Drained a Hen, First Time in Years....Removed 660 cc Yellow Fluid RIP, HOPE *GRAPHIC PHOTOS ADDED

[casportpony]

Sorry for your loss.

-Kathy

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you, Kathy. Hope was not one of my favorite hens, having been very skittish and just not your usual Buff Orpington personality, but cared about her. I never euthanized her because her body kept taking care of the fluids it built up and she never lost her appetite, not for a minute. I figured when she quit eating, we'd put her down, but she never did. Interesting case, this one. She was a giant chick, looked weeks older than the others her own age in other breeds, even her own sister who hatched with her. That hen died strangely as well at only a year and a half old, maybe something genetic there.

 

[abserbean]

So sorry for your loss. I have been reading many of your posts about internal laying/reproductive issues b/c I am going through something with my RIR hen, and is obvious how much you care for you birds. Could you tell where the tumors were coming from? Poor girl hung on for a long time to be so sick.

 

[speckledhen]

So sorry for your loss. I have been reading many of your posts about internal laying/reproductive issues b/c I am going through something with my RIR hen, and is obvious how much you care for you birds. Could you tell where the tumors were coming from? Poor girl hung on for a long time to be so sick.

Thank you for saying so. I'm trying to get a read on what they are. They were up behind where her left lobe of her liver should have been, which I couldn't locate, though I saw some shreds of what looked like it might have been that side of the liver. I can't say what they were, other than fibroid-like and huge. They were not reproductive, I don't believe. I sent photos to someone I know for his opinion. She had no worms, no internal laying, heart was small and pale, left lobe of the liver was more pale than it should have been and elongated but not yellow or spotty. Could have been genetic since I lost her sister under odd circumstances as well. No one else in the pen has ever been ill, just those two hens. I mean, my big old RIR/Buff Orp hen Meg from that same pen just died three months ago-she almost made it to 8 years old, no illness whatsoever, no laying issues her whole life. So, poor little Xander has lost two hens of his now. So sorry, little man that I gave you old hens. I didn't have him when I had Hope's sister.

 

[abserbean]

The fluid looks very much like what you would see with liver failure, at least what it looks like in humans. (I am a biopsy tech, so I help perfom paracentesis on people, but have never had to do one on a hen) I wonder if it was a primary liver issue, or a metastasis. The fact that she lived so long with the issues does not lend itself to metastatic ca though. Thank you for sharing your info with everyone. I am curious as to what is actually going on with my hen, but I think I would have a hard time doing a necropsy on a pet if she doesn't make it. Which seems silly, since I do procedures on people all of the time. Hopefully your little roo will come around, it is amazing how much animals can grieve each other.

 

[speckledhen]

The fluid looks very much like what you would see with liver failure, at least what it looks like in humans. (I am a biopsy tech, so I help perfom paracentesis on people, but have never had to do one on a hen) I wonder if it was a primary liver issue, or a metastasis. The fact that she lived so long with the issues does not lend itself to metastatic ca though. Thank you for sharing your info with everyone. I am curious as to what is actually going on with my hen, but I think I would have a hard time doing a necropsy on a pet if she doesn't make it. Which seems silly, since I do procedures on people all of the time. Hopefully your little roo will come around, it is amazing how much animals can grieve each other.

Thank you for your input. I've done so many necropsies on hens here and some I skipped since I was sure what killed them, but I had determined that I would most definitely open Hope up when she passed to see what had been going on in there for the past two years other than fluid buildup. I've never seen this in a hen here, the huge double tumor. And no others were present, just that one monster inside the poor girl.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, I was wrong-the two baseball sized tumors were the left lobe of the liver and they were reproductive tumors! A vet I consult who does know something about chickens as well as thoroughbreds checked out the necropsy photos. Her gallbladder was septic, not a shock at all in this situation, he said. Since she had barely started laying and stopped abruptly at less than a year old and this cycle had been going on for over two years, with no signs of eggs in the oviduct or abdomen, he said they have to go somewhere, since they are born with them already programmed in, so the backup of yolks and bacteria ended up growing in her liver, causing these huge tumors.

I did not want to post photos of the tumors until I had a handle on what they were--sorry if this sounds harsh, but I did not want a bunch of crazy guesses like you get in sex and breed. You know the ones, oh, no, it's Marek's! oh, no, it's Lymphoid Leukosis! Not every tumor is Marek's. Dr. Mason said that bacteria can circulate all through the body and where it lands, it can start tumors and of course, not all tumors are cancerous. These were just reproductive tumors in what I would call a very strange location-at least, I'd never seen any in the liver. Thanks to Dr. Mason for adding to my bank of knowledge! He was amazed that her intestines looked so great with what had been growing inside her for the past two years. And he concurred with my assessment that she died of a massive heart attack, that it just gave out on her under the strain.

So, WARNING!! GRAPHIC PHOTOS BELOW! For those science nuts like me who just have to see:









Heart and gizzard:

 

[enola]

As always......very interesting!

 

[casportpony]

You should email those the the UC Davis labs in Tulare and Turlock, I'm sure the doctors would appreciate seeing them.

-Kathy

 

[speckledhen]

Dr. Mason just emailed a photo of an almost identical double tumor encased within the same membrane on a pony's liver. It was 1.9 lbs on the pony's liver so wow, poor Hope! Hers was over a pound! The pony's tumor was benign.