Pullet very sick, vet appointment tomorrow. Should I try and keep it alive, or cull now?

[casportpony]

I opened up the last one lost, and all the digestive system looked horrible.

Very sorry for your losses. What did the digestive system look like?

 

[Sussex19]

Very sorry for your losses. What did the digestive system look like?

The gizzard seemed shriveled, and was going a dark blackish colour.
It did have a quite a bit of grass in it, but I don't know why that would only cause only a couple of pullets over one or two months to have problems, so maybe that happened afterwards? (like if the pullet being too weak to get to the food, so eating grass instead?)
The guts also seemed to be going the same way. I didn't look at the crop because by that point I couldn't take any more, but I have no doubts that it would have been similar.
The whole thing smelt horrible.

 

[casportpony]

The gizzard seemed shriveled, and was going a dark blackish colour.
It did have a quite a bit of grass in it, but I don't know why that would only cause only a couple of pullets over one or two months to have problems, so maybe that happened afterwards? (like if the pullet being too weak to get to the food, so eating grass instead?)
The guts also seemed to be going the same way. I didn't look at the crop because by that point I couldn't take any more, but I have no doubts that it would have been similar.
The whole thing smelt horrible.

So sorry. How long had she been dead before you necropsied her?

 

[Sussex19]

I went to take the video of her, and she actually seemed to be feeling a little better.
Don't get me wrong, she is still very sick, but this morning when I let them out she wasn't coming out at all, and when I took her out and she almost fell over.
Whereas now she was running away from me to stay with the others. She is a tough little pullet, so I might wait till the vet tomorrow just in case.
I'll post the video later, when the camera is charged again. (it went flat)

 

[Sussex19]

So sorry. How long had she been dead before you necropsied her?

Thank you.
About 5 min, she had been looking very miserable all day; and I finally decided to cull her, and as I picked her up she passed away.
So I just waited till it was all calm, and then went ahead.
It takes a lot to shock me, but the state she was in did. Thats why I'm struggling a bit with this one, because I don't want her to go through that.
I'll see how she looks in an hour or two, and make a decision then.

 

[Sussex19]

Here's the vid.
Not very good quality though.
Something I noticed is that she keeps her head a bit tilted to the side. I don't know if this is just because her crop is uncomfortable or something, or if that could give a clue as to whats going on.

 

[bhaugh]

Are you sure they aren’t eating some sort of toxin? Maybe a plant of some sort or spraying in your area either by ground or crop dusting? Black tissue of course is dying and I’d look for things that could kill healthy tissue. I don’t know if I’d let my birds free range until I had an answer. Maybe a bite from a toxic bug?

 

[Sussex19]

Are you sure they aren’t eating some sort of toxin? Maybe a plant of some sort or spraying in your area either by ground or crop dusting? Black tissue of course is dying and I’d look for things that could kill healthy tissue. I don’t know if I’d let my birds free range until I had an answer. Maybe a bite from a toxic bug?

I don't know.
I can't not free range them, because that would mean building an entire new fence which isn't possible in the moment.
I could move them to a new spot though.
There is a few slightly toxic plants around, like black locust trees, but I have never seen them eating them.
No bugs that I know of that could cause this.

 

[casportpony]

Here's the vid.
Not very good quality though.
Something I noticed is that she keeps her head a bit tilted to the side. I don't know if this is just because her crop is uncomfortable or something, or if that could give a clue as to whats going on.

She doesn't look like a hen that wants to die, she looks petty perky. If mine, I would not euthanize her, I would let the vet look at her.

I thought this link was interesting:
https://plusvet.eu/2021/08/22/7-main-causes-of-erosions-in-gizzard-and-proventriculus/

If your vet is stumped, there are a couple of people that they could contact:

This guy should consult for free via email:
https://cahfs.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/people/h-shivaprasad

This guy charges:
DR Speer:
https://www.medicalcenterforbirds.com/doctors.pml

 

[BigBlueHen53]