Quail with brittle chalky eggs: internal abnormalities

[Susan Skylark]

Sorry, no pics, butcher day is a bit messy for pictures mid-mess! I had three quail to cull, two aggressive males and a 4 month old hen that has been daily laying blue eggs (not celadon) with a brittle chalky shell that indent with the least touch. It took me a bit to localize the bird but finally located the offender, of course it is a nice big gentle bird that is a good layer! Culling is the only option between the mess of squashed eggs, no productivity, and the risk of egg peritonitis, sorry I’m not going to maintain her and a friend on minimal light for several years! The two males were unexciting, but the hen’s internal anatomy was odd, she had several little yolks all set to go (already laid bad egg today) but the odd thing was the toothpaste. No, it wasn’t really toothpaste, rather it looked like someone had blasted a tube of toothpaste all over her internal organs. It wasn’t just some gunk you could wipe off and it was clinging in little clumps all over her organs, and yes it is mint green! She has some sort of infiltrate in her lymph tissue, but I’ve never seen anything of the sort that color but then I haven’t Necropsied many laying birds whose eggs are the same hue either. It could be an aberrant form of lymphoma or similar cancer or an issue with her calcium metabolism or even an odd developmental defect like misplaced shell producing cells (she’s secreting blue calcium into the lymph tissue instead of around an egg?). Really interesting but totally pointless to send in for a pathologist’s opinion as it seems an issue with this bird alone. And even if she does have mareks or a similar contagious cancer it isn’t like it will change prognosis for my other birds. One time I sent some dead bunnies in and the lab called to ask me what I thought it was, I didn’t know which is why I sent it in! Never a dull moment!

 

[casportpony]

Really interesting but totally pointless to send in for a pathologist’s opinion as it seems an issue with this bird alone.

That is very interesting to me, and an avian pathologist would probably think so too. I used to call & email H. L. Shivaprasad, DVM, PhD, DACPV, about interesting stuff. Call your state lab and get to know your avian pathologists, and I bet you'll find they'd like to see pictures.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Sadly I didn’t take any pics, and diagnostic lab submission for a general necropsy would run $100 or so (I need a bird pathologist pal who does this stuff as a hobby!). I don’t know why there were calcium deposits inside the body cavity but I do have a new theory on why the eggs were getting weird. In general my birds do great calcium and shellwise but I noticed another bird starting with the same issue, I had already separated her for cull as she’s my butt pecker and watched as her eggs went from giant, beautiful celadon eggs to brittle shelled time bombs, not yet as bad as the other bird but likely en route. Both birds (very possibly related) are my biggest, nicest layers. I wonder if my calcium levels are fine for normal birds, but my ‘super’ layers need more, just like high milking cows need a higher quality ration than joe smoe beef cow only raising a single calf or performance horses need way more than a weekend trail horse. I’ll start adding egg or oyster shells along with the grit to my layers and see what happens. I did cull the other bird but no abnormalities noted.