GRAPHIC PHOTOS BELOW - Don't look if easily offended.
Bird was about 2 1/2 years old, she had laid some soft/thin shells a month or so go, thought she was molting. Then one day noticed an unusually dirty butt so took a closer look to find her keel very prominent and her abdomen was swollen with what felt like fluid - ascites. Cleaned her up and isolated, but she wouldn't eat much, drinking lots of water, so stools were mostly water and urates. She could stand and move around OK but slowly, no respiratory or any other symptoms, just pretty inactive.
I'm not one to medicate without definite diagnosis and I certainly could not afford a vet visit even if an avian vet were available locally. I could have drained her belly but know that's just a symptom so instead of prolonging the inevitable I euthanized her and opened her up to see what I could see.
I first drained the abdominal fluid into a tray then a 24 oz jar, which was most of it. I did not do a full necrospy by pulling out all the internal organs and then opening them up too, but did get a pretty good look at heart, liver and lungs...which all looked ok to me with my limited experience in butchering a dozen or two birds in the past. The 'bumps' that looked to be in the walls of oviduct and intestines were definitely not normal. The intestines were stiff and tightened together, couldn't stretch them out.
Not sure if these 'bumps' are cancer, infection, parasite, lesions from some disease or what. Am doing some searching here and googling but haven't found anything yet. So if anyone knows what they are or a resource that will ID them, I would appreciate you chiming in here.
Oh, and did not want to use the usual cone and jugular slit I use to kill when harvesting meat so researched Cervical Dislocation and finally, finally found a good example that leaves the head on the body. It worked just like in this video at 1:00 minute in.
Bird was about 2 1/2 years old, she had laid some soft/thin shells a month or so go, thought she was molting. Then one day noticed an unusually dirty butt so took a closer look to find her keel very prominent and her abdomen was swollen with what felt like fluid - ascites. Cleaned her up and isolated, but she wouldn't eat much, drinking lots of water, so stools were mostly water and urates. She could stand and move around OK but slowly, no respiratory or any other symptoms, just pretty inactive.
I'm not one to medicate without definite diagnosis and I certainly could not afford a vet visit even if an avian vet were available locally. I could have drained her belly but know that's just a symptom so instead of prolonging the inevitable I euthanized her and opened her up to see what I could see.
I first drained the abdominal fluid into a tray then a 24 oz jar, which was most of it. I did not do a full necrospy by pulling out all the internal organs and then opening them up too, but did get a pretty good look at heart, liver and lungs...which all looked ok to me with my limited experience in butchering a dozen or two birds in the past. The 'bumps' that looked to be in the walls of oviduct and intestines were definitely not normal. The intestines were stiff and tightened together, couldn't stretch them out.
Not sure if these 'bumps' are cancer, infection, parasite, lesions from some disease or what. Am doing some searching here and googling but haven't found anything yet. So if anyone knows what they are or a resource that will ID them, I would appreciate you chiming in here.
Oh, and did not want to use the usual cone and jugular slit I use to kill when harvesting meat so researched Cervical Dislocation and finally, finally found a good example that leaves the head on the body. It worked just like in this video at 1:00 minute in.
