Necropsy pics, need opinions - GRAPHIC

[Beekissed]

The kidneys do look pulpy and the lungs DO look very congested and I see multiple clots in the body cavity. Who knows? What does the heart look like? Got a pic of that?

 

[CMV]

There should not have been any fluid in the sac around the heart. If there was fluid in that sac then this an abnormal finding. The posture you found the bird in when she died is indicative of a phenomena called "flipover" in chickens. It is when chickens are just walking along, stop suddenly, flip over and die. It is basically a massive chicken heart attack. This may have been the COD on this bird.

The neck being very pliable after 24 hours is...questionable. I was under the impression that rigor mortis lasted up to 48 hours in chickens, but I am not positive of that fact. I also don't know how much loosening you should expect after 24 hours. You may want to look into this further.

The bacteria in the crop would still be active, but I wouldn't think you would expect the contents of the crop to "reek" as you indicated. I mean it's not going to smell like roses, but it shouldn't be overwhelmingly foul either.

I see no lesions that would indicate a disease, and the bird had no clinical signs or symptoms. The only abnormality that was obvious was the kidney condition.

 

[Frosty]

Thank you for all of the advice. It lead me to do some research and while flip-over seems to be more of a problem with broilers I did read the following in the Merck Vet Manual:

Good broilers found dead on their backs may be assumed to have died of flip-over because that position is rare in death from other causes except cardiac tamponade, asphyxia, and ascites syndrome ( Ascites Syndrome).

Perhaps the gel bubble that was attached to the heart was enough to put pressure on her heart and cause a heart attack?

 

[CMV]

I think that gel bubble was probably all around the heart. It sounds like pericardial effusion, which can lead to heart failure and death if left untreated.

 

[Frosty]

Thank you so much for your time and wisdom, I really appreciate it!

 

[Frosty]

One thing I forgot to mention... as far as the odor from the crop goes, while I thought it smelled pretty bad it wasn't bad enough to drive us out for fresh air. We were in one of those small back yard greenhouses (like 6' x 10') with the door closed to keep out the barn cats that wanted to help by seeing if it tasted ok. I am sure that being in a small enclosed space probably made it smell worse.

 

[TammyP]

Might I ask the age of this hen?

~Tammy

 

[CMV]

Incidentally, pericardial effusion can be caused by kidney damage/failure. It may also explain the congested lungs Beekissed was seeing. The more I read about it the more I think you may have figured out what was going on with the bird.

Now the question remains- what caused the kidney damage that probably caused the heart problem that led to the death of the bird?

 

[Frosty]

Or possibly kidneys were damaged from lack of blood flow? If that is a possibility, figuring it out could be a case of 'which came first, the chicken or the egg'. I was really hoping when we opened her up that we would find something obvious, but that wasn't really the case.

TammyP, she was from spring 2010 so about a year and a half old.

 

[CMV]

Unfortunately, an at home necropsy usually raises more questions than it answers. I know it is supposed to be obvious what killed a bird, but that is rarely the case. At least this has been my observation.

Great job on the necropsy, though. Not too many people are able to do them. You did well.