Where to get a necropsy

[amanda1]

My sweet little Legbar died today. She had been showing signs of sickness for over a year. A vet thought she might have aspergillosis, although none of my others have shown signs of illnesses. It has driven me nuts, thinking maybe something I did wrong caused her to get sick. I want to get a necropsy to find out for sure what was wrong with her. I’m in southeastern PA. How do I go about finding a place that will do a necropsy for a reasonable fee, and let me know the results?

 

[rebrascora]

I'm so sorry you lost your girl.
I did a simple google search and came up with these 3:-

Penn State University
Animal Diagnostic Laboratory
Wiley Lane
University Park, PA 16802
Contact
Phone: (814) 863-0837
Fax: (814) 865-3907
[email protected]


Pennsylvania
Veterinary Laboratory
2305 North Cameron Street
Harrisburg, PA, 17110
Contact
Phone: (717) 787-8808
Fax: (717) 772-3895
[email protected]

New Bolton Center
Veterinary Laboratory
382 West Street Road
Kennett Square, PA, 19348-1692
Contact
Phone: (610) 925-6211
Fax: (610) 925-6822
[email protected]

I did a search on one site and the charge of $30 was quoted for a backyard avian necropsy. I will leave it to you to do further research to find the closest/cheapest one for you.

Would you update your post with the results if you manage to get it sorted, thanks.

 

[amanda1]

Thank you so much! I will definitely share my results. That is one of the reasons I want to do it, to hopefully help educate other chicken owners.

 

[amanda1]

I’m am stunned. I took her to the Kennett Square location. I talked to the vet today. We were completely off base on her original diagnosis of aspergillosis. She had an infected oviduct and a ruptured ovary. She has had symptoms of labored breathing for over one year, and this is what it was! I will keep you updated with other test results as they come in.

 

[amanda1]

I got my bill from Penn Vet. It was only $42 and they’d tested for everything! I highly recommend doing necropsies on birds an owner has questions about. It was well worth it for me to find out what was wrong with my hen. Because they also tested for diseases like MG, I also was able to verify that the flock was disease-free.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for posting an update!

 

[rebrascora]

So pleased you were able to get a necropsy done and many thanks for posting the outcome and the cost as I know many people are worried about the financial outlay. Hopefully others reading this will now be encouraged to make use of such services. It really is peace of mind when you get a result back that tells you that there was nothing you could have done to prevent it and there is no indication of infectious diseases or internal parasites.
So it sounds like she got salpingitis and as her oviduct impacted with infected material (lash egg), she then started laying internally and the combination of all that egg mass in her abdomen was putting pressure on her respiratory system. Did the vet mention Ascites (water belly) or was it purely the mass of eggs and pus that was putting pressure on her lungs and air sacs? Would you be able to post a photo of the lab report so that we can read it..... it is always interesting and educational to see such results and try to understand what was going on.

Many thanks

Barbara