Chicken necropsy (graphic images) - liver failure / internal bleeding - what is the cause?

[NatJ]

Stop guessing, your answer is YES

As in, yes too much fat, yes that is the liver, yes it is a problem?

 

[Altairsky]

Could the cause of death be liver rupture? Brittle liver + presence of blood cloth in the abdominal cavity as seen in the pictures?
I'd change the feed, that's for sure. Would chose one with more protein (20%) and less carbs.
It's carbs that make the liver fat, remember this. Healthy fats don't make the liver fat.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

yes, yes, yes. i think so. [as I type while shoving toast (fat and flour), and sausage (pork, fat, spices) gravy (milk, fat, four) into my mouth]

But it tastes so good. I'm sure that bird though the same of its feed.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Look at picture three, right mid. Several other views, similar. Looks to me like evidence of past ruptures/bleeds. Should also find evidence of kidney damage once you get to the wall, and the heart, I would expect, will be almost completely enrobed in yellow, with perhaps the bottom 1/4 exposed (educated guess, I've never let one of my birds get this fat, don't have first hand experience)

 

[Altairsky]

I have seen similar levels of fat in laying hens that I butchered, that did not show any obvious signs of ill health.

I'd say that all the laying hens my grandma butchered at end cycle, had that, if not more, amount of abdominal fat, and their liver was perfectly normal.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

and now that I read the full thread and see this wasn't a bird being butchered for freezer camp, but rather one that "volunteered" for internal photography, I'm going to revise my diagnosis to "YES, FLHS" as the best working theory here.


Sorry, the @ comment caught me pre-coffee. Horrid state of affairs. 0/10 do not recommend

 

[coach723]

Yes, what was circled could have been liver, which I did consider. But everything is so displaced, hard to say for sure. If it is, then it's definitely abnormal, both in color and texture, has fallen apart (I assume from the handling) and very diseased. Since things were so disrupted I was thinking it was crop or proventriculus contents that had come down. It's so much easier when you see things in situ first, and then move things around. I've had several birds with fatty liver disease, a couple of them hemorrhaged. I think it's often a combination of genetics and diet. I had a whole batch of black sex links (purchased) that all got really fat, the rest of my flock was not. So I think with the ones that have a genetic predispostition, then they are much more sensitive to contents of diet. Some did not hemorrhage but the liver was very pale and friable, in one case looked cooked, for lack of a better description. In my experience, some fat is ok, but when it's all around the organs like here, not ok. I've both processed birds for food and necropsied to see why a bird died, so I've seen it both ways. If you see the fat like that, and a liver that is unhealthy, pale, friable, it's 99.9% it's FLHS, in my (very) humble opinion.