Hen died suddenly after a few hours of looking unwell - weird organ issues - *graphic pics*

[Chickeneering]

Are you in the United States?
If so what state are you in and I'll send you a direct link to your poultry lab.

Thanks for the video! I am giving it a watch now.

I'm in Hawaii. I think I might have found the lab, but it seemed like it just led to an agriculture grievance page?

 

[Chickeneering]

Your entire flock carries the virus. But if it's leucosis and not Marek's, your flock can lead mostly normal and long lives once you accept the limitations. It would be a good idea if you were to send this dead chicken off to a lab to be tested for avian viruses to determine which it is.

After years of trying to hatch eggs from within my flock and going through the heart ache of high embryo mortality, I quit trying. The few chicks that did hatch mostly lasted less than one year before dying. I have only had two chickens hatched within my flock make it past the one year mark into middle age.

Another limitation I discovered recently is that the disease can be passed to store bought chicks brooded by a broody hen carrying the virus. Those chicks, three out of four chicks a nanny hen raised, died around seven months from leucosis. They had received a heavy dose of the hen's viral shed over the weeks they slept under her at night. I didn't know it at the time but she was also symptomatic, dying not long after she had finished raising the chicks.

But despite the virus, many in my flock live long healthy lives and live to a ripe old age.

Hm..... I'm so glad she died, then, before I conducted a massive flock downsizing and sent whatever this is spreading out into the broader community. Do you think the lab would accept a 2-day-old dead hen who's been in a ziplock bag?

That's crazy. I'm so sorry you had to go through that I remember losing many, many chicks to coccidiosis before I realized it was prevalent in the environment here, so I know that feeling of helpless dread. Do you think it's leukosis then, if I've hatched many dozens of chickens within my flock that have almost all made it to over a year? I've had the sporadic unexplainable and sudden death, but I thought that was mostly due to fatty liver. None of the others I've necropsied had any organ lesions, just crumbly liver. The last time I brought new birds into my flock was 2017, so is it possible that they could have gotten it from wild birds or the environment?

Are you just waiting for your flock to age-out then, before trying to breed again?

 

[T3rrorToff33]

this is a totally uneducated opinion BUT when i necropsied my snake i had those same spots. i there were other spots in the body it might be kidney failure? though my poor snakes liver spots looked more like snowflakes (it was urite crytals that were forming on her organs from kidney failure)

edit: eh nvm, though leukosis was a theory i initially had for my snake too

 

[Kiki]

Thanks for the video! I am giving it a watch now.

I'm in Hawaii. I think I might have found the lab, but it seemed like it just led to an agriculture grievance page?

https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/ai/vlab/

 

[Chickeneering]

this is a totally uneducated opinion BUT when i necropsied my snake i had those same spots. i there were other spots in the body it might be kidney failure? though my poor snakes liver spots looked more like snowflakes (it was urite crytals that were forming on her organs from kidney failure)

edit: eh nvm, though leukosis was a theory i initially had for my snake too

Very interesting.... thanks for your input! Sorry about your snake

 

[Chickeneering]

https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/ai/vlab/

Thank you! Left them a message and am waiting to hear what options I might have.

 

[azygous]

No one can diagnose from a couple of photos. It requires pathology tests to confirm it. Leucosis is a possibility is all we can say.

I love my chickens and love having baby chicks. I have given up hatching from my flock since leucosis has been confirmed, but I still get new chicks every year or two, and that has worked out well. I won't be aging out my flock and starting over unless they all decide to die at once.

 

[tripletfeb]

No one can diagnose from a couple of photos. It requires pathology tests to confirm it. Leucosis is a possibility is all we can say.

I love my chickens and love having baby chicks. I have given up hatching from my flock since leucosis has been confirmed, but I still get new chicks every year or two, and that has worked out well. I won't be aging out my flock and starting over unless they all decide to die at once.

If they did all die at once, would you be able to get rid of the leucosis? Of course I don't want your chickens to die, I just don't know the answer to this

 

[azygous]

Leucosis is relatively short lived in the environment, a few weeks as opposed to up to a year or more with Marek's. Therefore, if the entire flock dies, three weeks or so and the virus is gone from the soil and lingering dust. Then I could start a new flock.

 

[Chickeneering]

No one can diagnose from a couple of photos. It requires pathology tests to confirm it. Leucosis is a possibility is all we can say.

I love my chickens and love having baby chicks. I have given up hatching from my flock since leucosis has been confirmed, but I still get new chicks every year or two, and that has worked out well. I won't be aging out my flock and starting over unless they all decide to die at once.

Still waiting to hear back. I'll call the lab again today. Put the 2-day-old bird in the freezer just in case they would still accept a sample.

Glad to hear you have a workaround! Having baby chicks is so wonderful