Flat stiff cheesy masses in cavity

[PatS]

Hi, We killed and cleaned our two turkeys today. Both had very gassy intestines and each had a few yellow masses inside the cavity, not attached to anything. I have never seen this before. The birds were about 4 months old and free ranged, fed organically. We had put their poult-mates down months ago due to respiratory problems that developed after using wood chips in the brooder -- but these two seemed to recover. The chickens they lived with never had so much as a cough (and were unremarkable when I butchered them).

So stiff, yellow, flat cheesy things in a cavity, about the size of a 50 cent piece. I thought is looked fatty. Any ideas?

 

[AinaWGSD]

My first thought with the description before opening the post was egg product from internal laying. But at 4 months old I'm not sure that's a possibility, especially with turkeys. I hope someone else has some ideas.

 

[PatS]

Thank you. I'm sorry, I should have mentioned they were both males. In addition to the external signs, I did find small internal ones as well. =) I'm positive they were both male. I'm wondering what kind of infection or problem could cause the yellow stuff? The hearts were both healthy, one liver was perfect, the other was a little grayish the way they can sometimes be, so I threw that one out. Gizzards were perfect. Lungs were not great, redder and a bit foamy, but I cut their windpipes and they might have aspirated blood before they passed? No nodules, no yellowness in the lungs. They had had a respiratory illness when they were young and on top of that we've been smoked out for weeks by a wildfire that made breathing hard for everyone.

Their poops has been very good, so I was surprised at how much gas was in their intestines. I've never seen that before in the dozens of birds I've processed or the rabbits I've done. I didn't see any parasites through the intestinal wall, but I did not cut open the intestines to look more closely. My mad-scientist inclinations have their limits.