My partridge Chanticler started to go downhill about a week ago and died yesterday. All of my other chickens are fine.
She started to sleep on the nest box at night, lost weight rapidly despite being very interested in food, stumbled a little, and had a poopy butt.
Necropsy findings:
I started with her mouth and airway, which all looked normal.
Her heart looked very weird grossly, and when I picked it out and looked at it, it was very small.
Then I opened her abdomen and found it filled with purulent material.
She apparently died of peritonitis. Her ovary was very fibrous and hard, and was adhered to her body wall. Poor thing.
Being a parasitology student, I took the opportunity to open her digestive tract. Her intestinal contents revealed several types of intestinal worms.
Here is what her peritoneum looked like before I opened it. No lesions on the liver. Spleen, ventriculus, crop and kidneys also unremarkable.
This is what greeted me when I opened her peritoneum
Her heart was very small.
What is left of her ovary, which was so adhered and weird and fibrous that I couldn't get it out of her body cavity.
The worms I rinsed from her large intestine and ceca (plate is marked with L) and the small intestine (S). I will sort through them over the weekend and ID them. So far I've ID'd Ascaridia and Heterakis, but also see tapeworms and threadworms. Probably more!
She started to sleep on the nest box at night, lost weight rapidly despite being very interested in food, stumbled a little, and had a poopy butt.
Necropsy findings:
I started with her mouth and airway, which all looked normal.
Her heart looked very weird grossly, and when I picked it out and looked at it, it was very small.
Then I opened her abdomen and found it filled with purulent material.
She apparently died of peritonitis. Her ovary was very fibrous and hard, and was adhered to her body wall. Poor thing.
Being a parasitology student, I took the opportunity to open her digestive tract. Her intestinal contents revealed several types of intestinal worms.
Here is what her peritoneum looked like before I opened it. No lesions on the liver. Spleen, ventriculus, crop and kidneys also unremarkable.
This is what greeted me when I opened her peritoneum
Her heart was very small.
What is left of her ovary, which was so adhered and weird and fibrous that I couldn't get it out of her body cavity.
The worms I rinsed from her large intestine and ceca (plate is marked with L) and the small intestine (S). I will sort through them over the weekend and ID them. So far I've ID'd Ascaridia and Heterakis, but also see tapeworms and threadworms. Probably more!
Sorry for your loss of a sweet bird but I commend you with 100 
‘s on those great photos. 
