Hoots was a 3-4 yo americauna hen. She died taking a dust bath this evening. She had been laying duck size eggs as of late. I found no visible injuries to her body. She was a good weight. My dogs were barking towards he coop early this evening. It might have been er death throws. We did a short necropsy on her and found a very large amount of coagulated blood in her. Obviously a bleed occured. We didn't go over every organ but the gizzard,liver and intestines looked fine. I felt for eggs but didn't feel any. Then id had enough and decided to call it good. We had a partial answer. Anyone know of a reason a chicken would bleed out internally?
Hi Sorry you didn't get a reply before now and more so, that you lost your hen. Good on you for opening her up and having a look inside. Coagulated blood in the body cavity is very unusual so I would imagine she ruptured a major artery... perhaps as a result of an aneurism.....unless you are mistaking her liver for coagulated blood?? It is difficult to know what peoples' level of knowledge is as regards internal organs and what they should look like. If you are familiar with liver and it wasn't that, then chances are it was a ruptured major blood vessel.
A couple of other possibilities for internal bleeding might be fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome or cancer. The liver in fatty liver disease may be tan or putty-colored, and there can be large amounts of fat tissue in the body. Cancer can be common in chickens. Sorry for your loss, and glad that rebascora answered your thread even though it was late.
