Updated! - Test Your Diagnostic Skills - Warning, Contains Graphic Necropsy Photos

[Wonderwend]

@rooboo I think the joys of modern text communication has gotten the better of the two of us.

I didn't mean to offend you, you didn't mean to offend me, we both want the same thing; an answer to this puzzle.
I'm sorry if anything I wrote was taken the wrong way - it wasn't intended as that.
Friends?

 

[rooboo]

@rooboo
 I think the joys of modern text communication has gotten the better of the two of us. I didn't mean to offend you, you didn't mean to offend me, we both want the same thing; an answer to this puzzle.
I'm sorry if anything I wrote was taken the wrong way - it wasn't intended as that.
Friends?

Agreed, I personally hate texting lol. I'm constantly being cautious on how I word things so as to not have it misunderstood, mostly because I have gone back and read things after posting them and realized that it could be perceived differently. Unfortunately social media misses the human factor in conversations. No hard feelings here!

 

[Wonderwend]

 

[karenerwin]

I just read the whole thread. thank you for all the pictures & information. I found it very helpful. I have a 4 year old rooster that just developed wry neck on 10/27/15. I've been treating with vitamins, but he has only gotten worse. On the advice of another BYCer I've emailed my state vet to see how togo about getting a necropsy done & what it will cost, as I don't think he will make it. I'll let you know I find out.

 

[sassione]

Following......

 

[wild chick]

I just want to say how much I enjoyed reading all 32 pages of this thread this morning. Wish I'd found it sooner. My favorite roo died Thursday and I assumed it was impacted crop, so I didn't go further into my necropsy. He hadn't eaten for 2 days and I tried massaging the crop but it didn't go down. I'm a newbie & didn't have enough knowledge to do anything else, plus it was Thanksgiving & company. So when I cut him open I wanted to see what was in his crop - it was full of whole dried corn. I don't feed the chickens whole corn, but they free range and he must have found where I'd scattered it for wildlife for my critter-cam. (They had never ventured that far before) The only other thing I looked at was the gizzard - it had plenty of grit, but it had nasty smelling green liquid that poured out, no food. Everything I read on BYC says whole corn should not be a problem. Non of the other chickens got sick. Any comments would be welcome!

 

[Wonderwend]

The contents of the gizzard will be green/yellow in colour ; that's the bile doing its job. Not much inside a chicken's intestines smells very good. The gizzard itself gets stained yellow because of the bile.
The proventricular releases some pale green enzymes.
Did it look like the photo or was it a pussy green colour?

 

[wild chick]

no, it wasn't healthy. I just processed 9 healthy roos and we kept the gizzards and when sliced open there was grit & bits. On this roo that died upon slicing it open liquid (watery green & smelly) poured out. I didn't even go to the intestines. I really wished I'd come here & found this thread before opening him up - I would have looked much further. My only guess is that the corn, for whatever reason wouldn't go through to the gizzard and the gizzard with nothing in it turned foul. Now I wonder about everything - and realize I could have looked at many other things. I ordered a straight run of silver & gold Wyandottes for their duel purpose & cold hardiness, and the free chick turned out to be an Egyptian Fayoumis - not a good meat bird, not a good egg bird, built like a road runner & made for hot weather. I thought to myself, that'll be the first one to go, but turns out he was the best roo anyone would want for their free ranging flock. He was on the keep forever list. We culled carefully at 5 months old (just a few weeks ago), and I was pretty proud that of 21 chicks (my first chickens ever) that they all lived with no accidents, predators or illness until we took the lives of the excess roos. I still have one gold & one silver roo and 9 hens. Yes, I'm aware that's probably one too many, but I'll take care of it if it doesn't work out. Sorry, I've digressed... But still wanting to learn and don't want to make the same mistake. Does this sound like gorging on whole corn impacted the crop? Does the gizzard go bad if no food gets to it? Thanks again for any input!

 

[Wonderwend]

I would argue that chickens are designed to gorge on whatever is available; that's what their crop is for! It sounds like this one had an infection of some kind if it was genuinely a nasty colour and smell. It may have come to you with a slight infection that got worse.
Chickens are fickle animals; they die easily and they rarely show symptoms of being ill ( being a prey animal and not wanting to show weakness).
It's wonderful that you are willing to investigate internally to learn about whats going on inside them. That is why I do it; I can see if there is an issue that could have been prevented and change my management of them as a result. It helps me stop feeling guilty when I know there is nothing I could have done In doing an autopsy I can also relate symptoms with disease processes and treat the next bird appropriately or humanly euthanize sooner. It's great that we can upload pictures to this forum for other people to learn from and thus improve the well-being of their birds too.
It's tough treating animals because, yeah, you can go in with antibiotics at the drop of a hat, but that causes problems too and can make some things worse.
Read all you can on here; it's an AMAZING resource and keep up your good work xx

 

[wild chick]

Thank you so much Wonderwend. I have a deep sense of responsibility and especially since this was my favorite bird I wanted to know what happened. It's interesting your thought on an infection of some kind... he had exactly the same symptoms around the 20th of October for 2 or 3 days. Lethargic, not eating & not drinking. But by the 3rd day he was a bit better & after 4 or 5 days he was fine. I really wish now that I'd gone further into investigating and taken photos. One is never through learning. Best news - I found my first egg today! These chickens were hatched June 20th and I wasn't sure they'd start laying at 5 to 6 months because the days are so short and night before last it was 12 degrees. Thanks again for your thoughts!