Chicken sudden death – what could be the cause?

[aptenodytes]

Oh, that's interesting @LaFleche. I wonder what it could be.

@Cinnamon Roll what are the causes you mention ruling out based on the photos?

 

[LaFleche]

Is this enlarged part of the small intestine normal?

Did you open it up, and if you did, what did you find inside?

 

[LaFleche]

Oh, that's interesting @LaFleche. I wonder what it could be.

@Cinnamon Roll what are the causes you mention ruling out based on the photos?

The enlarged lighter coloured liver is caused by accumulation of lymphocytes (white blood cells) hinting to some viral activity going on, i.e Avian Leukosis or Marek's Disease or similar.

 

[Eggcessive]

Hopefully @Wyorp Rock and @azygous might be along to look at the necropsy photos in post 6. As for worming some in Europe use Flubenvet wormer in the feed for 7 days. Panacur horse paste is fenbendazole and works well. Goats, sheep, and poultry use that. Depending on the strength of the product found, I could help with dosage. Then levamisole may also be used there. Interesting about the large liver. Lymphoid leukosis virus is known as big liver disease, but I am no expert on that. I would think there might be tumors notice in LLV.

 

[azygous]

I'm very impressed with your meticulous necropsy. You've done a far better job than I ever do, having done a "quick and dirty" one just yesterday to confirm what I thought caused the death of one of my hens. (Egg binding)

My knowledge of how to read necropsy results is very limited to really obvious things such as egg binding, internal laying, and avian leucosis where these things are not at all obscure.

I did notice the pale liver in your necropsy. But I can't say what it points to. I didn't see anything regarding the reproductive system, but then I miss stuff due to my elderly brain not being as spry as it used to be.

Did you notice any inflammation of the intestinal lining as you cut into them reveling the worms? A heavy worm load is capable of corroding the intestinal lining and causing bacterial infection, and that can become permanent damage resulting in death. It wouldn't necessarily be sudden, though, I would think.

Again, great job! I wish I could be more help.

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

Oh, that's interesting @LaFleche. I wonder what it could be.

@Cinnamon Roll what are the causes you mention ruling out based on the photos?

I was thinking of egg binding in particular. I had a Guinea hen that got terribly egg bound and had a huge mass. I’ve also had a hen that I euthanized have very strange white dots all throughout the body but I haven’t ever had a definite diagnosis for that, I’m guessing it was bacterial.

 

[azygous]

White "dots" on internal organs are tumors, often caused by lymphoid leucosis virus.

 

[aptenodytes]

Wow, thanks for all the responses everyone! It's the first time I've done a necropsy so I didn't really know what I was doing beyond having quickly watched a few videos, so it's good to hear the experts are impressed!

Did you open it up, and if you did, what did you find inside?

I did, but I didn't notice anything beyond the same brown digested food I found in other parts of the intestine. Here's a photo:



I don't seem to have a photo of it empty.

Did you notice any inflammation of the intestinal lining as you cut into them reveling the worms? A heavy worm load is capable of corroding the intestinal lining and causing bacterial infection, and that can become permanent damage resulting in death. It wouldn't necessarily be sudden, though, I would think.

I didn't notice anything, no, but then I didn't really know what I was looking for... The inside of the gizzard was yellow – perhaps because she eaten egg the previous evening? – and as I recall the rest of the intestine was fairly light in colour, translucent enough that the parts which were full of food looked dark whilst the other parts looked light. I don't seem to have any photos that show the intestinal lining, though some parts are somewhat visible in the photo above (behind the scissors).

I agree that the worm load seems unlikely to have resulted in such a sudden death, but then I don't know much about such things.

As for worming some in Europe use Flubenvet wormer in the feed for 7 days. Panacur horse paste is fenbendazole and works well. Goats, sheep, and poultry use that. Depending on the strength of the product found, I could help with dosage. Then levamisole may also be used there.

Thanks for the tips. My local agricultural cooperative had levamisole, so I'll use that. Dosage according to the packaging is 1-2g/l of drinking water for 5 days.

 

[aptenodytes]

I'm still curious about these things on the outside of the intestines. In the first photo they are on the outside of that enlarged part of the small intestine. The yellower one marked by the arrow and the pinker one near my finger are both loose, but attached at one end by a sort of membrane. I have a video of me moving them but can't upload it here.
In the second photo the red one is lower down the intestine.
Any ideas?

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

White "dots" on internal organs are tumors, often caused by lymphoid leucosis virus.

Not to derail the thread but here’s a link to the thread that I made about that hen. The images I got searching for lymphoid leucosis don’t look like my picture, which isn’t the greatest unfortunately.
Thread 'White dots under skin'
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/white-dots-under-skin.1560702/