The Rotten Egg

By: Kendra Bauer

University of Wisconsin, Class of 2013

During my summer working as a Merck-Merial summer scholar at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, I had the opportunity to participate in a lot of clinical procedures in addition to working on my research project. The following is an excerpt from my daily log of my experiences that summer:

Perhaps one of the more unusual veterinary tasks unique to avian medicine is the rotten egg necropsy. We take apart eggs that never hatched just to check if they were ever fertile. I watched one of these last week. It looked like your typical chicken egg on the inside except larger and more spoiled. No evidence of an embryo. This time Dr. Barry Hartup let the 4^th year student and I perform the procedures. I took the first egg, poked a hole in it with a sharp tool, peeled away some shell, and carefully poured out the contents. The 4^th year student repeated the procedure. I got the next and final egg of the day. I expected it to go as smoothly as the first. I took my tool, and as I poked a hole in the shell, a sound like a gunshot rang out as I felt a gooey substance splatter on my face. The egg was a month and a half old and had spent that time rotting and building up noxious gases inside the egg. They exploded out forcefully once I gave them an escape route. When I opened my eyes to inspect the damage, I saw many more faces staring back at me, as most everyone on the floor had come running to see what had made the noise (I learned later that some people actually ran away when they heard the noise). We all laughed. I asked for a paper towel. And my face turned bright red- a fact that Dr. Hartup pointed out to the spectators. I had done nothing wrong, but I did provide the entertainment for the afternoon.