Hen passed away, blue and bloated belly, weird intestines, yellow fluid in abdomen

[azygous]

You have the advantage over us in seeing these organs in 3D and in context and scale. We see them as flat 2D objects without relation to other familiar objects to judge scale and size. Therefore, it helps to put a ruler next to objects so we can see their relative size.

If the liver is over two inches in diameter, it's likely enlarged. The liver of the eleven month-old cockerel that was necropsied to identify leucosis in my flock had a two-pound liver.

 

[azygous]

Yep. He was a Buff Brahma and only still half grown.

 

[Hensofthehill]

thank you all for your prompt responses here are pics of the ruler next to bird and organs. Liver was red, not green when I opened the bird yesterday, I think the bird started to decompose as it was in the ground 12+ hours and we had significant rain overnight. Liver seems to be quite large, is liver located on both and left side of their chest?

What are your thoughts? Is it LL? What can I do to prevent any other birds getting it?

I will leave the bird out for sometime in case if I can provide more pics for ideas?

 

[Kiki]

thank you all for your prompt responses here are pics of the ruler next to bird and organs. Liver was red, not green when I opened the bird yesterday, I think the bird started to decompose as it was in the ground 12+ hours and we had significant rain overnight. Liver seems to be quite large, is liver located on both and left side of their chest?

What are your thoughts? Is it LL? What can I do to prevent any other birds getting it?

I will leave the bird out for sometime in case if I can provide more pics for ideas?

Poor thing.

No there is nothing you can do to prevent your current birds from getting anything.
What ever this bird had the others most likely have too.

KEEP A CLOSED FLOCK. Do not bring any new birds home and for sure do NOT let any birds leave your property.

Please get a necropsy the very next time you lose one.

I am sorry you are having to deal with this.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Depending on flock size, I might deliberately end another bird, just for a peek inside - and if I found internal lesions such as this bird posesses - I'd immediately send to necropsy w/ the State and prepare to cull the whole flock.

That said, I routinely cull for table, so I have less hesitation in overcoming my emotional attachments to my birds than many.

 

[Eggcessive]

It would be hard for me to give an educated guess about leukosis, but the liver is usually enlarged, and it occurs after 4 months of age. Most state poultry labs only accept bodies from M-F, so if you ever lose or put down another sick bird, keep it refrigerated, not frozen, and get it to the state vet asap. Many state labs will issue you a prepaid shipping label for over night shipping, but the least expensive way is to take the body in yourself. It always helps to call and talk with them ahead of time to get all the info before you need to take a bird in. The cost for a backyard bird is less than that for commercial farms.