When is a chicken not safe to eat?

[horror_trashcan]

I don't have any fully grown birds yet but I do plan on eating quite a few and I am wondering when people draw the line when it comes to eating them if they are injured or sick.
I've read people saying to never eat a sick chicken but an injured one is fine and I am wondering when a chicken is too ill to be safely eaten. If a raccoon tore into a chicken would it be safe to eat with the raccoons germs on it? If the chicken just has a fungal infection would it be safe to eat? Would you cut out the gross parts and keep the rest? At what point do we decide the meat is compromised and best to just compost it?
I of course plan to treat them if ill or injured but say a bird that was already up for slaughter suddenly became sick, would you cull it immediately or treat and then eat?
I understand this would be determined by illness, I am wondering what is okay to consume and which regard the bird as futile.
I know everyone will have differing opinions but I don't want to waste anything if possible.

I am just wondering when its no longer in my best interest to save as much meat as possible as I do not wish to waste any birds that die regardless of cause.
Thank you for your knowledge.

 

[NatJ]

I know everyone will have differing opinions

That is certainly true!

I don't have any fully grown birds yet but I do plan on eating quite a few and I am wondering when people draw the line when it comes to eating them if they are injured or sick.

In general, I won't eat a bird unless both of the following are true:
--I know what was wrong with it
--I consider that problem is not dangerous to me

So if a bird has a newly-broken wing, I probably would not eat that wing (damaged flesh is not as appetizing), but I would be happy to eat the rest of the bird. But if the broken wing had gone untended for a while and developed an infection, I would not eat the wing, but I might not eat the rest of the bird either. I would probably kill the bird and then look to see how far the infection had spread: maybe discard the nearby breast meat but still eat the legs, or discard the whole thing.

A chicken with an infection in the foot (like bumblefoot), I might discard the foot but eat the rest of the bird, unless I saw evidence of the infection spreading.

Thorough cooking will do a pretty good job of killing germs, but I only trust that so far.

If I thought the bird might have been poisoned, I would not eat it. I am using "poison" very broadly to include things like toxic plants, moldy feed, drinking spilled antifreeze, and many other things.

Regarding illnesses, if there is any reasonable chance of the illness spreading to people, I don't want to eat the bird. But I also don't want to be spending time butchering that bird, which exposes me to the illness.

I of course plan to treat them if ill or injured but say a bird that was already up for slaughter suddenly became sick, would you cull it immediately or treat and then eat?

The kind of treatment makes a difference.

I would not treat an infection with antibiotics, then plan to eat the bird a week or two later. I don't want to eat the antibiotics!

In most cases, I would dispatch the bird promptly, rather than trying to treat it now and butcher it later. An injured or ill bird will usually not grow as fast while it is recovering, so you won't get much extra meat, but you still have to feed and house the bird during that time, plus you are spending some of your time to treat the bird as well. Killing the bird also prevents it from suffering, so it can be in the best interest of the bird as well as efficient for the person.

For some kinds of illnesses (like minor respiratory issues), if I thought there was a good chance of the bird recovering on its own, I would probably just monitor the situation. If it recovers fully, I would then be willing to eat that bird.

I don't want to waste anything if possible.

Eating it yourself is not the only way to avoid waste.
Burying it deeply to fertilize a tree is one way of making use of the bird-- maybe not quite as useful as eating it, but still something.

If you have other animals that like to eat chicken, they can eat some birds that a person might not want to. This especially applies to injuries: meat that is torn up or bloody or bruised is unappetizing to a person, but won't bother a dog or a pig. For infections and diseases, I would think about how likely the other animal is to have a problem, then decide what to do. Any kind of poisoning situation I would avoid feeding to other animals, and for some poisons I might consider disposing of the body in the trash can or a fire instead of burying it (poisoned by local plants would get buried, poisoned by herbicides would not.)

I've read people saying to never eat a sick chicken but an injured one is fine...I am just wondering when its no longer in my best interest to save as much meat as possible as I do not wish to waste any birds that die regardless of cause.

The biggest way to avoid this kind of waste is to have a healthy flock. If you raise hundreds of birds each year and only one or two have problems, it's not a big deal to discard just that one or two.

If you regularly have large numbers of birds that are injured or sick, you usually have bigger problems than deciding what to do with the meat. I do know that one-time problems can happen (like a dog getting into the chicken pen and injuring many birds at once), but I would take that as a warning to improve the pen so it never happens again.

 

[horror_trashcan]

That is certainly true!


In general, I won't eat a bird unless both of the following are true:
--I know what was wrong with it
--I consider that problem is not dangerous to me

So if a bird has a newly-broken wing, I probably would not eat that wing (damaged flesh is not as appetizing), but I would be happy to eat the rest of the bird. But if the broken wing had gone untended for a while and developed an infection, I would not eat the wing, but I might not eat the rest of the bird either. I would probably kill the bird and then look to see how far the infection had spread: maybe discard the nearby breast meat but still eat the legs, or discard the whole thing.

A chicken with an infection in the foot (like bumblefoot), I might discard the foot but eat the rest of the bird, unless I saw evidence of the infection spreading.

Thorough cooking will do a pretty good job of killing germs, but I only trust that so far.

If I thought the bird might have been poisoned, I would not eat it. I am using "poison" very broadly to include things like toxic plants, moldy feed, drinking spilled anitfreeze, and many other things.

Regarding illnesses, if there is any reasonable chance of the illness spreading to people, I don't want to eat the bird. But I also don't want to be spending time butchering that bird, which exposes me to the illness.


The kind of treatment makes a difference.

I would not treat an infection with antibiotics, then plan to eat the bird a week or two later. I don't want to eat the antibiotics!

In most cases, I would dispatch the bird promptly, rather than trying to treat it now and butcher it later. An injured or ill bird will usually not grow as fast while it is recovering, so you won't get much extra meat, but you still have to feed and house the bird during that time, plus you are spending some of your time to treat the bird as well. Killing the bird also prevents it from suffering, so it can be in the best interest of the bird as well as efficient for the person.

For some kinds of illnesses (like minor respiratory issues), if I thought there was a good chance of the bird recovering on its own, I would probably just monitor the situation. If it recovers fully, I would then be willing to eat that bird.


Eating it yourself is not the only way to avoid waste.
Burying it deeply to fertilize a tree is one way of making use of the bird-- maybe not quite as useful as eating it, but still something.

If you have other animals that like to eat chicken, they can eat some birds that a person might not want to. This especially applies to injuries: meat that is torn up or bloody or bruised is unappetizing to a person, but won't bother a dog or a pig. For infections and diseases, I would think about how likely the other animal is to have a problem, then decide what to do. Any kind of poisoning situation I would avoid feeding to other animals, and for some poisons I might consider disposing of the body in the trash can or a fire instead of burying it (poisoned by local plants would get buried, poisoned by herbicides would not.)


The biggest way to avoid this kind of waste is to have a healthy flock. If you raise hundreds of birds each year and only one or two have problems, it's not a big deal to discard just that one or two.

If you regularly have large numbers of birds that are injured or sick, you usually have bigger problems than deciding what to do with the meat. I do know that one-time problems can happen (like a dog getting into the chicken pen and injuring many birds at once), but I would take that as a warning to improve the pen so it never happens again.

Thank you! This is very insightful and confirms most of my assumptions as well.

 

[Molpet]

I started eating injured and birds killed after GH owls started taking out my heritage turkeys. They usually ate the head and neck maybe part of the breasts. I would find the birds in the morning before rigor mortis, and cool out. Cut off any punctures.

I had a canine come through this August and found 7 bodies and 2 missing. 5 were not in rigor at all. One of the 2 partially in rigor was partially eaten, the rest were bit in the back. I harvested breasts, thighs and drumsticks that weren't bit.
One girl showed up a couple days later in shock, bad shape and scabbed over. I was worried about infection so I just dispatched since I didn't think she was going to make it and obviously suffering.

 

[tripletfeb]

That is certainly true!


In general, I won't eat a bird unless both of the following are true:
--I know what was wrong with it
--I consider that problem is not dangerous to me

So if a bird has a newly-broken wing, I probably would not eat that wing (damaged flesh is not as appetizing), but I would be happy to eat the rest of the bird. But if the broken wing had gone untended for a while and developed an infection, I would not eat the wing, but I might not eat the rest of the bird either. I would probably kill the bird and then look to see how far the infection had spread: maybe discard the nearby breast meat but still eat the legs, or discard the whole thing.

A chicken with an infection in the foot (like bumblefoot), I might discard the foot but eat the rest of the bird, unless I saw evidence of the infection spreading.

Thorough cooking will do a pretty good job of killing germs, but I only trust that so far.

If I thought the bird might have been poisoned, I would not eat it. I am using "poison" very broadly to include things like toxic plants, moldy feed, drinking spilled anitfreeze, and many other things.

Regarding illnesses, if there is any reasonable chance of the illness spreading to people, I don't want to eat the bird. But I also don't want to be spending time butchering that bird, which exposes me to the illness.


The kind of treatment makes a difference.

I would not treat an infection with antibiotics, then plan to eat the bird a week or two later. I don't want to eat the antibiotics!

In most cases, I would dispatch the bird promptly, rather than trying to treat it now and butcher it later. An injured or ill bird will usually not grow as fast while it is recovering, so you won't get much extra meat, but you still have to feed and house the bird during that time, plus you are spending some of your time to treat the bird as well. Killing the bird also prevents it from suffering, so it can be in the best interest of the bird as well as efficient for the person.

For some kinds of illnesses (like minor respiratory issues), if I thought there was a good chance of the bird recovering on its own, I would probably just monitor the situation. If it recovers fully, I would then be willing to eat that bird.


Eating it yourself is not the only way to avoid waste.
Burying it deeply to fertilize a tree is one way of making use of the bird-- maybe not quite as useful as eating it, but still something.

If you have other animals that like to eat chicken, they can eat some birds that a person might not want to. This especially applies to injuries: meat that is torn up or bloody or bruised is unappetizing to a person, but won't bother a dog or a pig. For infections and diseases, I would think about how likely the other animal is to have a problem, then decide what to do. Any kind of poisoning situation I would avoid feeding to other animals, and for some poisons I might consider disposing of the body in the trash can or a fire instead of burying it (poisoned by local plants would get buried, poisoned by herbicides would not.)


The biggest way to avoid this kind of waste is to have a healthy flock. If you raise hundreds of birds each year and only one or two have problems, it's not a big deal to discard just that one or two.

If you regularly have large numbers of birds that are injured or sick, you usually have bigger problems than deciding what to do with the meat. I do know that one-time problems can happen (like a dog getting into the chicken pen and injuring many birds at once), but I would take that as a warning to improve the pen so it never happens again.

This

 

[FunClucks]

I had a meat bird hen get her back cut up badly by rooster spurs. I let her heal up prior to butchering. If she'd been an egg layer I'd just have kept her after she healed up. She was getting along fine even with her injuries, and yes it's a meat bird, but I signed up for it to have a certain length of life if possible, so I let her try. She recovered great. Had to cut a few small areas out during the butcher, but she healed nearly completely prior to butcher and lived her full meat-bird life expectancy. A few months of feed wasn't a big deal to me. If she had gotten worse I'd have dispatched her and not eaten her since I didn't know exactly why she wasn't recovering.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I will only eat healthy, uninjured birds. If I can treat it back to health, I will. Anything else gets humanely dispatched and goes out to the "lower forty" to feed scavengers. I don't consider that waste.