RIP, Maxie GRAPHIC Educational Necropsy Photos of Cause of Death

[Miss Lydia]

It sure is interesting, I just hope I never have to deal with it. Sorry for your loss

 

[schellie69]

So Sorry for your loss Cyn. Thank you for the pictures. I think that hens that lay those extra large eggs or that start laying early have more problems then hens that lay when they are older or lay smaller eggs.

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

I noticed the name of the hatchery seemed to be conspicuously absent.
In the past 2 months, I have lost 7 of 16 2.5 year old hens I got from I _ _ _ L.
I also lost 1 of 10 1.5 year old hens I got from M _ _ _ _ _ _ Y.
The hens in the first batch were fantastic layers right up till October. They were small production reds with a great egg:feed ratio. Two of five cuckoo marans in the second batch never even started to lay. The other two only laid until their molt this fall, and now nothing. All of the production reds from the second batch were egg eaters.

I did necropsies on all the birds who died. I've dissected fetal pigs, cats, and processed deer my whole life so I think I had a good understanding of what I was looking at. In each case, it appeared the same as Maxie; there was an obvious rip in the oviduct and the egg or eggs mass was just sitting in the bottom of the abdomen. In each case, the hen had lost weight very quickly but I didn't notice until they stopped moving around as much. In each case, they'd lost so much weight it almost makes me want to weigh my birds on a regular basis; they HAD to be starving to death, and that makes me feel absolutely awful. I have to look up what you mean by "stasis", but I did notice a couple of the birds had a very sour abnormal smell coming from their crop.

These are not pet birds for me (although I did have a couple with names, both of whom died) but that isn't the biggest thing. I really hate that I couldn't tell they were having problems until they had probably suffered for a while. Preventing suffering during an animal's life is the reason I raise my own poultry, and the reason I hunt instead of buying meat at the store.

I am so grateful for your photos and story.

 

[speckledhen]

I don't want to badmouth one hatchery since all of them pretty much just breed for egg production, which is the reason most folks get chickens in the first place, but your biggest number lost came from the same hatchery as mine. All the issues began just after the original girls turned 2 years old. Now, I have just three old ladies left from that group and one of them is laying a couple eggs each week, thank goodness. It's not so much that I want the eggs, but if she's laying, that means she is okay so far.

Unlike most of the others, Maxie wasn't a hatchery girl, but she did lay humongous eggs regularly and this egg-within-an-egg was gargantuan-no way it would have passed even if it had been in the oviduct. I hate that she was suffering, but until you open them up, you can't really know what was going on in there. It's quite educational. I'm glad someone is getting something from me posting these pics and stories.

 

[SylvieXandra]

I'm so sorry about the way you've been losing hens to these egg issues. And thanks to you both, for doing this and for showing us. Certainly generates thoughts about breeding these girls for egg production.

I’ve also been losing hens similarly. My chicken Pebble stopped laying eggs a year ago and the vet says she has a mass or tumor in her abdomen and we’ll have to put her down soon. She’s been having respiratory symptoms too. She’s sitting on my lap for snuggles right now