Necropsy Photo: WARNING! Graphic!

[Ibicella]

OK.

So this morning my husband goes outside to let the birds out and finds our Red Ranger pullet (born 7/7/14) named Beep laying in the middle of the coop on her stomach with her head to the litter. She was still alive then, looked up at him when he came in, but he could tell by her heavily labored breathing that she was about to expire. Sure enough a couple of minutes later she went into her death throws and collapsed fairly quickly.

He also found just a little bit of blood along the wall and when he lifted her body, a bit more came out. I haven't seen any blood myself.

Rest in Peace, Beep. She was a lovely little chicken. Funny and sweet and a really good layer. I'm glad she's not suffering anymore.

Anyway, now I'm trying to figure out what happened. This is what I know:

She was just fine yesterday. Eagerly running up to me for treats, pecking about, eating, and acting normal. Didn't notice any odd behavior from her.

Feathers in excellent condition, no parasites.

No evidence of outside injury but comb and wattles were blue. So no oxygen.

Opened her up and started from the top down.

Beak had a bit of mucus around the mouth. She seems to have spit up a bit.

Trachea were pink and healthy, no signs of parasites.

Crop partially full with food, same with the gizzard.

Muscles blue.

Black fluid in body cavity.

Clearly she's not had proper oxygen to her organs and muscles and the inside smells unbelievably foul.

That's as far as I could get. This is my first chicken necropsy and the rest is just too black for me to study and figure out the origins of the problem. I don't see anything obvious beyond this foul blackness.

Any ideas?

 

[cavemanrich]

Sooo sad. I am posting to give you support and to follow this thread, to learn more as to what others may say.

 

[KayHartZZ]

Sorry no experience to offer but hope somebody with much more knowledge can figure out the cause for such a rapid 24 hr. decline. No hints of prior illness/es?

 

[Ibicella]

None. She was totally normal today and when I gave them all their evening pettings on the roost. Just...boom. She's full of necrosis.

 

[Ibicella]

bump

Please help, anybody...I need to know if the rest of my flock may be in danger.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi

So very sorry to hear of you loss.

I've only done a few chicken post mortems and not seen anything even remotely like that. I would think she has been poorly for some time but obviously hiding it well from what you say, for that amount of her organs and intestines to be black and stinking.

Were there any external injuries? It looks like you didn't pluck her first, so perhaps you wouldn't notice. The flesh from her abdomen on the lower part of the photo doesn't look discoloured but the folds of what looks like skin/muscle at the top of the photo appear black. Could she have been crushed or fallen heavily on her belly a few days weeks ago that caused internal injury? Perhaps a dog or fox had grabbed her but she got away? Did her ribs appear intact before you cut them open?

Had she started laying?
Could you see any signs of an egg?

To be honest I'm not even sure what organs I am looking at there. The black colour prevents you from identifying things. I'm guessing some/most of the black tissue is liver and her intestines have not really been uncovered, but the normal colour does seem to be resuming lower down. Was her gizzard also black like that? At what point in her digestive system did things start to change colour?

Sorry, I'm not being much help here. I'm just trying to think of possibilities as I keep checking out the photo. It is pretty scary!

Hoping that someone else with more experience will come along soon and offer an informed opinion.

 

[Thirteen]

Necrotic tissue in the abdomen makes me think intussusception.


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[Ibicella]

Hi

So very sorry to hear of you loss.

I've only done a few chicken post mortems and not seen anything even remotely like that. I would think she has been poorly for some time but obviously hiding it well from what you say, for that amount of her organs and intestines to be black and stinking.

Were there any external injuries? It looks like you didn't pluck her first, so perhaps you wouldn't notice. The flesh from her abdomen on the lower part of the photo doesn't look discoloured but the folds of what looks like skin/muscle at the top of the photo appear black. Could she have been crushed or fallen heavily on her belly a few days weeks ago that caused internal injury? Perhaps a dog or fox had grabbed her but she got away? Did her ribs appear intact before you cut them open?

Had she started laying?
Could you see any signs of an egg?

To be honest I'm not even sure what organs I am looking at there. The black colour prevents you from identifying things. I'm guessing some/most of the black tissue is liver and her intestines have not really been uncovered, but the normal colour does seem to be resuming lower down. Was her gizzard also black like that? At what point in her digestive system did things start to change colour?

Sorry, I'm not being much help here. I'm just trying to think of possibilities as I keep checking out the photo. It is pretty scary!

Hoping that someone else with more experience will come along soon and offer an informed opinion.

Yeah, this is was SO widespread that I cannot imagine that it got this way between the time we went to bed and the time we got up to let them out. I feel rather bad now, but she fooled me. But by the looks of things, I am not sure what I could have possibly done to help even if I had caught it.

There were no external injuries. I checked thoroughly.

It's difficult to see, but the muscle of her breast and neck was quite blue.

Predator grab is unlikely. Falling is a possibility (she was kind of a nutter and was kinda rough on herself sometimes). Ribcage was whole and intact before I cut into it.

She had started laying. But there was not one primed. I couldn't get a good look at the ovaries, I'm afraid. I honestly could not figure out what was what in there. It was ALL the same color of black. I am just gobsmacked. I've never seen or heard of anything like this.

 

[rebrascora]

Don't feel bad. Chickens are very good at hiding illness until it is too late. If they don't, they get picked on by the rest of the flock. Not sure there is anything else I can suggest at the moment. I did a quick search of Thirteen's suggestion last night but I only came up with intussusception in human babies and children and thankfully I didn't see any necrotic tissue like yours. Not saying that's not what was wrong with her but just that my very brief search (it was past my bedtime) didn't throw anything up like this.

Really hope someone else will come along and shed more light on it. I wonder if it is possible to email the photo to your state vet or veterinary school for an opinion.

 

[SunkenRoadFarms]

No symptoms prior, such as loss of appetite or diarehha? Any lesions on the intestines? Below is a link to a study done on necrotic enteritis in commercial flocks and another article on Clostridium perfringens that might be helpful.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/101/necrotic-enteritis


http://cidsbd.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/All-papers.pdf