Latifa's demise: Eggbound or tumors/ cysts? WARNING: GRAPHIC PICTURES OF A CHICKEN

WARNING: THESE PICTURES SHOW THE CONTENTS OF A CHICKEN THAT HAS BEEN CULLED

I have had a sick 4 year old australorp chicken (Latifa) for over a week. I suspected that she was eggbound (she was upright like a penguin and waddling and had dull colored waddle and comb and bloated stomach so I sat her in warm water and helped to massage her for several days.I noticed she was lathargic. I tried to find any eggs and used vaseline to lubricate her ovary duct (put your finger upwards (egg vent) not down (feces). after several days she did not seem to get better. (I heard egg bound only last 48-72 hours) so when she lasted longer, I found that she might have ascites because it also matched symptoms. After 5 days, she stopped walking and that's when I decided to cull her (broomstick method). When I opened the carcass up, I was suprised to discover several large waterey masses in her abdomen. (See pictures). What I would like to know is: are these eggs or cysts? Some are hard and gellatinous, others are watery masses that rupture easily. I think that some of these were even cut from her intestine! They did not come from inside a tube, they just seemed to be sitting in her adomen attached to her intestin but I could be mistaken. I believe that they are cysts.

I am glad that I culled the poor girl when I did, as this certainly looks unrecoverable.

any thoughts? This was the first chicken that I have had to cull.

I believe that these are ovarian cycsts. When I punctured them some had a putrid brown liquid coming out. Others were a slimy clear liquid and others were more like water. The more purple cysts had the brown liquid. Her intestine was also infiltrated by small fatty bumps on it. The poor girl probably had ovarian cysts and tumors on her intestine

Hi Cyrixlord,
that's a terrible thing to find, but you absolutely did the right thing.
They look very strange, but to me they look more like cystic/tumorous egg follicles rather than part of the intestines. But I wouldn't know for sure. They're not ascites or EYP, as you're no doubt aware.
She was a very sick bird.

Thanks for your kind observations. I do think she had some kind of cyst issues. I am fortunate to have recognized her dispair in order to dispatch her promptly. The necropsy was so that other could learn from her dispair. Perhaps fatty tumors? I do know that a lot of these appear to have come from her ovaries. She had no fat on her body the poor dear so I know I did the right thing.

I don't have any experience with those first hand but I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for your loss and I am very thankful you posted pictures- the knowledge we gain is a fitting tribute to your girl.

My Henny Penny has had the same symptoms has your hen. I've tried to find vet and there are none in my area that treats chickens. I know she is going to die any day now but I can't cull her. She is 4 years old also, and hasn't been laying for quite some time. When she passes, I think I will look inside and see if she has cysts. Thanks for posting.

meekasmom said:

My Henny Penny has had the same symptoms has your hen. I've tried to find vet and there are none in my area that treats chickens. I know she is going to die any day now but I can't cull her. She is 4 years old also, and hasn't been laying for quite some time. When she passes, I think I will look inside and see if she has cysts. Thanks for posting.

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You can't cull her? - she may be suffering - culling is part of raising chickens - the hard part - get someone else to do it for you -

Hi had a hen with this same issue, her name was Penny, and I called her Henny Penny (Hen Pen, and Pen Pen) as well and I believe she was a Golden Comet. I acquired her and another hen last November and being a beginner I never thought to "check them over" for problems and we didn't quarantine them like we should have. In January, my husband and I realized something was wrong with her, she wasn't making it up to the roost at night and was sleeping on the floor and she was standing funny like a penguin, we soon realized after picking her up that her abdomen was very swollen. We brought her inside where it was warm and kept her in the bathroom. I couldn't really afford a huge vet bill so I just tried to treat her for being egg bound after doing some research on here but that didn't help. I soon realized she may had been an internal layer since she wasn't laying any eggs and I had know idea how old she was. I did take a fecal sample to a vet and she tested positive for worms so her and the rest of the hens were treated, it seemed to have helped a little but she didn't get better. So I finally took her to a vet and he recommended I put her down. By this time, about a month, I was well attached to her since I was caring for her morning and night in my bathroom and the vet said I could try antibiotics. She improved with them, but any time we would take her off of them, she would go back down hill, and the swollen abdomen never went away. The vet said she couldn't live on antibiotics forever, and I knew he was right. I looked into possible procedures (removing her ovaries) to save my girl but the outcome was pretty grim, plus I had no way of knowing 100% that internal laying was the issue. I knew I was going to have to put her down but couldn't bring myself to do it, she still seemed to be enjoying life but she was starting to eat less and less and her poop turned from runny and bright green to just water. I knew her body was shutting down. I came home after a morning function I had on April 28th and she had taken a turn for the worse so I took her to a vet and had her put down. She made it in her condition for 4 months but I got extremely attached to her. I had fun with her while she was feeling better on the antibiotics and would take her outside during the day if I was home and not working. It is sad there isn't any way to reverse this or fix it. Just wanted to share my story since I think maybe this could be what was ailing my girl. I will never know since I didn't have it in me to cut her open and investigate what was going on after I put her down. So sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing your findings and experiences of this with us. I think people really need to be aware of these kinds of things.

@ meekasmom, if your hen is suffering and you think she is going to die any day, then do her a favor and put her out of her missery, or have someone do it for you. There is no treating it or fixing whatever this.

Thanks everyone for your input and stories. After reading a bit, it looks like the poor girl did have ovarian cysts. (those were cysts in the pictures). Latifa did her job as part of her function in life and taught me a lot about what was wrong with her in her death.

I felt compelled to share and am only saddened that there are a lot of things that can go wrong with our girls and there is only so much that we can do before their quality of life degrades. It is a judgement call we will all invariably have to make at some point in our lives and if we are unable to cull our girls we should find someone who can, before we need to make such a decision.

We all love our girls and when we lose one of them it is always painful. But it only takes one or two trips back to the chicken coop, or at the feed store to know that there is always another chick or chicken to spoil rotten

cyrixlord said:

Thanks everyone for your input and stories. After reading a bit, it looks like the poor girl did have ovarian cysts. (those were cysts in the pictures). Latifa did her job as part of her function in life and taught me a lot about what was wrong with her in her death.

I felt compelled to share and am only saddened that there are a lot of things that can go wrong with our girls and there is only so much that we can do before their quality of life degrades. It is a judgement call we will all invariably have to make at some point in our lives and if we are unable to cull our girls we should find someone who can, before we need to make such a decision.

We all love our girls and when we lose one of them it is always painful. But it only takes one or two trips back to the chicken coop, or at the feed store to know that there is always another chick or chicken to spoil rotten

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Very well said! I meant to say as well that my hens life was not a complete loss, without her, I would have never have learned all that I know about chickens now...not saying that I know everything, but I definitely know to be much more active with the health and well being of my chickens and all that can go wrong with them!