Need help identifying disease

[katssmilin]

We butchered our chickens today and 2 of the 4 didn't look right at all. The first was a 2yr old red sex link and we noticed a very distended belly. When we cut her open a massive amount of yellow fluid squirted out. There were 3 yolks and her intestines looked like the picture below. She did not act sick at all. She ate she drank and was social. Any ideas? I have tried searching the web but could not find anything that gave pictures of diseases for me to compare.




Another chicken we did was a 3 yr old RIR. Again no symtoms but her insides were for lack of a better term..encased in a membrane and when I cut it open it looked like this


If anyone can help idententify this I would greatly appreciate it. We did not keep the birds but I would like to know what this is so I can maybe prevent it in my next flock.
Thanks in advance for you help.
Kathy

 

[Eggcessive]

What do the livers look like? I don't have a lot of experience with necropsy pictures, but I would wonder if your chickens could have had internal laying, egg yolk peritonitis, ascites (in the one with yellow fluid in the abdomen,) or fatty liver disease? Casportpony and Speckedhen both have tons of experience with necropsies and internal laying, so I would probably PM them to see if they can be of help. They both take pictures of necropsies, and may have similar photos to compare.

 

[speckledhen]

This one appears to be reproductive cancer to me, the nodules all over. My 5 yr old RIR hatchery hen looked very much like that inside when she passed away.

The second one, I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at. I see a lump that if you cut it open, might be indicative of internal laying, however, not really certain. Those breeds, mainly the hatchery stock, are prone to this type stuff, sadly. I've lost about 15 to internal laying and/or egg yolk peritonitis and a few to cancers all along the reproductive tract, but those seem to be the older ones, not the younger ones. I haven't seen much at all since I don't get hatchery stock any longer.

 

[katssmilin]

Thank you so much. I hope that neither one was in pain and I didn't notice.

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you so much. I hope that neither one was in pain and I didn't notice.

It's hard to say about the pain. Chickens are very stoic animals. Unless you press on the abdomen and they bite at your arm a little or struggle, you wouldn't know. Most likely, unless a mass is pressing on nerves, they probably are not in a lot of pain with some of this. Wish we could ask them, bless their hearts.

 

[Akrnaf2]

This one appears to be reproductive cancer to me, the nodules all over. My 5 yr old RIR hatchery hen looked very much like that inside when she passed away. The second one, I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at. I see a lump that if you cut it open, might be indicative of internal laying, however, not really certain. Those breeds, mainly the hatchery stock, are prone to this type stuff, sadly. I've lost about 15 to internal laying and/or egg yolk peritonitis and a few to cancers all along the reproductive tract, but those seem to be the older ones, not the younger ones. I haven't seen much at all since I don't get hatchery stock any longer.

Do you use light in the coop at night? Have you had a lot of cases of double or poly yolks in the eggs from the chicken died from EYP?

 

[speckledhen]

Quote: No, I do not use light in the coop. No, I rarely ever have had double yolked eggs here, either. This is a genetic/hormonal malfunction and VERY common in hatchery stock.

 

[Akrnaf2]

No, I do not use light in the coop. No, I rarely ever have had double yolked eggs here, either. This is a genetic/hormonal malfunction and VERY common in hatchery stock.

Thanks
I know that one of the reasons for EYP is to fast maturation of the reproductive system of pullets. In this case they can suffer from poly yolks in eggs. because instead of "ovulation" of one yolk a time the ovary ovulate more. In this case the peristaltic movement that push the yolk to the shell gland is reversed and the yolk is pushed to the abdominal cavity causing internal laying or EYP. I assume that hybrids or pure bread that are selected to fast and prolific egg laying in hatcheries. have a grater tendency to this phenomena.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
When I was in the thick of losing one hatchery hen after another, trust me, I consulted experts. This was over a period of years. Through no desire or fault of my own, I have become the BYC resident "expert" on internal laying/egg yolk peritonitis (I don't claim it, don't want it, just lots of sad experience with it, people keep referring others to me)

I had no hybrid layers, only RIRs, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks and Silver Laced Wyandottes at the time. I went through this over and over, spoke numerous times to a PhD in poultry science about it.

The final recommendation? GET BETTER STOCK. Guess what? He was 100% RIGHT. I have rarely seen any of it since hatching from good breeder stock, not from propagators of hatchery stock, but good heritage breeders. I currently have 6, 7, and 8+ year old hens laying now. So, the further from the direct hatchery lines you get, the less you generally will see this stuff. It's not 100%, of course. Had one gorgeous breeder Buff Orpington die from huge liver tumors, surprisingly, reproductive tumors. All her yolks from two years were going into her liver (vet verified). She is a very rare exception but something was wrong with her from shortly after she began laying, a short in the circuit, so to speak. And I have ONE hatchery hen left who is over 8 years old. She quit laying but seems fine. However, she is not a common laying breed, she's a Brahma, probably has genetics that haven't been totally trashed.

 

[Akrnaf2]

When I was in the thick of losing one hatchery hen after another, trust me, I consulted experts. This was over a period of years. Through no desire or fault of my own, I have become the BYC resident "expert" on internal laying/egg yolk peritonitis (I don't claim it, don't want it, just lots of sad experience with it, people keep referring others to me)

I had no hybrid layers, only RIRs, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks and Silver Laced Wyandottes at the time. I went through this over and over, spoke numerous times to a PhD in poultry science about it.

The final recommendation? GET BETTER STOCK. Guess what? He was 100% RIGHT. I have rarely seen any of it since hatching from good breeder stock, not from propagators of hatchery stock, but good heritage breeders. I currently have 6, 7, and 8+ year old hens laying now. So, the further from the direct hatchery lines you get, the less you generally will see this stuff. It's not 100%, of course. Had one gorgeous breeder Buff Orpington die from huge liver tumors, surprisingly, reproductive tumors. All her yolks from two years were going into her liver (vet verified). She is a very rare exception but something was wrong with her from shortly after she began laying, a short in the circuit, so to speak. And I have ONE hatchery hen left who is over 8 years old. She quit laying but seems fine. However, she is not a common laying breed, she's a Brahma, probably has genetics that haven't been totally trashed.

I am not from the USA,I am from Israel, and in Israel we don't have hatcheries that sells chicks from many breeds, actually the only chicks that you can buy from hatcheries is production white Leghorn for eggs and Cornish cross for meat. So all the heritage breeds that we have here comes from breeders. Because I am an active member in the chicken growers community in Israel I must say that you are right about the fact that EYP is seldom found in chicks from privet breeders because in all my years here,I have herd only of one case of internal laying in all the community. As a zoologist I fined this phenomena interesting and intriguing, and I really want to learn more about its reasons, I really want to know what is happening in the hatchery stocks. If I understand how hatchery works they have (or should have!) a good stock of breeding parents that should produce a dissent and genetically healthy stock of chicks to sell. So way they have all this problems? I will be glad to hear your opinion.