Necropsy photos - GRAPHIC - help interpreting please?

[ksRNmama]

I’d like to post some photos on here .... they are of my 3 yr old hen who I ended up euthanizing tonight after suspecting she was suffering. I did a necropsy and I think I made the right decision. Is anyone willing to help interpret these pics?? I took pictures all along the way, both for my own learning and for anyone else who might do this..

 

[Eggcessive]

Please go ahead and post your pictures. I am sure others will have a look and post comments. Be patient, since it is bedtime for some of us, and more may see them in the morning. Be sure and include as much information as possible about your chicken. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Kiki]

Yes, please post the pictures.

 

[ksRNmama]

This was a 3.5 year old Buff Orpington/ Easter Egger mix. I hatched her and several others in an incubator. She was always healthy, one of the tops of the pecking order......She was a big chicken, about 5.5 pounds when she died. I recently treated the whole flock for coccidiosis and dewormed them.

A few months ago I noticed her stomach was swelling, as had 3 other adult hens who I eventually lost in about the last year. I tapped the fluid from her stomach maybe a month or 6 weeks ago, and got a good amount of clear pale yellow fluid. It looked just like the other times I tapped my other chickens who suffered with this.

Today I picked her up and took her inside to give her a good soak & butt cleaning (she always had big clods of dry poop under her vent, also not normal). I planned to tap her belly Bc it was so big again, but I also noticed she has bumblefoot on both feet.

 

[Rose Quartz]

This was a 3.5 year old Buff Orpington/ Easter Egger mix. I hatched her and several others in an incubator. She was always healthy, one of the tops of the pecking order......She was a big chicken, about 5.5 pounds when she died. I recently treated the whole flock for coccidiosis and dewormed them.

A few months ago I noticed her stomach was swelling, as had 3 other adult hens who I eventually lost in about the last year. I tapped the fluid from her stomach maybe a month or 6 weeks ago, and got closer pale yellow fluid. Looked just like the other times I tapped my other chickens who suffered with this.

Today I picked her up and took her inside to give her a good soak & butt cleaning (she always had big clods of dry poop under her vent, also not normal). I planned to tap her belly Bc it was big, but I also noticed she has bumblefoot on both feet.

Yes that looks like bumble foot. Do you have any internal pictures that you're looking for help with?

The liquid in her abdomen sounds like ascites. I don't know causes of that myself, but have seen it before.

 

[ksRNmama]

One of the first things that happened once I dissected through the viscera containing what I assume was the peritoneum, cloudy yellow fluid and eggs parts spilled everywhere, along with a perfect yellow
yolk.
Vent appearance :

This was hard and bumpy...

 

[ksRNmama]

Her belly was full of tons of this thick yellow liquid and globs of cooked egg like chunks throughout the entire peritoneum.
The yellow thing in the first picture was hard and bumpy, there seemed to be a tube inside, there were also several (what I think were )soft egg shells

 

[ksRNmama]

Once I got into the mesentary and the intestine, everything was covered with tiny nodules, which didn’t seem normal. Al of the connective tissue just seemed hardened and calcified, and covered in bumps...

 

[ksRNmama]

Sorry. I took a ton of pictures. I’ve never looked inside of a chicken before, but so much of what I found seemed wrong. She must have been sick for a long time and I just feel terribly for her. ☹

 

[Kiki]

What do you feed your flock?

Please read this and notice these specific sentences:
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poul...eproductive-system/egg-peritonitis-in-poultry

"Management of body weight and uniformity, reproductive development (ovary follicle growth and maturation), and drinking water sanitation are the best preventive strategies."

"Overfeeding broiler breeder hens during sexual maturation can increase numbers of large, yellow ovarian follicles. When hens have too many large ovarian follicles, a problem described as erratic oviposition and defective egg syndrome (EODES) results."
and
"Overweight hens may also have a higher incidence of erratic ovulations and mortality associated with egg peritonitis."