Crop or gizzard in postmortem (not sure)

[kristenm1975]

An apparently healthy hen dropped dead overnight so I decided to open her up. All looked normal until I got further up the body cavity and found a rock hard mass the approximate size and shape of an egg. It had a shiny whitish blue membrane over it but once cut opened was deep red in color. Inside it was solidly packed with mud, wheat grains, oyster shell and a few tiny flecks of grass. I jumped to the conclusion that she died of an impacted crop but I just found pictures of her the day before she died looking perfectly healthy.

Am I missing something here?

 

[CMV]

You opened up her gizzard, which is a hard, muscular organ used for grinding up grains and seeds. Sounds perfectly normal. The crop is higher up, above and outside the breast muscle.

 

[kristenm1975]

I'm bummed that I didn't investigate further after hearing this. I was so sure that was the culprit.

Without the body available to investigate any furth, I'll just have to go on what I saw. I would love an opinion on what might have gone wrong. I'd hate to see my more of my girls fall prey to whatever took this one so quickly.

She was found first thing in the morning in the loft of her coop, with a damp greenish pool of liquid beneath her beak. Her head was tucked tightly into her neck. The feathers on her low back were fluffed up a bit but not dirtied at all. She had lain an egg the day before.

I didn't feel any mass near her vent. The vent itself was pale, but her combs and wattles were bright as ever. I could see no sign of injury or illness and when I'd seen her last alive 24 hours before, she was her normal self, eating and drinking normally.

My friend had his two boys over (around 8 and 10 I think) and they gathered the eggs. I wasn't there during this part of the evening. I wonder if it's possible that my hen tried to sneak past them when they gathered eggs and they might have accidentally shut the door of the egg box on her neck. I could not see any broken skin, but her feathers were very dense there and she also had her neck tucked far down, blocking examination of the upper neck.

Any thoughts? I really appreciate any help. Very worried about my other girls.