Necropsy of 4 Year Old Game Hen.

[MysteryChicken]

This is to add on to my previous thread, as I was looking for answers of to what was causing illness to my beloved pet hen.

I did a necropsy on her this morning, other then her being abit fat, everything was normal except her liver, & Bile Sack. Found some calcium deposits inside her which was alittle odd, but that's not the problem.

Picture#1: Muscles are fine.

Picture #2: The Calcium Deposits: They're the Sesame Seed shaped white specks. They were hard, chalky.

Picture#3: The Liver. It's abit inflamed, also hemorrhagic.

Picture #4: Bile Sack was leaky, it was like that when I opened her up.

 

[MysteryChicken]

@Eggcessive

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry that you lost her. That is interesting. The large amount of fat and the discolored blood spotted liver could mean early fatty liver disease. Was the liver larger than usual? I haven’t seen calcium deposits before. Could those be crystals from early visceral gout? I am only guessing since am not an expert at necropsies. Here is a picture I found on gout:

 

[Kiki]

Check this out.
https://www.aliveterinarywisdom.com/pathophysiology-of-colour-of-gallbladder-in-poultry/

 

[MysteryChicken]

Sorry that you lost her. That is interesting. The large amount of fat and the discolored blood spotted liver could mean early fatty liver disease. Was the liver larger than usual? I haven’t seen calcium deposits before. Could those be crystals from early visceral gout? I am only guessing since am not an expert at necropsies. Here is a picture I found on gout:
View attachment 3968600

Liver wasn't really enlarged, but just thickened/inflamed.
Not sure if it's early Fatty liver as I've seen it before in hens I processed, & it didn't seem to fit.

The random hard specks could be visceral gout, I've never seen it, or heard of it before.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Check this out.
https://www.aliveterinarywisdom.com/pathophysiology-of-colour-of-gallbladder-in-poultry/

Interesting, but doesn't quite give me an answer as I don't have pictures for comparison on that site. Mentions nothing about a leaky Bile Sack.

 

[Eggcessive]

I showed the pictures to a family member who is a human pathologist. He agreed with me and thinks the liver is pale and has small hemorrhages throughout. He said that bile ducts can leak bile if there is a gall stone in the gallbladder. That can lead to peritonitis, not egg yolk peritonitis, but regular peritonitis. I do think there looks to be a lot of fat though which may not be related to her sudden death. If MI has a decent poultry dept at a vet school or a helpful state poultry vet who might look at your pictures, I would email the pictures. Maybe some other people will chime in.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I showed the pictures to a family member who is a human pathologist. He agreed with me and thinks the liver is pale and has small hemorrhages throughout. He said that bile ducts can leak bile if there is a gall stone in the gallbladder. That can lead to peritonitis, not egg yolk peritonitis, but regular peritonitis. I do think there looks to be a lot of fat though which may not be related to her sudden death. If MI has a decent poultry dept at a vet school or a helpful state poultry vet who might look at your pictures, I would email the pictures. Maybe some other people will chime in.

Okay, how about my hens symptoms before the necropsy? Do they relate to the effected organs?

The fat is normal, I've noticed game hens fatten up quite abit before winter, & before brooding eggs, but then shed the weight in the spring/summer.

I'm not totally sure if we have one of those.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here is an article I came across:
https://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/content/gallbladder1
Auto lysis is a fancy term for the body degrading after death. I have seen on several necropsy reports when bodies have broken down before the necropsy was done, how it affects the findings. In the article above, the auto lysis can cause the bile duct leakage that you spoke of.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Here is an article I came across:
https://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/content/gallbladder1

Okay, is there more to it, or just the one page?