Updated! - Test Your Diagnostic Skills - Warning, Contains Graphic Necropsy Photos

[Wonderwend]

@Wonderwend

Thanks for asking....Vippy is absolutely great. She started laying again exactly 2 weeks after surgery and it was on my birthday too....I couldn't have got a better present!
I had problems reintegrating her back into the pen although there was no issue or aggression at all with the other chickens, it was just that she was eating straw within seconds of having access to it, which had me tearing my hair out! I kept her in a bare floor cage for a further week before I decided it was no life for her and if I had to do surgery again, so be it, so she is back in with them again and pretty near the top of the pecking order. She has the biggest, reddest comb of them all and although I look at her every now and again and panic because her crop is looking huge, it has gone down the next day, so all seems to be fine so far. Being able to let them out to range now that the bird flu restrictions have been lifted, is helping as I think the straw eating was a boredom thing. Can't believe how well the wound healed. I didn't give it any other dressing or treatment other than the initial packing with Germolene, which is an antiseptic cream. I didn't want to handle her after that because her breathing was really bad for nearly a week after aspirating, but the wound healed fantastically and the congestion cleared by itself without any treatment. She is an amazingly tough little chicken!

Barbara that's fantastic news! It's so wonderful to hear of such a success story. Well done you; you saved her life! * claps and cheers loudly*
I didn't know they still made Germolene; that's brought back some childhood memories!
I hope she continues to lay an egg on many more birthdays to come

 

[rebrascora]

@Wonderwend

Yes, I'm still pretty made up about it, but Vippy really has to take credit for being so resilient. I was pretty certain she would die after aspirating her vomit and here in the UK, if I wanted antibiotics, it would have to be a vets visit, which I had already ruled out, so I was amazed when, after a few days of wheezing and ruttling, she started to improve.

Germolene is still a primary first aid item here in the UK. I use it almost daily on cuts and keens, bites, spelks (splinters) and especially spots (zits) although thankfully those are few and far between these days. And of course now on post surgery chickens!!! Great stuff!

 

[rebrascora]

OK, I have a necropsy submission for this thread. I had limited time so it is not a comprehensive necropsy, just looking at the areas I suspected....ie major organs.

The subject was an adult blue copper Marans cock bird that was approx 16-18 months old.... he was gifted to me a year ago with 2 black copper Marans pullets that are hale and healthy. I have had misgivings about him since I got him as he just never seemed to be quite right. He would get black spots on his comb for no apparent reason and his comb was never a good colour.... one large black spot appeared in the middle of his comb last winter and never really went away. He did pass an adult round worm in the first few months that I owned him but I never saw any more and I did not worm him. I am of the opinion that chickens will naturally have a level of worms in their system and seeing one in their droppings is not an indication of a serious infestation and that worming them regularly prevents them from developing their own tolerance/resistance to them. That said, I was prepared to find an infestation during the necropsy because he was quite emaciated when I culled him but surprisingly there were none!
Anyway, he developed problems standing a few months ago and would spend most of the day sitting with his tail in the air. Most nights he would manage to roost but some nights he would be in the nest box or under the poop board. The inability to stand for long was not uncoordinated like Marek's but rather a weakness and this little trio have been kept separate of my Marek's flock although I haven't taken specific bio security measures. My gut feeling is that he was not suffering from Marek's. A couple of weeks ago, he started with really bad diarrhoea.... it was literally squirting out of him but he continued to eat enthusiastically and nothing else changed. He was still lying down with his tail up most of the time. I have had a busy few weeks and had decided to cull him as he is clearly not a healthy bird, but wanted to perform a necropsy, so hung on until I had time....probably not in the birds interests which is my bad, but anyway, here are the photos and my findings. I would appreciate input from anyone else with experience.

He was emaciated....almost no breast meat and keel bone and pelvic points were very obvious under the skin. He was just starting his fist adult moult which made plucking him nice and easy. He was still warm when I performed the necropsy and his blood had not congealed....

The first photo shows the abdominal cavity opened up with the heart and liver and digestive tract all in place. The heart and pericardium were odd. I've not seen that white translucent pericardium membrane so obvious and loose and the atria were both soft and floppy whereas normally I am used to the heart being a solid organ. The lower ventricle area was as I would expect but that top section of it was collapsed and mushy for want of a better word. The liver was not as healthy a colour as I would have liked but no obvious discolouration or lesions. The caeca you can see below the gizzard (the mustard coloured part of the gut) was distended and gaseous.

Second image shows the liver lobes opened up to reveal more of the gizzard.... nothing overly unusual apart from the heart looking weird.

Third image is of the carcass with the heart removed and the liver and digestive tract pushed to my left to reveal the left lung testes and kidneys.... I half expected there to be a problem with the kidneys.... I was thinking possibly gout was causing his inability to stand, but they looked fine.

The fourth image shows the digestive tract removed giving a clearer picture of the testes and kidneys. The testes were very small for an adult cock bird but he had not been fit to breed for a long time.

The fifth is of the main organs removed. Heart is top left of the photo. Lungs look healthy and digestive tract.

Photo no. 6 shows the digestive tract untangled. You can clearly see how distended the caeca are, but the intestines themselves look quite healthy in my opinion.

No.7 is the gizzard cut open. Nothing unusual except that it is probably underdeveloped for the size of bird.

Photo 8 is the heart intact. Notice that top left hand section on the photo looks collapsed.

Photo 9. that collapsed atrial section of the heart cut open.

I didn't take any more photos after that as things got messy when I started cutting caeca and intestines open to examine for worms, but I didn't find anything of interest there to report and notably no worms..... having said that, the rate at which liquid poop was squirting out of him, I would imagine it would be difficult for worms to thrive!

Anyway, my opinion from what I saw is that he had a heart defect, but I wonder if the distended caeca and diarrhoea were an indication of coccidiosis or perhaps some other infection although he didn't go off his food and had been suffering that really bad diarrhoea for at least 2 weeks, which, if it was coccidia or infection, you would have thought would have taken him down or knocked him off his food before then.
I just had a thought that I didn't check his crop and whilst fluids in large quantities were obviously going through his system.... my daily muck out of the coop was testament to that.... perhaps there was something that was slowing the passage of solids..... that said, his diet was almost exclusively fermented feed, which would flush through his system with the water.

Anyway, just thought I would post as it is a slightly unusual one and if nothing else it might help people see that doing a basic necropsy is not that difficult..... all I used was a pair of scissors to cut through the skin and tissue and a pair of pruning shears to cut through the ribs to lift the rib cage and an old feed bag on a table in my green house to place the carcass on as a work surface. Having some old newspaper to wrap the organs in afterwards to dispose of is also useful.

Regards

Barbara

 

[rebrascora]

Just had a look through that link on page 7 of this thread to the Merck Vet Manual and wonder if he may have had Hepatitis/Hydropericardium syndrome. It appears that it affects youngsters at 3-6 weeks but perhaps he survived it but was left with residual damage to the heart. It might explain why the liver was not a good colour and why the pericardium was loose and baggy and the heart damaged.

 

[Micaela.ph15]

Very very interesting thread. Following!! Thanks to all who have shared I've learned so much!!!

 

[casportpony]

@rebrascora , sorry for your loss, but thanks for taking time to post the necropsy pictures. The first thing I noticed was the pale liver and the distended intestines, so for cause of death, or cause of diarrhea I would think maybe something like gassy clostridia?

 

[Deltabwa]

I Butchered my chicken from this thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/fluid-in-belly-with-egg-floating.1202391/

I thought maybe a tumor since I saw her lay an egg after the swelling began but only once. Since she has purring a lot and in the morning she acts like she wants to lay and then quits after about an hr. I took a video while doing it, but got a text at the end and it shut the video off and I didn't realize it. I also didn't cut anything open since it didn't apply to her but I did pull out the heart. I can still cut them open if someone would want me too but time is ticking at this point That thing around the 2:50 mark that I am cutting out. What is that? Can anyone tell? It was split open, and completely empty. It also smelled horrible. I had to stop the video to take it outside lol I am pretty positive I didn't cut it and it had 2 spots that looked like holes.

 

[casportpony]

Looks like salpingitis.

 

[coach723]

I think that was a lash egg, and it appeared there were more lower down. So likely salpingitis. Here's more info: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/12/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard.html
You can find more by searching online. I'm very sorry for your loss, good that you looked to see what happened. I've never had one recover from this despite some info that says it may be treatable in the early stages with antibiotics. By the time they show symptoms it's just too late.

 

[Deltabwa]

Good info, thanks!! I posted actual pics, including the ones in that 1st sack I pulled out and it was solid, like it was Peritonitis.???? I thought from video's I had seen that that's how it formed. big solid yellow masses