Pooping small rocks - Contains necropsy photos (GRAPHIC)

[casportpony]

The liver is not a good color and there are spots on the liver. I have no idea if this has anything to do with what was happening to your hen...but by the liver I would say she has not been well and her liver was being taxed.

It should be the rich, deep red color like shown in the video.

Please disregard the blue arrow...lol.

She wasn't starving. She still had fair fat reserves. Sometimes animals/birds can appear incredibly thin on the outside...while still having surprising fat reserves inside.

I wonder if sepsis can cause a liver to look like that?

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I wonder if sepsis can cause a liver to look like that?

I'm not sure but I imagine it could. Of all the necropsies of piglets I did at the barn...the lungs and liver were usually the organs most affected. The white spots made me think of cancer. But I'm sure other things could cause those as well.

I did a quick search and found this...

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sepsis/symptoms-causes/dxc-20169787
Complications
Sepsis ranges from less to more severe. As sepsis worsens, blood flow to vital organs, such as your brain, heart and kidneys, becomes impaired. Sepsis can also cause blood clots to form in your organs and in your arms, legs, fingers and toes — leading to varying degrees of organ failure and tissue death (gangrene).

Most people recover from mild sepsis, but the mortality rate for septic shock is nearly 50 percent. Also, an episode of severe sepsis may place you at higher risk of future infections.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4160418/

(Both links are about humans...but it's close.) Seems the thought is the sepsis is caused more so from the liver than the other way around? Either way the liver is a major player. I had initially thought the fat looked more yellow than normal but I considered that the camera may be a part of that.

How do you feel the sepsis factors in with the stones?

 

[casportpony]

What concerns me is the brown stuff. Looks to me like something in the digestive tract might have ruptured.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I was hoping something got cut or it was done on purpose...but most definitely it shouldn't be there. The appearance of the gizzard contents is quite different than I'm used to.

I also thought the bowels were...bloated looking...for lack of a better term. For what the hen was eating? Or am I off base there?

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Ack...distended is the word that wouldn't come to mind.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I found this...of course it's in relation to humans....but cirrosis of the liver seems to include the white spots. But it's not the correct color

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I found the following links when looking up "causes of stones in chickens"
(I wish they'd show more pictures) This is what @oldhenlikesdogs mentioned.

http://www.poultryworld.net/Breeder...-damage-is-emerging-in-laying-hens-WP008719W/

http://www.hyline.com/aspx/redbook/redbook.aspx?s=5&p=36

http://www.dummies.com/home-garden/...-chickens/gout-and-kidney-stones-in-chickens/

 

[chitownhens]

What is this brown stuff?

I believe that was just the sloppiness of my dissection and poop spilling out. It wasn't there when I opened her up.

I will take a look at the links Wickededchicken6 thank you.

 

[rebrascora]

I would just like to say I'm really sorry you lost your hen but well done for opening her up to try to learn more.
I agree that the liver is unhealthy and the contents of the gizzard look very wrong (I would expect there to be stones in the gizzard but that really dark colour is unusual although it is difficult to make out any detail because the photo is blurry) and the gut distended.
I'm concerned about the amount of fat deposits surrounding the gizzard and intestines and whilst I can't see the heart, I would imagine it was probably there too. I'm thinking maybe fatty liver disease.
Can you tell us what this bird's diet was?

 

[chitownhens]

Can you tell us what this bird's diet was?

Yes majority soy free feed............green cuttings (spinach, kale, dandelion, etc) then on occasion meat, worms, cheese, and cracked corn. All the other birds seem healthy but this particular breed I have lost 3 hens and all about 2-3 years old.

Thanks for the replies.........much appreciated.

I did give her some finely ground up liver as a juice the last day or so. Other then that she was just pecking at a slight amount of watermelon. Maybe she had enough fat that she could have gone longer without eating and in that case just leave her be. But it's often when the stop eating you reach the point of what do you do. Do you try force feeding or not? Really hard to say.

She was very, very, pale similar to this bird that died about a month ago.



She seemed to be doing very good after she passed that giant object at the first post. She was so backed up with poop it was not stop for about an hour. She was good for about a month.


I checked out the links.......thanks,
I don't think they were getting too much calcium if anything not enough. I pulled out a a partially broken egg from one of the hens yesterday. The shell seemed kind of thin and they do have access to oyster shell.

Here she is about 8 weeks ago..............always came into the coop while I was cleaning..........

I will definitely do a better necropsy if and when something ever happens again. First time so I was rushing through it. I think it's important to find out if possible why the bird died as a benefit to the rest of the flock.