How to Send a Bird for a Necropsy - Pictures

[casportpony]

how long after death can they be sent?

I had one die on a Thursday late afternoon, so couldn't ship her until Monday. Not ideal, but they were able to find the cause of death.

-Kathy

 

[artsyrobin]

ok, thanks, couldn't find a time frame

 

[casportpony]

ok, thanks, couldn't find a time frame

Ideally they would like to have live birds, but they can accept birds that have been dead a few days as long as they have been refrigerated.

-Kathy

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Ideally they would like to have live birds, but they can accept birds that have been dead a few days as long as they have been refrigerated.

-Kathy

Hi Kathy.

Yes, this is a very helpful thread.

Will you give your input...

I have a (now) 9 week old chick, Possible silkie mix but not sure.. dark skin, 5 toes, feathered legs, clean feet and face, regular feathers, crest developed after 4 weeks (similar to Swedish Flower). Anyways, 8 days ago presented with being unable to walk/control the legs. No other signs or symptoms. Normal stool, tail held high, alert, bright eyes, eats vigorously, no respiratory distress. To uncoordinated to drink and has ONLY had fermented feed 20% protein flock raiser (and the moisture there in), and minuscule amount of scrambled egg. Symptoms have not progressed either way. I can't pin point a disease that truly fits. I have supplemented since onset with nutri drench and vitamin E, since deficiency is my best assessment. Recently learned that selenium and B's *may* help, which I thought the nutri drench had B's but just discovered it doesn't. Shame on me for not reading the label!! And if it is a deficiency than what caused it.. genetics, parasites would be my two suspects. Haven't had a float done. Didn't think (he) would live this long. That's the back story.

Next thing is.. since it's already been 8 days with no change, and I think even if it recovers will need physical therapy to regain leg control and learn to walk again, which I don't have time to do considering my other obligations. If it's a boy we would look to eating him at 16 weeks anyways, which will probably make for an extra small carcass anyways. If it's a girl, she may hang out for her first laying season and then move on unless she somehow became really special, which not too many do. But you never know. So IF I decide to cull, should I wait until after 4th of July since I won't be able to send for necropsy before that? Will probably be sending to Davis since I'm in the extreme Nor Cal. Wish it wasn't so far (6-7 hour drive), because being able to get more detailed results sounds awesome. And finally, we usually dispatch via the cone. But that doesn't seem like it would be appropriate to send a bird in for necropsy.. If indeed I do wait until after the 4th, I will continue and try to treat. Is it more humane to do it now and refrigerate until sending out on Wednesday? And how would you cull?

TIA

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Update.. Chick is still alive. Yesterday seemed a little less excited to eat but is again vigorously eating this morning. And actually a slightly louder peep!

I did call both my vet and the state vet. My vet said $95 to SEND my bird for necropsy plus another $102 if I wanted them to euthanize the bird.

The state vet (in Davis) said they *think* it's neurological Marek's and as far as they are concerned it's in EVERY flock. And there is no blood test to confirm. They said the necropsy fee would be $20 and they gave me their account # to drop the package off at Fed Ex for over night delivery (bill to receiver) and said they would bill me whatever the amount for shipping was, which they suspected would be under $20, indicating of course what @casportpony had said that they get much cheaper rates than individuals do. Kathy, you rock! Without your information, my anxiety would have prevented me from even making the call, and did for a while. I got through right away and they were very helpful! All the research you did though, and posting the exact #'s gave me very little excuse. I will have less fear of contacting them in the future.

The other thing they answered was.. they don't run blood tests on deceased animals. And they said I could use my cone method, with no concern for cleaning up blood splatter or whatever feces has built up from not being able to stand. Just to make sure I include the head with the body.

 

[casportpony]

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[BigATC]

We Don't have that here. I was given the "State Vet for poultry" information when I wrote for help & it's more than 300 miles on the other side of the state.
I'm assuming, that means theres only 1 in our state & now that makes me angry!
I feel I should have the chance to send my deceased in to find out what happened ( but would prefer someone willing to do this testing before they die...) I just can't believe with all that's being spread on this planet, that we are limited to seeing what they HAD/After they've died... Before we can se what they HAVE & what we need to do to fix it while they're still alive!
Not happy with this State right now, Not At All.

Thank you for such valuable information even if from another State. Still Very Valuable.

$27 in WA for a resident... Through WA State Univ:
https://waddl.vetmed.wsu.edu/avian

 

[casportpony]

$27 in WA for a resident... Through WA State Univ:
https://waddl.vetmed.wsu.edu/avian

Thanks for the info!
@Texas Kiki, you wanna add that to your database?

 

[Kiki]

Thanks for the info!
@Texas Kiki, you wanna add that to your database?

Yes! Thank you.

 

[casportpony]

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