BlixbabyFarm
In the Brooder
- May 20, 2016
- 32
- 1
- 25
Question, I've looked at other threads but couldn't find anything so here goes...
13-14 week old (about) buff brahma died yesterday. Not sure if it was hen or rooster, and obviously way too young to lay so i'v ruled out egg-bound at least. Chicken was always a bit....i dunno...late? For example, never really got tail feathers like all the others which at first i attributed to others maybe picking on him/her but in hindsight i wonder if its all related? Also, the chicken always kind of waddled. In researching i've found this to be related to illness in the chicken but like i said, the chicken had always walked kind of funny. And until the other day the chicken seemed perfectly fine otherwise so i thought its just the way the chicken is. ok, timeline of the chicken's last 48 hours.
3.5 yr old daughter holding chicken, husband thinks she's squeezing so he has her put chicken down. chicken just sits and pants. its warm out so i thought maybe the chicken is just freaked out and hot, i'll put it with the rest of the flock and let it calm down. Chicken doesn't rejoin flock just sits where i set it down. still panting. I pick it ups and nopicean audible noise when chicken breaths but really only if put an ear up to the bird's right side. Kind of like a flap moving sort of sound. I was concerned that daughter punctured lung but still wanted to see if the bird would perk back up. (looking back i wonder if the reason daughter caught this chicken to start with was bc it was feeling ill and wasn't up to running off) Chicken is still eating and drinking....and waddling.
Next day. Chicken still looks the same as it ever did thought now i'm paying more attention to it and notice you can "see" the bird breathe if you watch. None of the other birds look like they labor to breathe. Now i'm thinking theres for sure something wrong here. Can't really tell if comb/waddle or pale bc bird was too young to have much. Now i'm researching whats wrong. Haven't gotten too far and chicken dies. Not 100% sure if our dog took the opportunity to attack a sick bird or if it died bc of what was going on with it. Regardless, I decide to take the opportunity to learn so i do an autopsy. Problem, i've never done one so i'm not sure what i should be looking for exactly but thought i'd be able to ID something grossly abnormal. ( i work in healthcare and know anatomy and normal appearance, granted in humans)
I'm posting these pictures to see if anyone has any idea what was going on with the bird? It seems quite abnormal to my eye but again, i'm not exactly a chicken anatomy expert. Distended belly did have fluid in it, brownish color. There were MANY lesions throughout the abdomen (explains the waddling since it was so full). They were very firm which made me think cancer? Breast cancer tends to be very hard and gritty, though thats the only one i've ever felt (due to my line of work). They didn't look like normal organs IMO bc of their color: heterogeneous. there is epic where i'm pointing to some of the smaller ones. I checked for worms and couldn't find any, checked inside intestines. I did cut a few of these masses open and they were all solid, not fluid filled.
If anyone could give me some insight? Again, it looks abnormal to me but maybe i'm seeing things? I also have never done a "healthy" chicken autopsy to compare so... I asked my husband who has killed and cleaned hundreds and hundreds of birds from his years waterfowl hunting and he said it definitely didn't look normal. anyone seen anything like this or know if the anatomy is normal?
anybody??? surely SOME ONE has knowledge of normal internal anatomy?!
13-14 week old (about) buff brahma died yesterday. Not sure if it was hen or rooster, and obviously way too young to lay so i'v ruled out egg-bound at least. Chicken was always a bit....i dunno...late? For example, never really got tail feathers like all the others which at first i attributed to others maybe picking on him/her but in hindsight i wonder if its all related? Also, the chicken always kind of waddled. In researching i've found this to be related to illness in the chicken but like i said, the chicken had always walked kind of funny. And until the other day the chicken seemed perfectly fine otherwise so i thought its just the way the chicken is. ok, timeline of the chicken's last 48 hours.
3.5 yr old daughter holding chicken, husband thinks she's squeezing so he has her put chicken down. chicken just sits and pants. its warm out so i thought maybe the chicken is just freaked out and hot, i'll put it with the rest of the flock and let it calm down. Chicken doesn't rejoin flock just sits where i set it down. still panting. I pick it ups and nopicean audible noise when chicken breaths but really only if put an ear up to the bird's right side. Kind of like a flap moving sort of sound. I was concerned that daughter punctured lung but still wanted to see if the bird would perk back up. (looking back i wonder if the reason daughter caught this chicken to start with was bc it was feeling ill and wasn't up to running off) Chicken is still eating and drinking....and waddling.
Next day. Chicken still looks the same as it ever did thought now i'm paying more attention to it and notice you can "see" the bird breathe if you watch. None of the other birds look like they labor to breathe. Now i'm thinking theres for sure something wrong here. Can't really tell if comb/waddle or pale bc bird was too young to have much. Now i'm researching whats wrong. Haven't gotten too far and chicken dies. Not 100% sure if our dog took the opportunity to attack a sick bird or if it died bc of what was going on with it. Regardless, I decide to take the opportunity to learn so i do an autopsy. Problem, i've never done one so i'm not sure what i should be looking for exactly but thought i'd be able to ID something grossly abnormal. ( i work in healthcare and know anatomy and normal appearance, granted in humans)
I'm posting these pictures to see if anyone has any idea what was going on with the bird? It seems quite abnormal to my eye but again, i'm not exactly a chicken anatomy expert. Distended belly did have fluid in it, brownish color. There were MANY lesions throughout the abdomen (explains the waddling since it was so full). They were very firm which made me think cancer? Breast cancer tends to be very hard and gritty, though thats the only one i've ever felt (due to my line of work). They didn't look like normal organs IMO bc of their color: heterogeneous. there is epic where i'm pointing to some of the smaller ones. I checked for worms and couldn't find any, checked inside intestines. I did cut a few of these masses open and they were all solid, not fluid filled.
If anyone could give me some insight? Again, it looks abnormal to me but maybe i'm seeing things? I also have never done a "healthy" chicken autopsy to compare so... I asked my husband who has killed and cleaned hundreds and hundreds of birds from his years waterfowl hunting and he said it definitely didn't look normal. anyone seen anything like this or know if the anatomy is normal?
anybody??? surely SOME ONE has knowledge of normal internal anatomy?!
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