We just lost our first chicken.
At the very beginning:
She was probably about 12 weeks old when I first noticed she napped a lot. She would eat fine - was top of the pecking order with her 6 flock buddies, but would go off and close her eyes, while the other chickens would preen, etc. Every time she heard me approach or make a different type of noise, she would act normal again - I just assumed the heat bothered her (she was my only orpington and a heavier breed).
When she was 16 weeks I started trying to integrate her flock with the older chickens. Even thought they had all been free-ranging in the same yard every afternoon for months, the older ones were still very mean to the younger ones when it came to sharing their run - this may have stressed Splash.
At 17 1/2 weeks of age, she started with a slight limp , which progressed to a pronounced limp. She limped for about 5 days and then lost the use of the bad leg (she would stand if I held her up). A few days later, the second leg also quite working. Her legs never did have a Marek's posture and she never lost the use of her wings, but about a week ago - she stopped eating on her own (I think she was depressed) and I had to feed her by dropper (with her fighting me every time). She died at 19 1/2 weeks of age.
Here are the complete details:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=249471
We had looked into sending her body out for a necropsy, but it wasn't feasible - costwise ($200 here) and we were advised by a vet that it was unnecessary since we had only lost 1 chicken. So... we decided to take a look inside (actually, 'I' decided - my DH was really not into doing this, but was a wonderful help anyway).
She died 2 days ago, I immediately wet her down and put her into the refrigerator (wrapped in 4 plastic bags). We did the necropsy / autopsy late last night. I've never cut open a chicken before that wasn't store bought - so I don't have much experience with organs, etc, but I did have a wonderful online manuel to guide me (Thanks, ThreeHorses!). I was hoping to hear from some experts on this.
Here are the photos -- GRAPHIC pictures of the inside of a chicken's body - some blood too
She was very thin - had lost just over 1/2 lb since I first weighed her over 2 weeks ago.
Right after we opened her up (liver is on top)
After removing the liver
Close-up after taking out the liver
Are these the kidneys? The one on my left (that my finger is holding up) was VERY tiny and not spongy like the other side.
Close-up of the Kidneys (now confirmed by BYC members). The kidney that I am touching is very small - that is the whole thing that you see in the picture.
* Kidneys (see above pic) on the far left * * Heart was not all one color (didn't look right to me - part of it was quite dark * * Spleen was perfectly round and uniform in color inside & out * * Liver was very smooth, looked perfectly normal according to the pictures online - same consistency & color throughout - I sliced through it in several areas. * * Gizzard Inside the Proventriculus (attached to the gizzard, there were a few very tiny stones inside and a strange, hard, green piece of .....? in there (can't tell if its manmade or not). The strange, green piece was 1/2" long, almost 1/2" wide, & 1/8" thick - shape was almost square, but not quite.
Closeups of the above organs:
Close-up of the heart while still in the body (different view the above pic):
Two photos of the sciatic nerves - the 4 thin strands on the right look normal - the other side looks like it only has 3 thin strands - something happened to the 4th I compared the larger parts of the sciatic nerve (the nerves in the actual thigh and couldn't tell the difference - the yellow on the right one is just fat - I moved fat, membranes around while I was probing & examing the nerves.
I forgot to add: Both my husband and I were looking specifically for tumors and couldn't find any.
At the very beginning:
She was probably about 12 weeks old when I first noticed she napped a lot. She would eat fine - was top of the pecking order with her 6 flock buddies, but would go off and close her eyes, while the other chickens would preen, etc. Every time she heard me approach or make a different type of noise, she would act normal again - I just assumed the heat bothered her (she was my only orpington and a heavier breed).
When she was 16 weeks I started trying to integrate her flock with the older chickens. Even thought they had all been free-ranging in the same yard every afternoon for months, the older ones were still very mean to the younger ones when it came to sharing their run - this may have stressed Splash.
At 17 1/2 weeks of age, she started with a slight limp , which progressed to a pronounced limp. She limped for about 5 days and then lost the use of the bad leg (she would stand if I held her up). A few days later, the second leg also quite working. Her legs never did have a Marek's posture and she never lost the use of her wings, but about a week ago - she stopped eating on her own (I think she was depressed) and I had to feed her by dropper (with her fighting me every time). She died at 19 1/2 weeks of age.
Here are the complete details:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=249471
We had looked into sending her body out for a necropsy, but it wasn't feasible - costwise ($200 here) and we were advised by a vet that it was unnecessary since we had only lost 1 chicken. So... we decided to take a look inside (actually, 'I' decided - my DH was really not into doing this, but was a wonderful help anyway).
She died 2 days ago, I immediately wet her down and put her into the refrigerator (wrapped in 4 plastic bags). We did the necropsy / autopsy late last night. I've never cut open a chicken before that wasn't store bought - so I don't have much experience with organs, etc, but I did have a wonderful online manuel to guide me (Thanks, ThreeHorses!). I was hoping to hear from some experts on this.
Here are the photos -- GRAPHIC pictures of the inside of a chicken's body - some blood too
She was very thin - had lost just over 1/2 lb since I first weighed her over 2 weeks ago.
Right after we opened her up (liver is on top)
After removing the liver
Close-up after taking out the liver
Are these the kidneys? The one on my left (that my finger is holding up) was VERY tiny and not spongy like the other side.
Close-up of the Kidneys (now confirmed by BYC members). The kidney that I am touching is very small - that is the whole thing that you see in the picture.
* Kidneys (see above pic) on the far left * * Heart was not all one color (didn't look right to me - part of it was quite dark * * Spleen was perfectly round and uniform in color inside & out * * Liver was very smooth, looked perfectly normal according to the pictures online - same consistency & color throughout - I sliced through it in several areas. * * Gizzard Inside the Proventriculus (attached to the gizzard, there were a few very tiny stones inside and a strange, hard, green piece of .....? in there (can't tell if its manmade or not). The strange, green piece was 1/2" long, almost 1/2" wide, & 1/8" thick - shape was almost square, but not quite.
Closeups of the above organs:
Close-up of the heart while still in the body (different view the above pic):
Two photos of the sciatic nerves - the 4 thin strands on the right look normal - the other side looks like it only has 3 thin strands - something happened to the 4th I compared the larger parts of the sciatic nerve (the nerves in the actual thigh and couldn't tell the difference - the yellow on the right one is just fat - I moved fat, membranes around while I was probing & examing the nerves.
I forgot to add: Both my husband and I were looking specifically for tumors and couldn't find any.
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