GRAPHIC - post mortem pictures

[RumneyRoost]

Hi everyone
Just a warning these pictures are graphic.

My 9 month old barred rock stopped laying around New Years. She also started experiencing weight loss and diarrhea.
Treated for coccidiosis, worms, and a course of Baytril.
Recently she began experiencing weakness/paralysis in her legs. Tried giving a B complex vitamin but the paralysis got worse.

Based on the post mortem I don’t see any worms or fluid. I found the sciatic nerve on the left leg, in retrospect I should have uncovered both of them and followed them right to the spine.
Liver and heart looked normal.
No internal laying.

I think what you see in a couple of the pictures (centre right) is the ovary? It doesn’t look right to me though.

Anyone have more insight?

I don’t think I can rule out Marek’s unfortunately.

 

[Shadowfire]

So sorry for your loss- sorry I can't help.

 

[staceyj]

Hi everyone
Just a warning these pictures are graphic.

My 9 month old barred rock stopped laying around New Years. She also started experiencing weight loss and diarrhea.
Treated for coccidiosis, worms, and a course of Baytril.
Recently she began experiencing weakness/paralysis in her legs. Tried giving a B complex vitamin but the paralysis got worse.

Based on the post mortem I don’t see any worms or fluid. I found the sciatic nerve on the left leg, in retrospect I should have uncovered both of them and followed them right to the spine.
Liver and heart looked normal.
No internal laying.

I think what you see in a couple of the pictures (centre right) is the ovary? It doesn’t look right to me though.

Anyone have more insight?

I don’t think I can rule out Marek’s unfortunately.

I’m sorry for your loss as well, great job though, with your necropsy. It’s not an easy thing to have done if you come away with unanswered questions still.

(Fantastic pictures)
Let’s get some eyes on this.
@Wyorp Rock
@casportpony
@Eggcessive
@rebrascora
@Texas Kiki

 

[Kiki]

I'm sorry for your loss.
Do you still have the body?

The yellow juice...was there a lot of that?

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

I am so sorry for your loss! Kudos to you for doing your own necropsy!

 

[RumneyRoost]

The liquid came out of her intestines. The abdominal cavity looked normal when I opened her up. No lash eggs or egg material anywhere.

Can anyone identify what is in the two body cavity pictures? Sitting beside the proventriculus? It looks vascularized, but doesn't look to me like lungs/air sacs. Under the lobules (more superior in a live bird) was what looked like the ovary with either very small follicles or perhaps they were tumors.

I was expecting to open her up and see something more obvious, either full of tumors or worms, etc.

I do still have the body, it's in a bag in the garage which is sitting at 4C so she's essentially being refrigerated right now.

And thank you everyone. In university I spent 8 months doing a full human cadaver dissection. I just wish I had of had some sort of poultry anatomy book with images while I was doing it.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I’m sorry for your loss as well, great job though, with your necropsy. It’s not an easy thing to have done if you come away with unanswered questions still.

(Fantastic pictures)
Let’s get some eyes on this.
@Wyorp Rock
@casportpony
@Eggcessive
@rebrascora
@Texas Kiki

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/two-sick-pullets.1290418/page-3#post-20982324

 

[rebrascora]

I'm so sorry you lost your pullet but well done for opening her up to see what you could find.
What strikes me first is that there is more fatty deposits in the bird than I would have expected for a sick young bird that was losing weight. It might be worth considering reducing your flock's carbohydrate intake (scratch/corn/bread etc) if you treat with any of those. Intestines look reasonably healthy but you can see fatty deposits along the .
The ovary does look to be quite a way forward of where I would expect it. It usually sits below the liver and gizzard when the carcass is lying on it's back. The unripe follicles that I can see which would indicate the ovary seem to be more in the thoracic cavity.... it may just be the camera angle though.
The liver and spleen look healthy but there is pink tissue to the right of them as you look at the photo which looks out of place and I cannot identify. If that is the tissue that you are questioning and looks vascular then I would be concerned that it is a tumour. The lungs are tucked right tight into the ribs and are usually a very obvious bright pink/red colour. I cannot see them in the photos.
I also cannot identify the orange tissue above the liver in the third photo. Is that the gizzard before you removed it?.... if so then again, there is a more fat surrounding it than I would expect of a bird under a year old. The shape looks wrong for the gizzard though.
The oviduct looks reasonably healthy.
I couldn't really make any comment about the sciatic nerve without comparison to the other one.

 

[RumneyRoost]

I'm so sorry you lost your pullet but well done for opening her up to see what you could find.
What strikes me first is that there is more fatty deposits in the bird than I would have expected for a sick young bird that was losing weight. It might be worth considering reducing your flock's carbohydrate intake (scratch/corn/bread etc) if you treat with any of those. Intestines look reasonably healthy but you can see fatty deposits along the .
The ovary does look to be quite a way forward of where I would expect it. It usually sits below the liver and gizzard when the carcass is lying on it's back. The unripe follicles that I can see which would indicate the ovary seem to be more in the thoracic cavity.... it may just be the camera angle though.
The liver and spleen look healthy but there is pink tissue to the right of them as you look at the photo which looks out of place and I cannot identify. If that is the tissue that you are questioning and looks vascular then I would be concerned that it is a tumour. The lungs are tucked right tight into the ribs and are usually a very obvious bright pink/red colour. I cannot see them in the photos.
I also cannot identify the orange tissue above the liver in the third photo. Is that the gizzard before you removed it?.... if so then again, there is a more fat surrounding it than I would expect of a bird under a year old. The shape looks wrong for the gizzard though.
The oviduct looks reasonably healthy.
I couldn't really make any comment about the sciatic nerve without comparison to the other one.

Your post has been helpful.
I agree, there were notable fat deposits which I found strange. She was a pig before she got sick, and she was the boss. However, they don't get much in the way of treats. Nothing in the spring/summer/fall because they spend so much time ranging and foraging on their own. Once the snow hits they split 1/2 - 1 cup of scratch once or twice a week, and two mealworms each one or two other days. Sometimes I'll grow them some alfalfa sprouts, but even then it's just a handful between 5 birds.
I don't have many options for feed so I generally buy Rolling Acres grower/finisher from TSC with oyster shell on the side. 16% protein, 3% fat. All flock feeds are non existent in Canada.

When looking at the photo the structure above the liver and spleen is the proventriculus after I cut the gizzard and intestines out. The pink vascularized tissue to the right of that is what I'm questioning and the more I look and compare to other necropsies, the more I believe it's a large tumor.
I removed the heart and there were some fatty deposits over the atria but otherwise it looked fine. I didn't remove the sternum, but that "tumor" or whatever it is is hiding the lungs and ovary.
If the tumor was infiltrating the spine or impinging on the nerves exiting then that would explain the paralysis.