Yellow fluid in meatie...

[BackyardAR]

I processed the first eight or so of my meaties over the past few days. The had food taken away at least 12 hours prior but had water and a fresh patch of grass. Yesterday I picked one out because he wasn't sitting flat in the tractor. Had one leg cocked out. I was always scared of the flipping though none have, but I got him out and processed him in case he was headed that direction. After beheading, bleeding out, scalding and plucking I started in on his vent. One I got into his abdominal cavity there was tons of clear yellow fluid. I want to say it didn't smell the best, but by the the entire process wasn't smelling the best. I hadn't nicked anything inside him. I finished processing him without finding anything else out of the ordinary. I packed him up and stuck him in the fridge where I could retrieve him if necessary.

Any ideas why the bird was full of fluid and if he would be safe to eat? I'm consider throwing him out just because of the difference but wanted to know if this was an indicator of something in particular.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

It was ascites. I don't have meat birds myself, but when I responded to a similar thread the other responders did not seem concerned about eating the bird. Hopefully others will respond here as well.

 

[BCMaraniac]

I processed the first eight or so of my meaties over the past few days. The had food taken away at least 12 hours prior but had water and a fresh patch of grass. Yesterday I picked one out because he wasn't sitting flat in the tractor. Had one leg cocked out. I was always scared of the flipping though none have, but I got him out and processed him in case he was headed that direction. After beheading, bleeding out, scalding and plucking I started in on his vent. One I got into his abdominal cavity there was tons of clear yellow fluid. I want to say it didn't smell the best, but by the the entire process wasn't smelling the best. I hadn't nicked anything inside him. I finished processing him without finding anything else out of the ordinary. I packed him up and stuck him in the fridge where I could retrieve him if necessary.

Any ideas why the bird was full of fluid and if he would be safe to eat? I'm consider throwing him out just because of the difference but wanted to know if this was an indicator of something in particular.

It is, in fact, ascites. There are two things that can cause this....congestive heart failure and/or a fatty liver. I had one a few weeks back, and we ate it. The blood in the chicken(and humans) contains cells, called red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Those cells are floating in a liquid called serum. When that fluid accumulates inside the abdomen, it is called ascites. So basically it is the liquid component of blood.....

So there is no problem eating the meat.

 

[happydog]

I was just coming here to ask the same thing. I processed my birds yesterday and had two of them with that. As soon as they were plucked I could see their abdomens were full of sloshy fluid. I didn't know what would cause that and was afraid of contaminating the work area so I threw them to the pigs.

 

[happydog]

What would cause 2 month old chickens to have congestive heart failure or fatty livers?

 

[scratch'n'peck]

It sounds like the meat chickens that are bred to grow really fast are prone to ascites.