Young pullet died, found a bunch of seeds in gizzard what are they?

[junebuggena]

Yes popcorn kernels are fine to feed to chickens, but the chicken needs to have adequate grit in the gizzard to grind them up so they can be digested and pass through. Without grit, nothing will move through the gizzard. But you can't force a chicken to eat grit, they have to figure that out on their own. It seems that this bird didn't figure out that she needed to consume a few pebbles.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Only thing i can think is maybe plant one in a pot and see what it ends up looking like so you know what the plant looks like so you can find it. That and you the can see if its toxic or not. So many seeds are similar that its hard to tell what what some times.

 

[dough13]

Only thing i can think is maybe plant one in a pot and see what it ends up looking like so you know what the plant looks like so you can find it. That and you the can see if its toxic or not. So many seeds are similar that its hard to tell what what some times.

I have already planted the seeds to see if i can get one to sprout =) i am not sure that the seeds would poison the chicken unless the outer shell was broken down which it wasn't. I broke the outer shell of a few seeds and the innards were white and the seed had a very sweet smell but i still don't know what it is.

I am going to assume she ate a bunch of these seeds at once without eating any grit along with it to help the seeds move through the gizzard then got sick from the seeds clogging her gizzard. If i would have found a piece of plastic in the gizzard like i was expecting at least i would have known for sure what it was that killed her.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Ok thats odd mm i an really curious as to what it is.

 

[Mutt Farm]

They would have passed if she had grit in the gizzard as well. Grit is needed to break down things like those seeds and corn. If a bird won't consume grit, then there really isn't anything that can be done to avoid an impacted crop.

^^^X2. If you aren't having trouble with your other hens I think you could safely rule out poison. Did you do a full necropsy to search for other causes?

Yes popcorn kernels are fine to feed to chickens, but the chicken needs to have adequate grit in the gizzard to grind them up so they can be digested and pass through. Without grit, nothing will move through the gizzard. But you can't force a chicken to eat grit, they have to figure that out on their own. It seems that this bird didn't figure out that she needed to consume a few pebbles.

^^^X2 again.

 

[dough13]

Mutt I didn't do a full Necropsy I only focused on the gizzard but I can confidently say that the crop was not impacted or sour as I felt it and it was empty with no weird clumps/sloshing etc..
The seeds should have passed within a few days in quarantine if they were going to (she had access to grit as well while i was caring for her).

Would the chick being sick from other reasons stop the gizzard from emptying? She never had any other signs of sickness other than not eating and being listless and wobbly .

 

[Mutt Farm]

I don't think so. I think the problem was lack of grit.

 

[dough13]

I tend to agree with the lack of grit in her gizzard may have caused problems but there was plenty of grit available while she was outside and also in the run ,I guess for some reason she just didn't eat any/enough grit maybe because she filled up on the seeds and had no room. I have seen chicks eat rocks as big as those seeds they should have been able to pass. I am not totally versed on how the gizzard works but i read its a strong muscle that squeezes and moves the grit around to grind up food for digestion. The seeds wouldn't have broken up though because they were so hard so they should have just passed through? The likely reasons the seeds never passed IMO would be because there was too many in the gizzard at once and the gizzard got "tired and weak" from trying to break the seeds down and stopped working properly or because of so many seeds they blocked the gizzards exit route.