Necropsy Photos: 3 yr old IB hen died Sun 5-15-16 (EXTREMELY GRAPHIC)

I'm hoping someone can shed light as to the cause of death of my peahen. She became lethargic, droopy wings, would not eat. I suspected round worm, so I began a dosage of 3ml of undiluted Wazine orally once every 24 hours, for 5 days. She seemed to improve after day 2's dosage but she died after day 3.

Below are the photos I took of her dissected abdomen: This first photo is of her lower abdomen. Ianticipated finding worms. Never found a single worm. The intestines were gray. Looks like severe sepcis. Rotten odor, even a sour smell before I cut her open emitting from her vent, likely.



I got confused when I saw her lungs. They looked like liver tissue, but I really believe they were lungs. I've slaughtered broiler chickens whose lungs are bright pink. This hens lungs were dark red. What??? A dark greenish bile mucous seemed to surround the lung tissue and the abdominal cavity.



I continued to pull the intestines and other organs out, which were grey, and extremely smelly. Again, I've disemboweled broiler chickens before and intestines in healthy birds don't smell like rotten eggs in sewage. In this photo are contents of the stomach which is some greenish vegetation like material. Also greenish seeds. I began to wonder if she ate something toxic to peafowl. Her stomach was hard, and honestly I thought it might be the gizzard, but opening it was not tissue, but rather compact and filled tight with pulverized shredded vegetation like grass or small leaves.



The last photo I cut the intestines open and horrific odor met my nostrils. I almost lost my lunch it was so bad. Grey intestines, looked like necrophotic tissue. This poor creature suffered horrific pain, because I did not know how to treat. I don't have funds right now to pay a veterinarian, and was unable to get her the care she needed. Feel very badly but I cannot dwell long on this. I strongly suspected worms and I thought a wormer would help her.

Does anyone have any clue what might have led to this? You can see the grey/green fecal matter that is very liquid. I wonder if she ate something poisonous. Judging from the photos can you offer any insight? I feel very defeated. You can see the breast muscle tissue and how pink it looks in contrast to her bowels. I could not determine if she was egg impacted. I saw no egg in her anatomy anywhere. I suspect her stomach became impacted and the food never moved into the bowel properly. What maladie is this? Thank you in advance.

I can not tell much by your photos, but the smell reminds me of a hen I lost last year about this time. She had gotten into some old sour feed and got a gut infection. The gut bloated and twisted up so nothing could pass, she died on the vet table and we did a necropsy on the spot. The smell was horrendous.

KsKingBee said:

I can not tell much by your photos, but the smell reminds me of a hen I lost last year about this time. She had gotten into some old sour feed and got a gut infection. The gut bloated and twisted up so nothing could pass, she died on the vet table and we did a necropsy on the spot. The smell was horrendous.

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Honestly, I cannot tell much about my photos either. I think the hard organ I saw, tight like a golf ball or a hackey sack ball was the gizzard. When I opened it it was stuffed full of shredded grass, and hard small seeds or pebbles. If it were pebbles then it would make sense this was the gizzard. I could not discern a stomach because it seemed to be an extension of the intestine, so maybe it was empty? It had a tougher, thicker wall. I'm inclined to think now that this was a twisted intestine, and not Blackhead. But I just don't know. The yellow tissue is visceral fat. The fecal matter in the intestines was gray and runny, and I saw grayish liquid in the abdominal cavity too, so maybe the bowel had ruptured. I've been reading vet descriptions of enteritis as well.

Hopefully Kathy will be able to be more help. I can't figure out which organ is which except for the intestine.What sort of plants do you have around your property? Going through my vet book there's only a few diseases that would affect the respiratory and GI tract. Few of them, if positive will result in the state being involved, but I'm doubting it's those diseases because your other birds should've been affected. Wonder if it was a couple infections not just one disease. If possible I would use something other than Wazine. Some of us believe Wazine is not as effective as other wormers because Wazine only treats roundworm. Kathy has some wormers she can recommend you right away with the dosages.

Birdrain92 said:

If possible I would use something other than Wazine. Some of us believe Wazine is not as effective as other wormers because Wazine only treats roundworm. Kathy has some wormers she can recommend you right away with the dosages.

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Thank you for that advice about Wazine. I'll discontinue using it immediately.

Birdrain92 said:

What sort of plants do you have around your property? Going through my vet book there's only a few diseases that would affect the respiratory and GI tract. Few of them, if positive will result in the state being involved, but I'm doubting it's those diseases because your other birds should've been affected. Wonder if it was a couple infections not just one disease.

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I live in North Alabama so some of the wild plants I have growing here are poison ivy, Virginia creeper, English plantain, crab grass, black cherry, privett. I have a Black Tupelo tree that sheds seeds, that look a lot like what I saw in her gizzard. But those seeds would not be falling now this early in the year. We have other green flora I'm too ignorant on their type. Do we know what green stuff is toxic to peas off the bat?

Birdrain92 said:

I can't figure out which organ is which except for the intestine.

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I know, sorry about that. I did a lot of dissecting as I was taking photos and thus I butchered her organs pretty badly. It was so messy and smelly that when I would touch an organ it would leech fluid on my fingers and then I'd change gloves to snap a photo with my cell cam. My camera would have gotten pretty messy too had I not used gloves, just from touching it.

Okay, while I totally agree with the recommendation to use something other than Wazine, I don't think worms killed this hen. You didn't find any sign of worms, right?

From your description, it sounds as though the hen had some massive enteritis and/or peritonitis -- an overwhelming infection in her innards. Maybe something became infected from an impacted crop, maybe some combination of bacterial infection and maybe some other agents -- I was impressed by Kathy's descriptions of the bright green poo the other day, and what the vet said caused it.

I supposed poisoning from vegetation is possible, but if so, it had to be a slow poisoning that caused internal organ or intestinal or crop damage. The impression of necrotized (dead/dying) tissue is overwhelming here, and there just seems to be massive infection. If you did the necropsy right away, and there was that much decay, the poor hen was walking dead before she passed. A freshly dead bird shouldn't have that kind of smell, and shouldn't have that much decaying tissue. I don't know how the infections got going, but it sure seems like the bird's internal organs were completely overwhelmed with infection. I really doubt whether even massive doses of antibiotics would have saved her by the time you started treatment, I think she was just too sick and much too far gone.

I'm definitely not an expert in this area -- hopefully @casportpony will join in and take a look. I suppose maybe something like blackhead could have resulted in infection, idk. But I am really struck by your description of the amount of decay, the stench, the liquid seeping from the organs -- there had to be massive infection here.

So sorry about your hen -- you were brave to stick it out through the horrible necropsy.

Garden Peas said:

Okay, while I totally agree with the recommendation to use something other than Wazine, I don't think worms killed this hen. You didn't find any sign of worms, right?

From your description, it sounds as though the hen had some massive enteritis and/or peritonitis -- an overwhelming infection in her innards. Maybe something became infected from an impacted crop, maybe some combination of bacterial infection and maybe some other agents -- I was impressed by Kathy's descriptions of the bright green poo the other day, and what the vet said caused it.

I supposed poisoning from vegetation is possible, but if so, it had to be a slow poisoning that caused internal organ or intestinal or crop damage. The impression of necrotized (dead/dying) tissue is overwhelming here, and there just seems to be massive infection. If you did the necropsy right away, and there was that much decay, the poor hen was walking dead before she passed. A freshly dead bird shouldn't have that kind of smell, and shouldn't have that much decaying tissue. I don't know how the infections got going, but it sure seems like the bird's internal organs were completely overwhelmed with infection. I really doubt whether even massive doses of antibiotics would have saved her by the time you started treatment, I think she was just too sick and much too far gone.

I'm definitely not an expert in this area -- hopefully @casportpony will join in and take a look. I suppose maybe something like blackhead could have resulted in infection, idk. But I am really struck by your description of the amount of decay, the stench, the liquid seeping from the organs -- there had to be massive infection here.

So sorry about your hen -- you were brave to stick it out through the horrible necropsy.

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I wonder if maybe the bird had worms, then when the treatment started the worms died, but there was already an infection and then just took off. Or the body would have to go through some sort of stress to weaken the immune system long enough to allow an infection to start and take off.

Birdrain92 said:

I wonder if maybe the bird had worms, then when the treatment started the worms died, but there was already an infection and then just took off. Or the body would have to go through some sort of stress to weaken the immune system long enough to allow an infection to start and take off.

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Although a bird will get a toxic overload if too many worms die too fast I don't think that is the cause here as the OP did not find any decaying worms in the system. I still favor the idea that the bird got into some bad feed or other toxic substance that set off a gut infection, bloated and died like my hen did last year. The description is very similar to my experience.