Enlarged liver with white nodules

maryhysong

Songster
7 Years
Aug 24, 2012
1,875
151
188
Claypool, Arizona
I have butchered a lot of chickens over the years but this I have not seen before. I've had several mystery deaths in point of lay pullets that I was not able to examine. This was the last one. Seemingly fine one day and dead the next.
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The body cut open you can see how enormous the liver is and how it is full of white cysts.

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A close up of the liver

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I sliced open part of it so you can see the inside of the nodules which are firm

The body cavity around the heart was filled with blood. The heart looked ok tho it seemed just a bit small for the birds size
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The membrane holding the duodenal loop was thick and opaque instead of thin and transparent. There were some round worms in the intestines. So I will be worming the flock. I'm wondering could those cysts on the liver be from tapeworms? Any other ideas?
 
I have very little experience with necropsies or butchering chickens, but just today I was Googling "liver disease in chickens" and in the images, I found a few like that. It can be from cancer from avian leukosis or Mareks disease, but there may be other diseases that cause it. Others on here such as those who butcher chickens like yourself, may chime in with suggestions.
 
i would be really interested in the Mereks liver pics. Mystery deaths affected only one pen and that pen is the only one that had chicks from another source
 

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