GIGANTIC KIDNEYS - what happened to this chicken?!

[Little Cheepers]

We found Pumpkin waddling around like a little penguin, tail down, breathing heavy - classic egg bound behaviors. We brought her in, gave her an epsom salt bath, and poked into her vent to feel for the egg. But no egg. Her abdomen was hard, so we figured we just weren't poking right. Let her rest apart from the flock and tried again the next day. Same thing. She was getting pale, just wanted to sit, and wasn't drinking water. We researched and researched only to find the same suggestions about treating egg binding. On day 4 we put her down out of mercy.

Upon cutting her open, we still didn't find an egg, but instead found these large dark red masses. At first I thought I hadn't bled her out properly. I gutted what I could, which wasn't much because these masses were taking up so much space in her cavity. After butchering her and removing all her muscle I finally realized -- these are organs. Kidneys?! Gigantic kidneys?! The size of human kidneys?! We couldn't believe it. Still can't. How was she living like this? And for how long until she couldn't any longer?

We can't figure out what happened to Pumpkin. Any insight and suggestions would be highly relieving.

Graphic pictures now:

 

[misfitmorgan]

I think I know what's going on. Your description of "eating" chicken with kidneys combined with the picture you posted to demonstrate the kidneys....I think you are mistaking the tissue that is on either side of the spine for the kidneys. The kidney is the shape and color of a red kidney bean. In a chicken, it is also about the size of a bean. However in addition to the liver and kidney, there is tissue of the a similar color, that is located on either side of the spine. It is irregular in shape because it follows the contours of the spine. I believe that is what is pictured in your photo above and that would make more sense that you are seeing it when you eat the bird, as that is typically left in the cavity, while the kidney and liver are removed along with the intestines, heart and lungs.

I am very thorough when I clean a bird, as I want to make use of every single piece of it. Therefore, I keep the kidney and when I have enough of them, I use them to make a steak and kidney pie. I save the liver and we cook that up and eat it as liver and onions. We cook the testicles, heart and gizzard along with the bird. The intestines are fed to the animals. Because I carefully take apart every part of the contents of the bird's cavity, if there were more than one kidney, I would have been happy to add it to my baggie of kidneys, since with only one, it takes a long time to save up enough of them for a pie

i hate to break it to you but your not eating the chickens "one kidney" chicken's kidney's are not bean shaped at all and there is indeed two kidneys in a chicken anyone who tells you otherwise does not know what their eating/looking at. The kidneys are located on either side of the spine tucked underneath some sinew along the back. You can go buy a store chicken and find them because the factory's doesn't clean out the kidneys as eating the chicken back is not a normal process for most american's. I've seen thousands of birds hand processed and i can guarantee you there are two kidneys and their not bean shaped not even slightly.



From the USDA
Urinary System: The urinary system of the chicken does not contain a urinary bladder. There are two trilobed kidneys, one on each side of the ventral surface of the vertebral column. This pair of kidneys is embedded in the deep bony crypts of the pelvic and synsacral area of the skeleton. Ureters carry the urinary waste to the cloaca. The uric acid is discharged into the cloaca and excreted with the feces. The white pasty material in chicken droppings is considered to be urinary system excretion. Birds excrete their nitrogen waste as uric acid, whereas mammals excrete it in the form of urea.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/shared/PDF/PSIT_Anatomy.pdf?redirecthttp=true

Tri-lobed not bean shaped aka dual lobed


The bean shaped thing they have one of that your eating is the spleen






http://www.poultrydisease.ir/Atlases/avian-atlas/search/examfinding/689.html

Not believing everything you read on the Internet is good rule..but believing that the USDA and Cornell and pretty much every other poultry scientist that's works on organs are all wrong....that's silly. BTW spleen is perfectly fine to eat and is eaten all over the world, just know your making steak and spleen pie.

 

[casportpony]

@misfitmorgan , one of the best posts I've seen in a long time!

-Kathy

 

[HEChicken]

I believe what you are seeing is liver. Birds actually only have one kidney and it is not very big. The liver is much larger and has 2 lobes. That most certainly does look like an enlarged liver! What caused it? I don't know.

 

[casportpony]

I believe what you are seeing is liver. Birds actually only have one kidney and it is not very big. The liver is much larger and has 2 lobes. That most certainly does look like an enlarged liver! What caused it? I don't know.

I think they they have two kidneys.

Quote:

The excretory system in the domestic fowl consists of the two kidneys, each with a ureter that carries the urine produced by the kidneys to the cloaca where it leaves the body. When the kidneys are diseased or damaged and unable to carry out their functions efficiently, the animal becomes debilitated and death often occurs quickly. Its functions in the domestic fowl are to:

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

http://www.poultrydisease.ir/Atlases/avian-atlas/search/lesion/384.html

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Looks like huge a liver to me. Was there a lot of fat or fluid in the bellly?

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

@Little Cheepers , forgot to say sorry for your loss and welcome to BYC.

-Kathy

 

[HEChicken]

Quote: I've butchered about 200 birds - one at a time - in the past few years. Never had a bird with more than one kidney.

 

[casportpony]

Quote: I've butchered about 200 birds - one at a time - in the past few years. Never had a bird with more than one kidney.
I've eaten more than 200 in my life, and each one has always had two kidneys. Did you not look at Cornell link?
http://www.poultrydisease.ir/Atlases/avian-atlas/search/lesion/384.html , it has pictures like this where *anyone* can see very clearly that chickenss have TWO kidneys, NOT one:


That picture shows two testicles and two diseased kidneys.

This picture shows where the left kidney is.


And what about this:
http://www.poultryhub.org/physiology/body-systems/excretory-system/
"The excretory system in the domestic fowl consists of the two kidneys, each with a ureter that carries the urine produced by the kidneys to the cloaca where it leaves the body. When the kidneys are diseased or damaged and unable to carry out their functions efficiently, the animal becomes debilitated and death often occurs quickly."

Please show us documentation that says birds have only one kidney.

-Kathy