Need Help Deciphering Necropsy Report Post #15

[janinepeters]

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, but do appreciate your posting the necropsy results. If she did not appear obese, my first thought is that they made an error and gave you necropsy results of a different chicken, and I would want to rule that out, if possible.

My second thought is that perhaps "obesity" in a chicken, i.e., a dangerous amount of fat deposits in the thoraco-abdominal region, is not that noticeable upon visual inspection of a living chicken. And, an older or inactive animal might have lost some muscle mass, off-setting the gain in size and heft due to an increase in fatty tissue. Five years of age might be old enough for that. And, if these birds are confined all or most of the time, the lack of exercise could contribute to an increase in fatty tissue and loss of muscle mass.

I wouldn't say you were necessarily doing anything "wrong". Five years is a darn good age for a chicken, and I would guess that her "obesity" was due to a pampered lifestyle - not tons of exercise, and food always available. But some restriction in activity is often necessary to keep captive animals safe, and free feeding is necessary to keep chicken from picking at each other.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Janinepeters - i think your assumptions may be right. She didn't look chubby on the outside, but then her breed does tend to be sleek. She was heavy for a small bird. i noticed that when i picked her up at night to go to bed. She never wanted to go to bed. So all that fat must have been concentrated on the inside. Lack of exercise is most likely a strong contributing factor. i had plans for expanding their pen and adding perches at different levels, as they are all flyers in there. Illness has kept me from doing a lot of work on the pens that i've been planning for some time. But i suppose the last thing i can do for Sable is to work on that pen first so her friends can get some exercise and hopefully prevent this from happening again.

 

[janinepeters]

i had plans for expanding their pen and adding perches at different levels, as they are all flyers in there. Illness has kept me from doing a lot of work on the pens that i've been planning for some time. But i suppose the last thing i can do for Sable is to work on that pen first so her friends can get some exercise and hopefully prevent this from happening again.

I hope you don't stress over it. While I'm the first to argue that more space is always better than less, especially to prevent bullying, I don't think it does much to increase opportunity for exercise. If you've ever seen free ranging birds in good foraging habitat (i.e., not just a big open field, but more of a mosaic of field, shrubland, and forest), then you know how much they forage, and run, run, run. They must burn off a LOT more calories than most captive birds. But free ranging and wild animals are much more likely to die of predation. They have to die of something eventually, and five years is excellent for a chicken. You're doing a fine job with your birds!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Thank you for your kind words, Janinepeters. i wish i could free range, but i know their lives would be much shorter. i try to keep them happy in their pens, as much as possible. And it's a bit of a comfort to know Sable's death was very fast. i actually had another bird die of a ruptured liver several years ago - she was only a year old. The necropsy didn't mention too much fat. It showed she had a very "friable" liver, probably something she was born with, and it eventually ruptured and she bled out very quickly. i know they will all die of something, and i guess this is much better than cancer. Have had several chickens (and cats) die of cancer and it is a long and painful process.

Still want to expand that pen (and most of my others). Really want them all to be as happy as possible for the time they have here.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Here is the final necropsy report. That last large paragraph is greek to me. Can anyone decifer what they are saying?


1) “Fatty Liver Hemorrhagic Syndrome” with:
A. Very soft liver.
B. Ruptured right liver lobe with extensive intra-thoracoabdominal hemorrhage.
C. Obese bird.
D. Diffuse centrilobular hepatocellular swelling, degeneration, necrosis with multifocal sinusoidal fibrin thrombosis.
2) Miscellaneous findings:
A. Small numbers of cecal roundworms.



T8: Sections of liver, kidney, heart, lung, spleen, peripheral nerve, trachea, skeletal muscle, ovary, multiple sections of gastrointestinal tract and brain are examined with findings greatly summarized.
Throughout the lung, there are small collections of dust-filled macrophages occasionally accompanied by small numbers of additional lymphocytes seen in the mucosa of parabronchi (incidental finding). The mainstem bronchial mucosa has a mild lymphoplasma cell infiltrate. In the sections of liver, the parenchyma is variably congested and there is a diffuse lobular pattern marked by swelling and apparent degeneration of centrilobular hepatocytes. These swollen cells have a slightly reticulated cytoplasm, as compared with remaining viable periportal hepatocytes and there is a variable degree of loss of nuclear detail with loss of nuclear membranes and clumping of chromatin (autolysis or antemortem necrosis?). In addition, there are numerous small fibrin thrombi seen within sinusoids within these centrilobular regions. Along one side of the sections of liver, the parenchyma is markedly congested. There are very infrequent small focal portal lymphocytic infiltrates. In one of the sections of liver, there is a large subcapsular hematoma or focus of hemorrhage consisting of a large collection of free blood that has peeled the capsule off of the liver and filled the space between the deep capsular border and the underlying subcapsular parenchyma with an accompanying small fissure extending through the parenchyma, dissecting between centrilobular regions of multiple hepatic lobules.
In the section of ovary, there are random focal collections of vacuolated fat laden macrophages either filling this central portion of degenerate ova or lying in the superficial stroma of the ovary. There is marked fat infiltration in the muscularis of the gizzard and there is moderate fat infiltration in the section of skeletal muscle. In the anterior gizzard, there also is a focus within the koilin marked by large numbers of retained epithelial cells with some splitting or disorganization of the surface koilin. There are large fat depots in the intestinal mesentery with focal fat infiltration in the intestinal muscularis. In the section of ceca, there are small numbers of nematode oocysts, compatible with a roundworm species.

 

[janinepeters]

Here is the final necropsy report. That last large paragraph is greek to me. Can anyone decifer what they are saying?

Here's my interpretation of that paragraph:

• there are white blood cells (macrophages are one type of white blood cell) in the airways that were clearing dust particles out of the airways. The airways were a bit inflamed (as evidenced by the mild lymphoplasma cell infiltrate). I believe the gist here is that her airways were dealing with a lot of dust - might mean your coop is a bit too dusty.
• Liver cells (hepatocytes) were breaking down, but the pathologist seems to think this was probably normal post mortem breakdown.
• There was a collection of blood (hematoma) between the membranes lining the liver, and it fissured into the body of the liver, and into the abdominal cavity. He doesn't seem to offer any suggestion as to what caused this, but I wonder if it could be a post mortem event, or perhaps it occurred as a result of fatty infiltration (not sure if that's possible), or some sort of past trauma.
• the ovary, the gizzard, the intestinal walls, and the membranes that hold the intestine to the abdominal wall (the mesentary) were all infiltrated with fat, which is why he says she was obese
• She had a few roundworm eggs in her cecum, a portion of the intestine.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Thank you for your help. i have switched out their scratch to a more nutritious blend with no corn. It is dusty out there, so i guess i need to spray down the pens every so often to reduce that. i also have some Valbazen on order to worm everyone. I generally do it twice a year, but have used something else. Just read that the Valbazen gets all kinds of worms.

 

[janinepeters]

It is dusty out there, so i guess i need to spray down the pens every so often to reduce that.

I am not so sure spraying then pens down is a great solution. This might predispose to mold, which can cause other problems. It might sound totally bizarre, but I actually vacuum all surfaces in my coop and runs periodically, to keep the dust level down. I use a shop vac for the coop, and in the run, where I can't reach with the shop vac, I use a Dirt Devil. Chickens are really vulnerable to respiratory illnesses, and a lot of dust can't be good for that. But mold wouldn't be any better.