Signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer - Lovebirds story

[DaughterOfEve]

I am posting this thread not for response but to help others who's bird may have similar symptoms. Lovebird was an Isa Brown who was 4 years old and had stopped laying eggs a year ago. Looking back on the last couple weeks the cancer progressed like this. Two weeks ago I noticed she was loosing feathers and her wattles/comb looked a little pale. I assumed she was molting. Last week I noted she had a messy bum and was a little bloated ( like an egg bound hen but she quit laying a long time ago) and could no longer get up to the roost. Her walk was like a penguin. She was given soaks and mineral oil and vitamins. I felt what I thought was an egg in her ovary but the oviduct was empty. 5 days later the so called egg had doubled and Lovebird was alarmingly thin. She died the next night in a bed of straw. It was not pretty to see her deteriorate so fast. I had resolved to cull her the night before she died but she saved me that pain by expiring in her sleep.

Hope this helps someone else who may have a similar scenerio.

 

[speckledhen]

Could have been ovarian cancer at that age, yes. But that isn't the only possibility.

Could have also been internal laying, where yolks are deposited into the abdomen and "cooked" into cheesy masses, along with solidified infection, which is the way a chicken's body deals with infection, as it does with bumblefoot. They can have those masses up in the oviduct as well and you cannot feel them from the vent or from the outside of the bird.

Egg yolk peritonitis and internal laying are very, very common, especially in the hybrid layers such as yours. Yours actually lived a very long life for a hybrid layer, so she obviously had excellent care. Sorry you lost her. I've lost maybe 13 hens to those malfunctions, almost every one a hatchery hen. The breeder quality hens seem to have better overall genetics.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are also lots of little growths along the intestines and oviduct, sometimes fibrous tumors inside the oviducts. My hens who died from age 1 1/2 - 4 years old all died from internal laying/egg yolk peritonitis. The ones who made it to 5 years old and older all died from ovarian carcimona, which also can have fluid in the abdomen and in the end, the lungs as well, like with all cancers.

These threads may be helpful to you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=362422

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=195347

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ences-on-egg-reproduction-production-necropsy


This post is specific to ovarian carcinoma and the death of an almost 6 year old Rhode Island Red hen, describes what we found when we opened her up before burial:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...lks-update-rip-beautiful-reba/50#post_8068877

 

[Chick whisper]

I know this was a long time ago, but is there anything I can do about Internal laying??