A lymphoid leucosis with untreatable crop disorder necropsy (gross photos)

[azygous]

Background: Eight-year old Welsummer hen went sick six weeks ago. First treated with amoxicillin, then a yeast infection set in a few weeks later. Started treating with miconazole to no effect. Later went to Medistatin to no effect. Then did a round of Epsom salts flushes to no effect. Crop stubbornly refused to empty. Hen declined, appetite failed, crop filled in spite of not eating. Began tube feeding with Medistatin included, along with Poultry Nutri-drench. Hen continued to fail, lost all her weight, and organ failure started 24 hours ago, patient dying during the night.

I suspected an obstruction such as tumors with good reason. My flock carries the leusosis virus which causes tumors. I opened the body and tried to find abnormalities. I would very much appreciate some input from @Eggcessive @dawg53 and @casportpony .

I didn't notice any enlarged organs such as the liver which would be typical of LL. But the gizzard seemed slightly enlarged. Cutting the organs out of the abdominal cavity, I did find a mass of what appeared to be leucosis tumors that was, overall, the size of a nickel, located behind the crop. The crop was full of white sour liquid and bits of carrot that the hen had consumed 24 hours ago. Her intestines and gizzard were full of sludgy fluid I assume to be bile.

Please chime in on what you think about the photos. My tentative, semi-educated guess is this hen died from starvation due to pressure on the crop and proventriculus by the tumor that prevented her crop from emptying. Photos two and four show the suspicious mass the color pink with tiny pearl barley looking lesions.

 

[Eggcessive]

Very sorry for your loss, Carol. I don’t have a huge amount of experience with necropsies. The ones I have done have been for reproductive disorders. I did see a cancerous tumor once, about the size of the small tumor in your picture. Did you see any evidence of tumor inside the gizzard wall? I wish I could be more helpful.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm sorry for your loss. I hope you can gain some knowledge from this.

 

[azygous]

@Eggcessive I was expecting to find hundreds of tiny tumors all over, but found only that one small mass. The organs all seemed free of tumors and none seemed enlarged. The gizzard seemed larger than normal, but that's it. There may have been tumors lurking that I wasn't able to isolate with my lack of dissecting tools and lack of strength in my fingers.

 

[micstrachan]

So sorry, Carol.

 

[Swbertrand1]

Oh no. I'm so sorry for the loss of your hen. I suppose this is the hen you referenced when talking with me about my little Peanut.

I'm looking at some liver booster along the lines of Thistle Milk to supplement her since Eggcessive keeps mentioning Liver issues, and this post popped up.

It's interesting that you mention the pressure on the proventriculus since I've considered that along with pressure on other parts of the digestive tract...