I'm hoping someone out there can help me.... My husband and I have a small backyard coop. We love our girls!! However, my favorite girl- Isabelle- died a few months ago after being sick for a few days. These past few weeks, another one of my girls- Dinner- has been acting sick. I've tried everything I could think of to help her but to no avail. After she could barely walk, I had my husband put her down. I did an 'autopsy' on her to try to determine what was wrong. I have no idea!! Inside, every organ was filled with a yellowish growth. They reminded me of scrambled eggs that were 'cooked' inside of her. They were pale yellow and had 'layers'. The pictures I'm posting is after much hesitation (and therefore not 'fresh'). Any help in identifying this would be helpful!! Thanks in advance!
Welcome to BYC. That looks to be from internal laying and egg yolk peritonitis. It is very common with the high production chickens that hatcheries breed for to produce large amounts of egg. They sometimes get it from laying too large of an egg which can damage the reproductive tract. Sometimes they will get prolapsed vents, rubbery eggs that break inside the vent, egg bound, and then bacteria will invade the tract or stool contents will back up inside contaminating the abdomen. Sometimes they will develop fluid build-up or acsites in the abdomen causing pain. People will treat with antibiotics sometimes, but these hens usually will die, sometimes painfully suffering for long periods, so putting them down is sometimes best. Sorry for your loss.
If you do a search on "internal laying" here on BYC at the top of the page you will see many threads and pictures of similar cases. Here is some info: http://www.avianweb.com/eggyolkperitonitis.html
It would be wise to have a necropsy done since pasteurella (Fowl Cholera) or salmonella can both cause peritonitis when the ova ruptures. Here are some lab links: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_dis_spec/poultry/downloads/labs_app.pdf Fowl Cholera: http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/search/disease/494 Egg peritonitis in poultry: http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/pou...uctive_system/egg_peritonitis_in_poultry.html
