Pullets Unexpectedly Died Today

[kiwiblossom]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I had one pass today,also a golden comet. And the exact symptoms that you describe. My girl was eight months old. The other 8 and roo seem perfectly fine. My husband and I are worried too.

Thank you for your reply and sorry for your loss! It's upsetting when they seem fine and healthy and suddenly are deathly ill. I have read that golden comets often have eggbinding problems. I took a break from Backyard Chickens for a few days because it was upsetting thinking about my poor pullet so much. My other pullets are still acting normal. I hope yours are too.

 

[elaineinspain]

Thank you. I had to take a break from BackyardChickens for a few days. I know new layers sometimes are irregular and that's why I wasn't too worried at first. I'm a newbie to chickens and I thought I'd read enough,but I just learned something new: what a sick hen looks like. Now I'm watching the others carefully. They all look fine so far. I can't do a necropsy but I'm guessing it was an egg binding problem.

could be a fungal infection, which are actually easy to treat and prevent with Oxine ( Sodium Chlorite 2% for those of us outside of America) http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page11.htm.

 

[elaineinspain]

We can't tell you why your little pullet died. Even if you had a vet look at her, they wouldn't be able to tell you much. The only way you can find out what killed your girl is to take her body to a lab and have a necropsy done.

We all have a chicken die from time to time, and most often they behave just as yours did before she died. There are so many things that can infect chickens or toxins they can be exposed to in the course of their ranging and pecking, it's almost impossible to guess.

I'm so sorry your little one died. I doubt it was contagious, but you need to find out. The only way is a necropsy.

Hi azygous,
Any idea how much would one normally pay for a necropsy? and for a test for fungal infetions?
thanks for any help...

 

[azygous]

Sometimes you can get a necropsy for free through a farm vet program. Call your university extension office and they can tell you where to get one. I paid around $100 for the one I got. Various tests cost differently, so you have to ask. Sometimes a vet will do these tests, so ask around.

 

[elaineinspain]

Sometimes you can get a necropsy for free through a farm vet program. Call your university extension office and they can tell you where to get one. I paid around $100 for the one I got. Various tests cost differently, so you have to ask. Sometimes a vet will do these tests, so ask around.

Thank you azygous. I am in Spain Europe and was also asked to pay €100 for necropsy, and €63 for a test for mycoplasma (which was negative but I was then told that false negatives are common) and I've been asked for €55 to test for fungal infection in the trachea.
it all seems very expensive to me and was wondering if these prices are normal....

 

[kiwiblossom]

could be a fungal infection, which are actually easy to treat and prevent with Oxine ( Sodium Chlorite 2% for those of us outside of America) http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page11.htm.Thank you for the info! I'm going to try this.

 

[KayTee]

Thank you azygous. I am in Spain Europe and was also asked to pay €100 for necropsy, and €63 for a test for mycoplasma (which was negative but I was then told that false negatives are common) and I've been asked for €55 to test for fungal infection in the trachea.
it all seems very expensive to me and was wondering if these prices are normal....

Wow! 100€ seems expensive to me. I'm in south-west France and my local vet (who has some basic knowledge of chickens as it is a rural area with lots of farms) charges 15€ for a basic necropsy. For that she checks the internal organs for abnormalities, tests for worms and coccidiosis, and will also examine the main nerves.

Last year I had two birds with severe neurological symptoms that had to be euthanised, and in both of them she identified nerve damage that is usually linked to Marek's disease. She offered me blood tests to confirm her diagnosis, but I didn't take them up because a) I had strongly suspected Marek's myself and b) I have no plans to sell / give away any birds, so it's just something I will learn to deal with in my flock - having an 'official' diagnosis won't change anything I do, so it didn't seem worth the 60€ + cost she was suggesting.

I recently also lost my Bielefelder roo very unexpectedly, and with no obvious symptoms, and the vet found out that he had a heart abnormality (from birth) - so nothing contagious or that I could have treated.

For me a 15€ necropsy is worth the peace of mind for an unexpected death, but 100€ seems way too much for something so basic on a chicken.

Unfortunately the loss of our birds is something that most of us don't really think about when we start keeping chickens (I bawled my eyes out when I lost my first bird to internal laying at under 2 years old.) However, it is a part of the whole, and is something that we have to learn to deal with, even if it is heartbreaking. I now take comfort from the fact that whether I lose a bird at a young or old age, they have had a much better and happier life as part of my flock than they could have had in many other situations.

 

[elaineinspain]

@KayTee

Thank you for your reply. Yes, If the tests would be around €15 - €20 I'd be much more likely to have tests done, but €100 I just don't have those sort of resources at the moment. The vet I visited is especially for birds and "exotics" The waiting room was full of parrots and budgies! I asked in the neighbourhood about a vet for chickens and was looked at as if I'm mad. Most folk here have crops and keep chickens and ducks as pest control, letting them wander free in the fields, sometimes being killed by foxes or stray dogs.
I really need to find a farm vet who does chickens...

 

[azygous]

I totally agree that the prices these labs charge are exorbitant. When I had a necropsy done, a friend offered to pay for it since I don't have much money. It was a one time shot for me. I did learn a lot from it, and doubt I will ever need to have another done since I now know what's infecting my flock and causing the mysterious deaths over the years.

I once attempted a do-it-yourself necropsy. I got up the courage to literally take apart a hen that I had to euthanize. I opened her up and pulled out all her organs, thinking I would notice anything being abnormal. But I had no idea what I was looking at. It was a total wasted effort.

 

[KayTee]

I once attempted a do-it-yourself necropsy. I got up the courage to literally take apart a hen that I had to euthanize. I opened her up and pulled out all her organs, thinking I would notice anything being abnormal. But I had no idea what I was looking at. It was a total wasted effort.

I did a very similar thing azygous - psyched myself up to open up a euthanised bird, cut into the body and couldn't identify anything that I found! Even with online photos of normal and abnormal organs as reference I had no idea where to begin, or what bits I was poking around with.

I just gave up and buried the body