Necropsy Photos What was going on here? ( Graphic )

[justbugged]

We found one of our Welsummers not doing well the other day. It was clear after watching her all afternoon that she was not going to make it. I must admit that I don't to a lot of effort to save birds after a certain point. It is rather silly to pay lots of money for a bird that I can replace for 10 to 20 bucks. It was clear after watching her that the best thing to do was put her down. So DH and I did the deed. I have known for a while that one of the Welsummers was not laying good eggs. I would every once in a while find a shelless egg, or an egg with a very thin rough shell. I finally figured out the other day that it was definitely from one of the Wellesley girls. It had to have been either Jennifer or Tiffany. So when Jen went down, I knew that I wanted to confirm that it was from this hen. So DH and I did a backyard Necropsy. So here are the pictures of what we found. This hen never looked sick until the day she was found laying the coop. The breast looked like it had been like that for a longtime. So my question is what went wrong? Why was she like this, and why didn't she show symptoms before this? The third picture is of what we think were her egg producing parts. It was clear that she hadn't been laying for a while.

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[CMV]

Was she as skinny as a rail? If she was that thin then it's no wonder she wasn't laying any eggs. She was just maintaining just enough body mass to stay alive. If that's her breast and keel bone in the first two pictures she looks like she was wasted away to nothing from that photo. Or was the breast bone broken at some point? Her chest bone structure just does not look right. If her chest was always that way I'd say she had some kind of defect she was born with.

 

[justbugged]

It looked more like her breast bone was de-formed, than that she was very thin. We were both a bit shocked when we saw the breast bone like that. The upper part of the breast was what I would have expected on a bird like her. I wouldn't have expected any of the Welsummers to be real heavy. All the birds have food 24/7, and had been wormed.

 

[grasjm36]

I have a hen whos breast bone sticks waaay out and she is sooo very skinny it upsets me, yet she lays great eggs every day and eats and eats. I wonder if she has a similiar deformity?

 

[chickenlady08]

I hope this isn't a stupid question but I was wondering if they were little tumors that the knife is pointing at? Kinda looks like something that I have seen before but not sure. I am so sorry for your loss of you bird.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
The little balls are the ovaries. When each ball matures, it becomes a yolk and goes down the pipe to be an egg.

 

[chickenlady08]

Quote:
The little balls are the ovaries. When each ball matures, it becomes a yolk and goes down the pipe to be an egg.

Thank you for that clarification. I guess we are never to old to learn something new

 

[jaimslee4u]

Could she have been an internal layer?? Did her abdomen seem large? That is what happened to one of my girls her abdomen was huge but the rest of her was very very skinny.

 

[BarkerChickens]

Quote:
I highly doubt she was an internal layer. Her abdomen would be full of "cooked" yolk, etc. I am thinking it is other issues...not egg related. Her egg-laying parts look normal in the pic. Her keel bone; however, does not.

 

[justbugged]

Quote:
I highly doubt she was an internal layer. Her abdomen would be full of "cooked" yolk, etc. I am thinking it is other issues...not egg related. Her egg-laying parts look normal in the pic. Her keel bone; however, does not.

Thank you for confirming what I thought I was looking at. DH and I have raised and sent birds to freezer camp, and while I am just a housewife, I was fairly certain that I knew what I was looking at. So I was fairly certain that she wasn't an internal layer. Though I felt that she hadn't even been close to laying for sometime.