but this was the first time I did the whole thing myself; usually my husband does all the gutting, and I do all the plucking. So maybe I don't know what to look for for "unusual".

So can we eat it, or not?

 

[lilshadow]

I wouldn't. I am no expert though.

 

[brandywine]

This bird would be a candidate for two weeks in the deep freeze, (to freeze out some potential parasites) then fed to the dogs.

Without being bled out, you probably won't enjoy it that much. So if you have hearty carnivorous pets, that's my suggestion.

I'm not sure what to look for in a natural death after the animal has sat for a while -- fluid in the lungs and blood pooled in the heart, but how to tell what is post-mortem in a case like this?

 

[cjeanean]

Quote:
I would do the same. Not necessarily because of any illnesses or whatever, but like brandywine said, without draining the blood you're not gonna like it.

 

[HidingInTheHenHouse]

Thanks guys. I do have dogs that would enjoy it I'm sure. Do I give it to them raw or cook it first and de-bone it?

 

[lilshadow]

definately debone it first. Chicken bones are not good for dogs, but I would also cook it too, because raw chicken meat would probably not but good to give a dog either.

 

[SandraMort]

on the contrary, raw chicken bones and meat are perfectly safe for dogs. I'd still gut it, but tht may just be cultural bias.

Google "barf dog diet" or "bones and raw food dogs" or "biologically appropriate raw food dogs" for informaion.

 

[Katy]

It's the cooking process that makes bones a bad thing for dogs to eat.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Quote:
Right---it's the cooking of the bones that make them deadly to dogs. Cooking the bones casues them to brittle and they splinter which could cause the dogs esophagus to be peirced.

 

[Poler]

Personally, I'd cook it and shred it so that the dogs dont know what they are eating, because if they see an animal like that and it tastes good, then they might put two and two together, and that wouldnt be pretty.

I also dont like to give my dogs raw meat, because I dont want them to get the taste of blood.