Growths on liver. Safe to eat?

[coach723]

I guess I should say it was the other half of the liver. I don’t know if there is a term for the two half’s. But it was the liver.

It had a penis so it was a drake.

Right lobe/left lobe for the liver, I should have thought that when you said it. I tried to find any images like yours of a liver, but didn't.
Abnormal livers I've seen have been pale, or petechial, or hardened, so never had one like yours. I agree with rebrascora again, don't eat the liver.
Just to pass on, since you have ducks, apparently hermaphroditism in ducks is possible.
http://www.backyardduck.com/female-ducks-mating-behavior/

 

[lomine]

No worries. I realize my post was a bit confusing now. Plus my grammar needs work.

Yes I have heard of hermaphroditism in ducks. I would assume any physical changes would be centered around the sexual organs though but I don’t know anything specific about it.

I did email the pictures to an avian vet that I’ve taken my ducks to in the past. I didn’t think about asking him till after I created the thread. If I hear back from him I will share his response.

 

[lomine]

The vet has not seen this before but is going to ask an exotics vet.

 

[coach723]

Will be interesting to see what they say. Hope you get answers, or at least a possible cause.

 

[lomine]

His response:

"So I spoke with Dr. Sadar (Associate professor at CSU - Exotics Dept). She, like I, was concerned about possible parasitic or infectious issues. We could submit the tissue for histopathological evaluation (tissue screening). I could check cost for it if you are interested. Otherwise she was pretty adamant about NOT eating the carcass or using any of the tissues."

This concerned me. I remembered I had bought a microscope to examine goat poop for parasites. I dug the liver out of the garbage and opened one of the growths to examine it under the microscope. It was completely liquid and I saw nothing moving. There was just some bubbles floating around but I'm no expert and it's just a basic microscope. I told the vet this. I also asked how much the test would cost and if there was a serious danger to my other birds. Still waiting to hear back.

 

[lomine]

The test would cost $170. It would be nice to get an answer but that's not an amount I want to spend. I am not happy about so much wasted money, time, effort, and more importantly a life. But I think I'll just toss the carcass to be on the safe side and keep an eye on the my flock for any weird behavior/signs of illness. The vet said he didn't think there was a significant danger to my flock since only one bird had these growths.

 

[coach723]

Yikes! That's expensive. But certainly I would go with that advice on the carcass since they have seen more that we have presumably. I'm sorry for your loss all around. Certainly hope it's a one-off and you don't see it again. Thanks for sharing.

 

[lomine]

I wanted to share this with you all. I was speaking to my dog's acupuncturist, who is also a vet, about what I found on the liver. She said her first thought was, "don't eat it." She doesn't know about birds but said that she wouldn't eat anything that showed liver damage because it means there was something wrong with the animal. She explained that anytime she butchered a wild rabbit she would look at the liver. If it looked off she wouldn't eat the meat. I guess the liver is the cleaner so it deals with any infectious issues.

She told me that freezing meat would kill any parasites but there are also bacteria associated with some parasites that wouldn't be killed by freezing or cooking. Some bacteria release toxins when cooked.

 

[TalkALittle]

Lymphoma?
http://ocw.tufts.edu/Content/72/imagegallery/1362317/1368962/1376211

 

[lomine]

Lymphoma?
http://ocw.tufts.edu/Content/72/imagegallery/1362317/1368962/1376211

I don't know. Looking up information it talks about respiratory problems and tumors in all the organs. But it doesn't talk about how long it takes the tumors to spread. The picture of the liver does look kind of similar though one site said it was rare in ducks.

The only way to get a definite answer would be to get it tested but I'm not going to pay that much for testing. The good thing is another site states "it is only transmitted via treading (mating), through the egg and through biting pests (such as Red Mites and biting flies)." The drake was too young to mate, obviously didn't lay an egg, and there are no mites in my flock nor biting insects thanks to it being winter. So even if that is what he had the rest of the flock should be safe.