Necropsy photos: fat hen? Graphic photos

[Smileybans]

She was fine yesterday. Found her in the coop this morning dead. She may have tried to jump to a roost that wasn’t there. I moved it last night before they went to bed. I have been messing about with their feed lately. Trying scraps and different combinations or FF and dry feed. They don’t free range. I’m thinking I’m going to go back to only FF 2x a day. Since they don’t free range I want to restrict their intake a bit more. I guess.


This is as much as I cut open on her. I saw all the fat and assumed that was it. It was surrounding all of her organs. This is my first necropsy and I felt bad cutting her open. Anyone who knows more about this please feel free to chime in. She didn’t feel fat when i palpated her keel a couple days ago. And even today when I picked her up before cutting her open she didn’t feel fat. I could feel her keel bone and she felt like she had meat on it. Obviously I was wrong tho.

 

[Iluveggers]

@azygous

 

[azygous]

How old was the hen? The fat would be more significant for a very young bird than for an older one. I doubt that's what killed her, though. I'm sorry I can't see anything of real import amongst the organs.

 

[Smileybans]

How old was the hen? The fat would be more significant for a very young bird than for an older one. I doubt that's what killed her, though. I'm sorry I can't see anything of real import amongst the organs.

She was a year and a half.
Does that look like a lot of fat? There wasn’t that much on the photos I had been looking at online. So I stopped.

 

[azygous]

The fat is a bit unusual for such a young chicken. It may be an indicator of an underlying condition that could have led to her death. No, I can't tell you what. Only a clinical necropsy would be able to do that. If, in the future, there is another unexplained death, save the body under refrigeration and look for a lab to do a necropsy.

 

[Kiki]

Poor thing.

Yes that is a lot of fat.
I highly recommend you take a good look at what you are feeding.


Did you open the bird up all the way?

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Perhaps a fatty liver hemorrhage? Did you see any signs of that?
What do you feed?

 

[Smileybans]

Perhaps a fatty liver hemorrhage? Did you see any signs of that?
What do you feed?

I’m not sure what I would have been looking for. The fat surrounded her egg and many of her organs. When I was looking at pictures online I didn’t see that. It also wasn’t in the “tutorial” I followed.
I feed all flock rasier. It’s what she’s always eaten. She has also always eaten scraps but not to excess. I had been trying out different ways to feed them lately though.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

.
I feed all flock rasier. It’s what she’s always eaten. She has also always eaten scraps but not to excess. I had been trying out different ways to feed them lately though.

Can you elaborate?

 

[Smileybans]

Can you elaborate?

Fermented feed mostly. Like only FF or a combination of free feed and FF.