Deceased young hen, what would be your best guess? [Warning: pics of internal organs]

[mercuhrio]

I, very unfortunately, just lost my very favorite hen. She was only ten months old and had been showing symptoms for about 45 days. She's from a small backyard flock, half of which is vaccinated against Marek's. She was unvaccinated.

It started out as large crop, like in pendulous crop. three weeks later crop was normal sized, but squishy, with no sour smell coming out, however. She also began soiling her vent feathers, but never really got a diarrhea. At the same time behavioral changes began, and she looked more and more aloof and less interested in food. I treated her for sour crop with Nystatin and the "squishness" went away completely, but her vent area continued to get soiled. Breathing seemed fine all along, but she kept getting lethargic, until she finally passed today. I made a rudimentary necropsy and found bad looking, a.k.a. cancerous, lungs and ovaries, perhaps also another organ I couldn't identify (spleen?). Heart looked mishaped. Kidneys looked mishaped (but I don't really know what they were supposed to look like in chickens). Liver, intestines, crop, gizzard, and every other tissue/organ looked healthy, including eyes and skin.

Essentially I'm just hoping to hear an experienced opinion that is less likely to be Marek's than something else!

Thank you everyone!

Pics: 1) liver 2) lungs and heart 3) ovaries and kidneys 4) intestines, plus some belly fat and another cancerous-looking organ

 

[Silkie Princess]

@azygous

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. What is your general location? Have you seen symptoms of Mareks in your flock before? I can’t really say anything with authority about the necropsy, but the lungs and heart did look abnormal. Did you see any yellow fluid come out of the abdomen when you opened it? If you are in the US, and lose another chicken, you can send the body in to your state vet for a necropsy.

 

[azygous]

It does appear there is some evidence of tumors. In and of itself, that doesn't give us a diagnosis. You need to have pathology tests.

Was there a lot of fluid in the abdominal cavity when you opened her up? If so, what color was it? Did it have a strong unpleasant odor?