My hen just died!!!

[brandy21410]

My 1 yr old buff orbington was laying crouched in the middle of the yard today so I picked her up and she had some use of her feet but she was breathing very heavy so I put her in a very shallow bath with epsoms salt and went to make sure the others were okay really quick and came beck and she was already gone. I dissected her to see if she was egg bound but there was no eggs at all just a MASSIVE amount of fat and in her crop were shards of glass. Did she die of the glass or being so big? When I picked her up her abdomen felt very full and when I made an incision there was blood in the abdomen, could that be from the damage to the intestines from the glass? I hope its nothing like a disease. I just had a necropsy done on one of my other birds because she was wheezing but it turned out to be just be aspergillus and she was clean of other diseases so iam very worried. Any help will be greatly appreciated!TIA

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Almost certainly the glass.

 

[brandy21410]

Almost certainly the glass.

Okay. You think it could make her not move like that I hope it is nithing bad because I put my baby ducklings out by the coop in their outside pen but I had quarantined them for a month before putting them in the same vecinity. The ducklings are perfectly healthy

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

She was dying...dying chickens don't move much.

Check the ducklings' area for anything they could eat that could harm them.

 

[Eggcessive]

How did her liver look? Did you open her intestines, gizzard or provetriculus (between the crop and gizzard) to see if there was more glass or if the glass had perforated anything? How sharp was the glass? Fatty liver hemorrhagic disease can cause hemorrage and a putty colored enlarged liver, but with the pressence of glass inside the crop it may be that. Was there any bleeding in her crop?

 

[brandy21410]

How did her liver look? Did you open her intestines, gizzard or provetriculus (between the crop and gizzard) to see if there was more glass or if the glass had perforated anything? How sharp was the glass? Fatty liver hemorrhagic disease can cause hemorrage and a putty colored enlarged liver, but with the pressence of glass inside the crop it may be that. Was there any bleeding in her crop?

there was no bleeding in the crop there was glass though, and the liver was definitely enlarged. I was surprised by the amount of fat and couldn't really get through most of it even with a scalpel. Also there was blood on the inside if the abdomen and the intestines looked good but thats all that I could see through all the fat. And no eggs/ovum?

 

[Eggcessive]

Do some research on fatty liver hemorhagic disease--it can cause fat deposits all over the body and bleeding. There' s no way to know that was the case without getting a necropsy. I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[brandy21410]

Do some research on fatty liver hemorhagic disease--it can cause fat deposits all over the body and bleeding. There' s no way to know that was the case without getting a necropsy. I'm sorry for your loss.

I know the necropsy will tell me everything but if it was a disease like Marek’s or new castle it would have shown on the necropsy I had done on her flock mate last month the necropsy sais she was over weight so maybe they just are all over weight and the glasswas the cause of death for this chook?. There was fat everywhere on the bidy so much so I thought it was egg yolk because it was surrounding the abdomen when I cut into her. Iam just worried because I looked everywhere in the yard and no glass. Perhapse she ate it all there was alot in her crop. And I also worry the other girls ate some and hope they dont meet the same fate.

 

[Eggcessive]

Hopefully the others didn't eat any, but hard to know. Was the glass very sharp? I live on an old farm where people just threw out trash and burned it, including bottles. We have moved a lot of dirt around filling in holes and adding to the area around my coop. I am forever finding glass making it's way to the surface especially during freezes, and my chickens are good at digging. We keep a plastic lidded coffee can by the coop door to collect the glass and other items that surface.Many chickens will swallow bits of glass, hardware, plastic, and other debris if it is lying on the ground. Many find these treasures upon cutting open the gizzards when processing their birds. In case you want to read some info on fatty liver hemorrhagic disease, here is some:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publi...oultry/219/fatty-liver-haemorrhagic-syndrome/
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/poult...f-fatty-liver-hemorrhagic-syndrome-in-poultry
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/12/chickens-obesity-silent-killer-how-to.html

 

[brandy21410]

Hopefully the others didn't eat any, but hard to know. Was the glass very sharp? I live on an old farm where people just threw out trash and burned it, including bottles. We have moved a lot of dirt around filling in holes and adding to the area around my coop. I am forever finding glass making it's way to the surface especially during freezes, and my chickens are good at digging. We keep a plastic lidded coffee can by the coop door to collect the glass and other items that surface.Many chickens will swallow bits of glass, hardware, plastic, and other debris if it is lying on the ground. Many find these treasures upon cutting open the gizzards when processing their birds. In case you want to read some info on fatty liver hemorrhagic disease, here is some:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publi...oultry/219/fatty-liver-haemorrhagic-syndrome/
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/poult...f-fatty-liver-hemorrhagic-syndrome-in-poultry
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/12/chickens-obesity-silent-killer-how-to.html

No it diddnt look very sharp. But there was alot of it and the crop was very hard to cut into but I could feel the glass un there before I opened it, not sharp but gritty.