Chick Necropsy, Suspected Mareks disease? Graphic

[teenchik]

Alright, I am sick of chicks dying in my house, as some of ya'll know we have had an epidemic of it. This morning woke up to another dead chick. I'm quite sick of this, so today I had a chick necropsy, I don't know if some of what I found is indicative of a virus, or genetic or normal so Here is some pictures of what I thought could be abnormal.

I am pointing to a nodule I found on the heart, it was hard and round like a BB pellet.

This green was all over the underside of the liver, I do not think I ruptured the gall bladder. You can see where I cut the liver intentionally and the color was only on the surface. To me it looks like some sort of infection.

As for the final picture this was a weird mass on the intestines. It felt relatively solid, and I did not think that chickens had masses on their intestines normally. If you look you can see that it is weird shaped.


Is this a sign of Maerks? I originally thought it was a mold, but I don't know now. All the chickens I have lost are from two specific breeds, from two breeders. I have lost the Yokahama's and the Wheaton Marans. They have both been in pens with different breeds and birds. The first batch only lost the yokahamas, the second only the wheaton marans. The symptoms were very weird, the bird would twist it's neck back act paralyzed then die.

Here is a pic of one dead with the twisted neck trampled look.

No more chicks till I get this under control

Any help would be nice,

Christal

 

[Balbinka]

Oh no!

I have no advice, but I am so sorry about your beautiful chicks.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Oh, I'm so sorry about your chicks.

Great pictures (of a sad event), those ought to help someone pinpoint the issue. The things you found definitely look abnormal to me.

I'm not sure exactly what caused the death of your chicks, but I will say that one year I had wild baby birds (I'm a wildlife rehabber) showing similar symptoms--head twisted back, acting paralyzed, and then death.

I hope you get a definitive answer soon, and that you won't have any more losses.

 

[CMV]

There looks to be lesions on the liver. The liver should be a solid dark red with no white spots. The nodule on the heart is a heart defect of some sort. Did you cut it open to see what it was? I wonder if it was solid, fluid filled or a worm. The nodule in the intestines is also suspect. Are you sure you didn't rupture the gall bladder? The goo in that area definitely looks nasty. Since I have never actually ruptured a gall bladder (careful processing) I am not sure if that is the right color for spilled bile, but I suspect it may be.

I'd start at the liver lesions. Those are definitely not normal.

Nice work and good luck.

 

[teenchik]

I have processed chickens before and the only gallbladder that was ruputured was intentionally. Thought it was amusing to see the color. The bile was more like a deep forest green, not a light infectious green. I'm not going to be able to do microscopic analysis being that I don't have a microscope.

The nodule was a solid mass. It looked kinda like cartilage. I don't know what it could have been.. I will be so happy when this is over, but what ever it is seems to be isolated to two different breeds.

I have no idea, it is abit difficult trying to figure this out.

Christal

 

[pinkwindsong]

wow really looking forward to finding out what the heck is happening ..
good luck
)O(pink

 

[Erica]

Hi teenchik,

you may not feel up to it, but there's a terrific atlas of diseases with necropsy photos (very detailed) at http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/search/disease
Just put 'Marek's disease' into the search and have a look. It may make you think it's Marek's or it may not... But it might help you make sense of the necropsy. (Particularly look at the torticollis or head twisting, and there are heart, liver and intestinal nodules that you might feel resemble what your birds have shown... Or might not. Don't let me talk you into it.) There's also a very good reference (normal) necropsy on the website, for comparison.

I'm nowhere near an expert and have never had Marek's (not a clear case anyway) in my flock, so I hope I'm not sending you down the wrong path. But perhaps it's a useful reference site for future use...

I hope you get to the bottom of it, it must be very distressing.

regards
Erica

Edited to add: Just realised it defaults to the 'normal' reference necropsy page -- at the top right is the 'new search' button so that's what you hit... Again, best of luck.

 

[teenchik]

I'm still not really for sure, put those lesions do look similar to what it shows for Maerks. I Think my best bet will be to treat everything as well as possible and to start vaccinating my birds. This whole flipping thing started a few weeks after we got some birds in from a hatchery, that strain has also had a very high death rate.

Hmmm.. Any one ever give the vaccine?

 

[Erica]

Hi teenchik,

By all means vaccinate if you wish to. Just one extra consideration: unlike some diseases, Marek's resistance is highly hereditary. So if you wait out this bout and see what survives you would most probably be able to breed strongly resistant birds.

It's an easy thing for me to say though... I'll bow out now so you can hear from others with experience in vaccinating.

Erica

 

[teenchik]

That actually explains why only two lines of birds were hurt by it. They weren't resistant. OOOOHHH

Do you have any other information on that?