*GRAPHIC* Necropsy of 16wk old cockerel - Need help with interpereting photos

[Chibichabo]

A friend had one of their 16 week old French Wheaten Marans cockerels die this morning. He'd been visibly sick for 5 days, presented with anorexia, lethargy, ataxia. Crop consistently empty, normal poos. No respiratory symptoms, clear eyes. Was treated for internal & external parasites and coccidiosis, died on night 5 of illness.

When I opened him up, he was emaciated with absolutley no meat or fat on him at all, GI tract was empty.

His live weight was 835g
His spleen weighed 17g should've been around 0.8g (1g/kg body weight from what I've read).
Liver weighed 88g should've been around 20-66g (2.5-8% body weight)

Two other full siblings are starting to go off food and loose weight.

Does anyone have any ideas? Adult birds in flock seem healthy. We're in Melbourne, Australia so its summer time.

Chicks are fed Barastock Pullet Grower (we don't have any all flock here), claims to be suitable for chicks 8-16 weeks of age. Details below are from their website.

NUTRIENT LEVELS​

Crude Protein (Min) 15.5%	Available Phos 0.5%
Crude Fat 2.5%	Added Copper 8.0mg
Crude Fibre (Max) 6.0%	Added Selenium 0.3mg
Added Salt (Max) 0.5%	Lasalocid Sodium 80mg
Calcium 1.0%

Typical analysis as fed / kg

INGREDIENTS SELECTED FROM THE FOLLOWING: Wheat, Barley, Vegetable Protein Meals, Legumes, Oats, Canola Oil, Soybean Oil, Shell Grit (Fine and Coarse Calcium), Salt, Enzymes, Essential Vitamin and Mineral Premix, Anticoccidial, Phosphate and Amino Acids.

 

[Eggcessive]

I am not a vet, but due to the symptoms and the enlarged liver at 16 weeks, I would wonder if avian lymphoid leukosis might be the cause of death. Sorry for your loss. Here is some reading:
https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/avian-leucosis/82389838

https://poultrydvm.com/condition/lymphoid-leukosis

 

[MysteryChicken]

A friend had one of their 16 week old French Wheaten Marans cockerels die this morning. He'd been visibly sick for 5 days, presented with anorexia, lethargy, ataxia. Crop consistently empty, normal poos. No respiratory symptoms, clear eyes. Was treated for internal & external parasites and coccidiosis, died on night 5 of illness.

When I opened him up, he was emaciated with absolutley no meat or fat on him at all, GI tract was empty.

His live weight was 835g
His spleen weighed 17g should've been around 0.8g (1g/kg body weight from what I've read).
Liver weighed 88g should've been around 20-66g (2.5-8% body weight)

Two other full siblings are starting to go off food and loose weight.

Does anyone have any ideas? Adult birds in flock seem healthy. We're in Melbourne, Australia so its summer time.

Chicks are fed Barastock Pullet Grower (we don't have any all flock here), claims to be suitable for chicks 8-16 weeks of age. Details below are from their website.

NUTRIENT LEVELS​

Crude Protein (Min) 15.5%	Available Phos 0.5%
Crude Fat 2.5%	Added Copper 8.0mg
Crude Fibre (Max) 6.0%	Added Selenium 0.3mg
Added Salt (Max) 0.5%	Lasalocid Sodium 80mg
Calcium 1.0%

Typical analysis as fed / kg

INGREDIENTS SELECTED FROM THE FOLLOWING: Wheat, Barley, Vegetable Protein Meals, Legumes, Oats, Canola Oil, Soybean Oil, Shell Grit (Fine and Coarse Calcium), Salt, Enzymes, Essential Vitamin and Mineral Premix, Anticoccidial, Phosphate and Amino Acids.

The protien level of the feed is way below the Bare Minimum of 16%. Any lower is detrimental to chickens health.

How about a Flock Raiser feed if you don't have All Flock, or keeping them on Chick Feed(Chick Feed is essentially the same as an all flock, or flock Raiser feeds).

 

[Eggcessive]

You can use chick starter as well since you don’t have all flock feed where you live. They need about 20% protein as they are growing.

 

[Debbie292d]

A friend had one of their 16 week old French Wheaten Marans cockerels die this morning. He'd been visibly sick for 5 days, presented with anorexia, lethargy, ataxia. Crop consistently empty, normal poos. No respiratory symptoms, clear eyes. Was treated for internal & external parasites and coccidiosis, died on night 5 of illness.

When I opened him up, he was emaciated with absolutley no meat or fat on him at all, GI tract was empty.

His live weight was 835g
His spleen weighed 17g should've been around 0.8g (1g/kg body weight from what I've read).
Liver weighed 88g should've been around 20-66g (2.5-8% body weight)

Two other full siblings are starting to go off food and loose weight.

Does anyone have any ideas? Adult birds in flock seem healthy. We're in Melbourne, Australia so its summer time.

Chicks are fed Barastock Pullet Grower (we don't have any all flock here), claims to be suitable for chicks 8-16 weeks of age. Details below are from their website.

NUTRIENT LEVELS​

Crude Protein (Min) 15.5%	Available Phos 0.5%
Crude Fat 2.5%	Added Copper 8.0mg
Crude Fibre (Max) 6.0%	Added Selenium 0.3mg
Added Salt (Max) 0.5%	Lasalocid Sodium 80mg
Calcium 1.0%

Typical analysis as fed / kg

INGREDIENTS SELECTED FROM THE FOLLOWING: Wheat, Barley, Vegetable Protein Meals, Legumes, Oats, Canola Oil, Soybean Oil, Shell Grit (Fine and Coarse Calcium), Salt, Enzymes, Essential Vitamin and Mineral Premix, Anticoccidial, Phosphate and Amino Acids.

I don't understand why Barastoc would call that a pullet grower at 15% protein.

I found this Barastoc all flock that says it's 22%. https://barastocpoultry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Barastoc-Mixed-Flock-web.pdf

It appears Nutrena has an all-flock there that has 18%.

 

[FunClucks]

That bird doesn't look good. Seriously enlarged liver, etc. Definitely up the protein for the rest of them. It might help them fight whatever's going on.

What did you try to get him to eat? Did you try moistened feed to get him to eat? Molasses water (e.g. Nutridrench)? he just may have been too sick, but other than treating for parasites and coccidiosis, what did you try? That's what I would have treated for myself, before seeing this autopsy, I don't know that there was much else you could have done with the info you had at the time.

Purina Flockraiser is a USA product that is considered a good "all-flock". If you check out their nutrient label, it's a good baseline for a healthy feed for growing chicks, pullets, cockerels, etc, anyone who's not laying. There are others, this is just the one I know to tell you about.

 

[NatJ]

Chicks are fed Barastock Pullet Grower (we don't have any all flock here)

What country are you in?

Edit to add: I just found it in the first post. Australia. Oops, missed it the first time.

 

[2ndTink]

As others have noted, the protein of that feed is too low.

With the age, liver appearance, and spleen enlargement, ALV was my first thought as well. @Eggcessive linked some good articles already.

It would be best to get pcr testing done for ALV and Mareks to see if either of those are positive. I do not know of any resources in Australia though unfortunately.

Were these chicks they hatched from their flock? Or purchased?