Chicken sick: water belly, sour crop, and diarrhea

[Wyorp Rock]

The gizzard does look fairly packed with material.
The liver is diseased. I'm inclined to think that may be AVL, but hard to say.
@azygous is this what an liver looks like in birds with AVL?

 

[azygous]

Yup. Sure does.

 

[Penny_royal]

Yup. Sure does.

I’m not familiar with that. I looked it up but I’m still unclear. Could you help me understand more about it? Is it contagious? What about the rest of my flock? Thank you all so much!!

 

[Penny_royal]

The gizzard does look fairly packed with material.
The liver is diseased. I'm inclined to think that may be AVL, but hard to say.
@azygous is this what an liver looks like in birds with AVL?

It was very packed, challenging to loosen, and none of it was passing through her. Her intestine was full of just watery fluid, absolutely nothing even close to solid.

 

[azygous]

Avian leucosis virus is contagious. It's a cousin of Marek's, although a different virus. It causes tumors on organs. Your flock now carries it since this chicken was in your flock. That doesn't mean the others will all get sick and die. It's often the case that most of your flock will develop resistance to it and never show symptoms.

It does require you to keep a closed flock. That means you may not rehome any chicken, sell or distribute eggs for hatching, although they are perfectly safe to eat. Hatching eggs within your flock may carry a high mortality rate. Here is more info. https://www.poultryhub.org/all-about-poultry/health-management/disease/lymphoid-leukosis

 

[Penny_royal]

Avian leucosis virus is contagious. It's a cousin of Marek's, although a different virus. It causes tumors on organs. Your flock now carries it since this chicken was in your flock. That doesn't mean the others will all get sick and die. It's often the case that most of your flock will develop resistance to it and never show symptoms.

It does require you to keep a closed flock. That means you may not rehome any chicken, sell or distribute eggs for hatching, although they are perfectly safe to eat. Hatching eggs within your flock may carry a high mortality rate. Here is more info. https://www.poultryhub.org/all-about-poultry/health-management/disease/lymphoid-leukosis

I have other groups of chickens kept separate from that group: would they be at risk? Is there a way I can test my other flocks for this?

 

[azygous]

DNA testing. You can do it with a blood sample. But the only lab I know that does it is in Texas. The issue is that blood degrades after 24 hours and our mail isn't that swift these days. By the time it gets to the lab, if you're a long way from Texas, the sample may not be viable enough to get accurate results.