JDelage
Chirping
- Sep 11, 2016
- 33
- 2
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Great thread, thank you everyone.
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Firstly can I say WELL DONE for attempting this. It's not easy to do this on a bird you know, but it shows how far you are willing to go to help your birds and by posting pictures here you will help many others.A mystery illness has killed five of our chickens in the last month. Here's the thread about my situation: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1150567/dying-left-and-right
I've been waiting for over three weeks to hear back from the state poultry commission on a necropsy. I called this morning, and they indicated it may be several more weeks before I get the results.
I attempted my own necropsy on the last pullet that died. rebrascora is kindly helping me and suggested I share the photos on this thread to get more input. I'll just copy and paste what I sent to her:
Here is the entire pullet when I was done exploring.
Here are the lungs (?) which have me completely confused. The pale one came from her left side. It was firmer and had tiny, pale-yellow dots in it. The other two came from her right side, which was filled with coagulated blood. The pale one was firmer than the other two.
Here is the heart. The bottom tip of the heart (at the top of the photo) looks a bit funny because I had cut into it to look at the inside. The blobs of fat all over it were individually stuck onto the heart -- I could push my finger in between them and just barely see the surface of the heart. It looked to me like the fat I see hanging on chicken breasts that I buy from the grocery store.
This is the intestines, ceca, and gizzard. I cut a length of the intestines open and saw no visible parasites.
Here is the kidneys, which I didn't remove. There is a small piece of the liver lying to the right side on the feathers. There is one tiny bump of fatty-looking stuff on it. I'm not positive if that was actually attached to it, or if I got that on there when I pulled it out. The front surface of the liver when I first cut the pullet open looked perfectly smooth and even in color. It was surprisingly large--covering almost everything else when I cut the skin off the organs.
This is the crop that is cut open.
The trachea looked completely clean inside when I cut a section open. I cut the spleen in half, and it was a uniform texture and color inside and out. I forgot to open her mouth and look inside -- I really didn't know a lot about what I was doing.
Thanks in advance for any and all input you can share.
Firstly can I say WELL DONE for attempting this. It's not easy to do this on a bird you know, but it shows how far you are willing to go to help your birds and by posting pictures here you will help many others.
The liver is surprisingly large isn't it! That was a shock to me at first.
I hate to say it but that ,to me, looks like the signs of Visceral Marek's
Many thanks for posting the link to those videos. I haven't had time to watch them all yet but I am hoping they will help me do a more thorough and professional job on future chicken post mortem exams.
It really is fascinating opening them up once you get past the emotional aspect of it and it has also helped give me the knowledge and confidence to do crop surgery on a bantam pullet that was on her way out with an impacted crop 4 days ago. Removed a 3 inch ball of fibrous material (soggy straw and dried grass) and she is now up and about and on the mend.
Out of interest what did you close the crop tissue with? I've considered doing it before now but was very concerned about the closure and healing as it is very thin tissue.Many thanks for posting the link to those videos. I haven't had time to watch them all yet but I am hoping they will help me do a more thorough and professional job on future chicken post mortem exams.
It really is fascinating opening them up once you get past the emotional aspect of it and it has also helped give me the knowledge and confidence to do crop surgery on a bantam pullet that was on her way out with an impacted crop 4 days ago. Removed a 3 inch ball of fibrous material (soggy straw and dried grass) and she is now up and about and on the mend.
Sweet Basil, thanks for the video link ; I've just watched all of them. Wished they'd have shown more abnormal pics though. I've learnt some crucial bits from it though ; Bursa exam and 'tonsils'. Examining lymphatic tissue is very diagnostic.
I'm not a vet but your bird's intestines etc are not happy at all. It's good that you can see what we mean about the tissue you are seeing not being fat.
Please let us know if you hear any more from the necropsy , I would be very interested to hear what else they have to say and the final diagnosis.
Thanks again x