Do chickens get fatty tumors?

[critterkeeper25]

We recently lost one of our Buckeye hens to what we think was sour crop. Sent was listless, and wasn't eating. Her crop was large and squishy, and didn't empty over night. I isolated her, gave her probiotic, and treated her with miconazoleas someone on here had suggested. Within 3 days she was dead.
I asked my husband to do a post mortem on her to be sure that it was sour crop and nothing that might affect our other hens.
He found that her crop had wet chicken pellets and whole oats in it. It was foul smelling. (While checking her butt when she was alive, a large amount of sour smelling liquid ran out of her mouth, which made me wary of sour crop)
He also found a huge fatty mass in her abdomen. It was approximately the size of two large bagels. One for each side of the mass. He is a bird hunter, and said that he has never seen anything like it before, but she was a hen that liked to eat grains.
I will post pictures below.

CAUTION!GORY PHOTOS BELOW!

 

[critterkeeper25]

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[critterkeeper25]

 

[critterkeeper25]

 

[critterkeeper25]

Was just reading Two Crows article on crops, and it is suggested that some crop issues are caused by tumors around the digestive tract which are often found in hatchery stock. Wel,l even though this hen was a Buckeye (heritage breed), she did come from a hatchery, as well as 8 of our remaining hens.
I forgot to add above, that my husband didn't find any evidence of parasites in her digestive tract either. Which is good.

Is the yellow mass, that my husband found in the abdominal cavity of this hen, a reproductive tumor of some sort?

 

[critterkeeper25]

Anybody have any idea what this is?

 

[critterkeeper25]

Helloooo.....is this just excessive fat?

 

[Newmamabear]

I've never run into anything like this but sour croup may have been the original problem, then compounded by the fatty deposits in her abdomen not allowing her to efficiently get rid of her excrement? Did you get any pics of her organs? Anything else enlarged or weird looking? Did you cut the liver in half? Heart lopsided?

 

[rebrascora]

It isn't a tumour, just a fat belly!

Adult hens in "good condition" usually have a large, yellow, fatty pad over their abdomen in my experience. That said, I culled a couple of my neighbours older hens earlier this year and was quite shocked to see the extent of the fatty deposits inside them and I think they might have suffered organ failure if it had continued for much longer as the intestines, gizzard and heart all had hard fatty deposits on them. I was of the opinion that too much grain was one of the causes along with regular scraps of fat off ham they bought which he fed them thinking it was a treat.
When I process excess cockerels they don't have this fatty deposit, just older hens.

My guess would be that the problem was sour crop, if it smelled bad.

 

[critterkeeper25]

Thank you very much for your responses.
My husband did the necropsy.He is used to gutting game birds, and had never before seen anything like that. I had suspected sour crop as the cause of her death, but it seemed so sudden. Then again, I hadn't done my usual morning inspection of the hens for three days prior , due to my being busy with our German exchange house guest. My hubby was letting them out, and I don't think he was checking for odd behavior as I do. So she may have been acting off for more than the 3 days that I was treating her for sour crop.
I guess we have to be more conservative with the scratch treats we give them. I'm hoping that more of the hens don't have the same huge fat deposits as this hen had.