My first necropsy on my lovely Matilda (graphic pic warning).

[Eggcessive]

So sorry that you lost your young hen Matilda. Thank you for posting your necropsy photos. It never is easy doing them, but so very helpful to know what was wrong with them.

 

[MissChick@dee]

Oh so sorry about Matilda.
I remember you speaking of her in past posts.
Poor darling seems as if she was internally laying. EYP and other reproductive problems happen with our girls that are high producers. I commend you for your ability to find out why. It had to be difficult and sad. Very sad.
I pray your heart finds peace. There was nothing you could of done. It doesn’t seem fair and I’m truly sorry for your loss. They are our little friends and some touch us deeper than others.
It is a sad day.

 

[lilmillefleur]

Sending Hugs! Thanks for being brave enough to show us your necropsy

 

[staceyj]

Oh my. Poor Matilda. I know from your other posts that she was a special girl.

I am so sorry for you.
You were brave to investigate and I’m glad for you that you did.
I really DOES help to have an answer.

 

[aart]

Condolences on the loss and Kudos on the necropsy.

Can understand not wanting to go further,
especially if you've never gutted a bird before,
and the stink of rotten eggs.

If it makes you feel any better,
chances are nothing could have been done anyway.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry to hear about Matilda

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

My lovely Matilda has passed away . I just went down this morning to get my little guy an egg for his brekkie and I saw her in the corner of the coop. She is a black sex link type chicken (Harco) - I did notice she was on the nest box a lot yesterday and I thought I'd double check on her and give her an all over today but it was obviously something serious I know these hybrid layers are not going to live as long as heritage breeds and are prone to reproductive issues but she was only 16 months old, I thought I'd have her a bit longer than this . She was one of my original 3 I got to start my flock Christmas 2017 and they were my babies, I carried them and handled them a lot (thier coop originally was in a lean too on the house and their run in the garden so until they learnt to follow me back and forwards I carried them). She was so lovely - probably my favorite of the 3 . Now I think of it the only thing I noticed yesterday was that she had feathers that seemed a bit thin on her butt (one of the things I was going to check on today), I now know it was swelling. Devastated I didn't want to disturb her on the nest yesterday, although after what I found it was too late by then.
RIP Matilda

So I decided I wanted to do an autopsy as I think it is important to understand why I loose chickens and as a new'ish chicken owner to have a fuller understanding of my girls. I looked up some instructions on line and went for it.
Straight away I could see that her abdomen was swollen and soft, so whilst I'd never seen it I had an idea of what it might be:

I carefully cut into her skin and pulled it away to see her abdomen better, my poor girl :

With the first tiniest cut into the abdominal cavity stinky yolk came pouring out:

And then even more:

I decided to leave it there, it was clear what had happened and I was happy with being able to do it for the first time but couldn't stomach poking around anymore. Just devastated that I didn't realise there was anything wrong - it has been raining for days so not spent much time with them. I'm guessing she got egg bound / broken egg then they just all backed up - is that right? From what I've read it is pretty hard to do anything for them but wish I'd noticed and at least tried to help her clear it.

Im so sorry!
Very well done on the necropsy.. and thank you for sharing pics.. no doubt it was a difficult thing to do.

 

[Trux]

Sorry for your loss and I commend you on going thru with the necropsy, it shows you as a keeper are willing to do what it takes to better your knowledge and do what's best for your flock! We all are constantly learning, if not from our own experiences, that of others as well.

 

[PouleChick]

I have been talking about this on our UK thread too and CCUK kindly explained to me about peritonitis - I think I said that I thought she was egg bound but obviously with an abdomen full of stinky yolk it was more than that. I think I had my terminology and understanding of what was going on a bit wiggly! here is what he posted to me for others who may not understand all the chicken terminology / physiology!
This was my initial reply to him about it:

Thanks. I guess I'm a bit unclear about the 2 - is peritonitis not caused by becoming egg bound, followed by perforation of the tract and then of course leaking into the abdominal cavity? So I guess what I'm saying is yes I suppose it is peritonitis but is the cause of that the being egg bound? or could it be from say vent prolapse, then perforation, then leaking into the cavity?

and the reply:

They're two different things. Peritonitis is caused by the eggs missing the oviduct. It's quite early on in their system. They miss the oviduct and get deposited in the abdomen. It won't kill the hen immediately and can be something that happens over the course of weeks or months. She will keep laying and they keep going into the abdomen. A symptom of peritonitis is ascites or water belly. This is where the abdomen fill with fluid. Some people drain it and it will buy the hen some extra time but peritonitis will kill a hen. There is nothing that can be done to stop it or treat it. It is more common amongst high egg production hens.
Egg bound is when the egg gets stuck just before it gets layed. Normally it because a large egg has been produced like a double yolker or an egg in an egg(quite rare). Sometimes it is a little further back. In my hens case it was a normal size egg. If you imagine the oviduct as an S shape, the egg should follow that course. With mine the egg took a straight line and got stuck behind the oviduct wall which created a barrier preventing the egg from being layed. This then caused her poop Shute to become blocked and there was a build up inside her. Egg bound hens will die within 24-48hrs if your unsuccessful in freeing up the egg. Both are horrible, miserable things that cause the hen alot of distress. Peritonitis is fatal and in my experience egg bound is 50/50.

 

[PouleChick]

Sorry was just looking at the first page and saw I'd posted the same pic twice - I've edited it and this is what the final cut I did actually looked like (unbelievable amount of fluid - and I didn't even tip her up or anything so there would have been more!):