So, next up, we'll be talking about nutrition. And I'm aware that all of us here are veterinarians and probably not all of us are nutritionists, so this is going to be from a 10,000 foot level. But this is just as important to animal health in poultry as it is to our large and small animal clients as well. So the top topic here is something that sounds obvious, but isn't necessarily if you're having a client who's just going and buying a bag of feed at their local tractor supply store, you need to select a feed that matches both the species and the life stage of the bird you're trying to feed. Nutritional needs differ with life stage. We know that growing animals need more calories, etc. but also miss feeding can induce pathology, and that's pretty frequently seen. So one of the most common mistakes I see here is feeding a laying hens ration. So a type of feed that is designed for birds already laying eggs into chicks, so baby chicks or pullets, so immature, non sexually mature, not laying eggs, young chickens. This is an issue because these high calcium levels that are designed to support egg laying, if you bird is not actually putting out eggs, they're not getting rid of that calcium appropriately. It can cause permanent kidney damage, which can induce visceral gout. You can see a picture of this on the right. So this is actually, this arrow is pointing to this pericardium that's encased in this white grainy material. It feels kind of like sand, it's actually urate crystals. That's because that kidney damage has been so severe that these birds are not able to secrete urates, which is the white cap on their feces. It's like as close as birds get to pee or urine. So this can actually accumulate in body spaces frequently over different types of viscera and sometimes in joint spaces. And that's something new we can't cure, just manage. So I recommend you only start feeding your laying hen ration after the first egg is laid in small flocks. In larger flocks, we have a better expectation of when those birds will come into lay because we're managing everything very, very closely. In small flocks there's a lot of different variability is going on. So if as you see your bird lay its first little probably pretty small egg, go ahead and change its feed at that point and she should be well supported. Another common mistake here is feeding chicken feed into growing turkeys or game birds. And so game birds means pheasants, peacocks, guinea fowl. These chicken feeds often do not have enough protein or vitamin levels for these species, so every different species has a little bit different what they need. But these are, this is a pretty common takeaway, that chicken feed fed to these species as they are growing, will lead to poor thrift. So you'll see just kind of not doing well. Smaller birds. They'll see poor immunity, probably because they're not having enough protein in their diet. You're also going to see poor growth performance, which can be an issue because a lot of these folks with very small flocks may actually be growing something like guinea fowl or turkeys for meat birds in their backyard. 

Another common issue, especially with pet birds, is obesity. So we see this, you know, throughout pet animals of all species, I think, at this point. But this is this is a problem. You know, it can actually most frequently cause prolapses in egg laying hens, but it can also induce other conditions. And just as in other species, we can manage this pretty well by cutting back on treats in general or, you know, selecting treats that are more healthy options. So things like seeds and mealworms are very high in fat. You can think of that as like the cheeseburger snack of a chicken. Instead, you're going to want to be feeding things like fruit, vegetables. Shelled peas are great. Chickens love watermelon, especially in the summer. And a lot of these type of vegetable and fruits can be great sort of foraging activities for enrichment as well. So go ahead and opt for a lower calorie snack there whenever possible. One of the pathologies that we see often associated with obesity is fatty liver and hemorrhage disorder. So what happens in some of these birds and this is also sort of induced by to some degree the breed of chicken, so Buff Orpingtons, I would say, are a beautiful breed of chicken and they're lovely tan color, they are also more likely to become obese than other breeds. So these birds, if they are obese, will have large amounts of fat stored in their liver over time, their bodies just like running out of places to put it. So they're going to just start packing it into liver. On necropsy, you might actually see a very sort of tan or light pink liver because of all the fat that you're seeing stored there. Because of the fat is disrupting the normal architecture of the liver tissue, it's going to become more friable. And that means that if the bird is jumping up on a roost or bumps into a friend or hops down on something tall and it gives itself just enough of a shock to the abdomen, it's going to cause that friable liver now perhaps to fracture. And you can actually see just sort of like a jagged canyon form in these livers in necropsy, which will lead to lethal hemorrhage and they'll just bleed out into their celum. It's really sad. It's very preventable. This can be really tragic for folks that actually have these pet birds and they love them so much. So it's easy to control, though. It's through good nutritional management and weight loss. And you can have weight loss protocols for poultry again, just by feeding them correctly and also making sure that they have lots to do and a lot of enrichment activities. 

In order to understand, though, your body condition assessment, you're going to need to how, figure out how to assess these birds. It's not the same as a horse. It's not the same as a dog. Especially in chickens. You're going to need to get your hands on the bird and actually feel where the muscle is laying, especially on the breast muscles, most indicative tissue. So you're going to palpate the breast muscle here. What I like to do is hold these birds up by their shanks. So we talked about being able to hold them up by their shanks for shorter periods of time, and you're just going to take your fingers, your thumb, your forefinger and run it up and down the keel bone. So that's that pronounced sternum in the center of the chest of birds. Differences are going to be apparent in scoring between species and between meat and egg type birds. And that's because, you know, different species and different ways that humans have selected these birds have meant different profiles of weight gain and muscle mass. So you can find these charts for different types of species and different types of like chicken breeds online as well. But the most easy example, I think, to give you is egg laying chickens. And that's probably what you'll see mostly in a backyard anyway. So you're going to pick up those birds, run your hand along the keel and see where your fingers bump into muscle. And the goal here is in the center. So it's an ideal. What you would want is sort of like an easy V-shape on that keel. So egg laying birds don't need a whole lot of muscle mass. They're not designed to be bulky. They just want to have enough to raise their wings and get their activities done during the day. So you want a nice, clean V-shape. If you start seeing dips and they become very, very thin, they're losing condition. In an emaciated bird, you would be able to feel almost the entire keel bone and maybe even some into the ribs as well as it dips down. It's disturbing. You'll notice it when you feel it, but they can actually hide under all those puffed up feathers. So, again, you do need to palpate these birds. Over conditioned egg laying birds will have more of a chunky meat profile under their sternum, so they'll feel that you won't be able to actually get your finger to the bone anymore. You'll be bumped off by these muscle layers, and you can see that they just become a little bit chunkier on the sides, a little bit more bulbous. 

Okay. Excessive grass eating is also a nutritional issue. This is something that, you know, people have been increasingly concerned about. And I do see people letting their birds out onto pasture and really thinking that that is enough food for their birds. I would like to preface this by saying that poultry are not ruminants. They cannot digest grass efficiently. They are omnivores. And if you are putting them into a backyard setting, they probably need more feed than what they're able to forage themselves in your backyard. So excessive grass eating, if it's caused by, you know, being hungry or not being able to find enough bugs and other foods around, they'll eat grass and they enjoy doing so. But it can cause severe impaction of the crop or even of the stomachs. And this can require surgery or euthanasia. It can also cause death if it's caught, if it's not caught quickly and switched. So you really have to control this by offering proper nutrition. We can control excessive grazing, though. You always offer your nutritionally complete poultry feed in the morning prior to release on to pasture. If you're offering both at the same time, just make sure that they have chicken feed out there and you can go through and palpate crops too, if you're concerned about excessive grazing. But they're not digesting grass in the way ruminants are because they're not foregut fermenters. So make sure that they actually have food to eat. They're not magic. They can only lay eggs and live if you actually feed them. They can't necessarily feed themselves. 

Waterfowl niacin deficiencies are also something that you will see discussed a lot online if you belong to poultry groups. This is something that can cause issues throughout the life of waterfowl. Specifically, you see it mostly in ducklings. This is because waterfowl require higher levels of vitamin B3 in their growth stages than chickens do. So this is another reason why waterfowl really should have a feed that is labeled for waterfowl. This is a common deficiency in mixed species flocks because they might be eating a chick feed, so for chickens or an all species starter, that isn't appropriately supplemented. So clinical signs that you might see in the field. This will again be in ducklings or goslings, young ducks, young geese, muscle weakness, joint abnormalities. So this can look kind of like this lovely PowerPoint representation that I put together for you, which is bowed legs, you're going to see that like cowboy stance. You can see here in this, bowed legs. Swollen hocks. So again, that like look of those what look to be their ankle joints pretty swollen up. They'll have a pigeon toed stance. Their toes will actually point towards each other in this bowed legged stance as well. Occasionally, you might also see a weak neck. Diagnosis of this is presumptive based on clinical signs, and you may not be able to rule out other deficiencies, especially if they've been fed something that maybe isn't even a poultry feed. They might have a lot of things that you need to resupplement them with and switch them to a better feed. If you catch this very early and I mean very early, you can reverse this deficiency with supplementation. But I would say that most cases, when you actually see the pathology signs, bowed legs, pigeon toed stance, enlarged hocks, are going to be refractory to treatment because those birds have already started to develop those tissues incorrectly. So you really do need to talk to your clients about getting good nutrition in early, early so the first thing feed these ducklings see is the feed that they need to grow well. You always want to proactively supplement your duckling and gosling rations. It's never hurts to be safe. You can always do this. You're probably not going to overdose and you can check those levels online. It would take a lot to get them to the point where they would have too much. You'll want to be giving them B vitamins, but you know, having a vitamin E and selenium supplement, depending on where you live, also might be indicated. I would encourage you to use a labeled niacin supplement, so vitamin B3 supplement, ground into the feed or dissolve just in the water at the dose that you think is appropriate. But I would not encourage you to use brewer's yeast. A lot of people online like to use this because it's like a homeopathy option. It's, you know, not something you have to like, really do much or sprinkle over the feed, but it doesn't really have adequate levels, so if you do have a true deficiency in your feed, you're not going to bring up the level to the point where you need it to be. So just go ahead and get a niacin supplement and use it at a recommended rate. You can find those based on various duck and geese management websites as well.