I will give a brief description of what i noticed in my sick Partridge Orpington Rooster/cockeral.
One morning i entered the coop to let the chickens out. Mr Rooster was the last to come down off the roost. Was not normal for him to do this. He came outside and just stood in several different spots all the while closing his eyes looking "sleepy". Was not interested in his normal rooster activities. He had been mounting the hens and he stopped that. He was no longer eating or drinking. First night he went back up onto the main roost with the girls. Each day it kept looking like he was getting more and more tired/sleepy. His left eye was no longer really opening only if startled and his right eye would open briefly and return to close. When you would approach him it was almost like he was somewhat blind granted he wasn't opening his eyes really to see. He could still see because as i approached him to pick him up and get fluids in him with a dropper he would try to back away. The last 2 days i had closed the flap to keep him isolated. He would just sit on the floor or jump up on a low roost and just spend all his time not really doing anything. He had really smelly poop that was green and white fluid. Very few small pieces or solid poop. So the fourth day i made the decision to take him to have a Necropsy done to see if his illness was something contagious. After all everything your read kinda scares you into thinking its Mareks. Which it was not come to find out.
Here are the Necropsy Results:
Breed : Orpington
Sex: M
Age: 6 months
Weight: 3.2 kg
FINAL DIAGNOSIS: ASPERGILLOSIS
MORPHOLOGIC DIAGNOSIS: LIVER, KIDNEY, TESTIS, PROVENTRICULUS: multiple aspergillomas VENTRICULUS: fold mild lymphohistiocytic ventriculitis ADRENAL: regional moderate lymphocytic adrenalitis LIVER, SPLEEN: extramedullary hematopoiesis
COMMENTS: Gross necropsy of this chicken revealed multiple off-white circumscribed lesions, which histopathology demonstrated to be aspergillomas—Aspergillus fungus surrounded by marked granulomatous inflammation. The inflammation stimulated by the presence of the fungus can cause lethargy and anorexia, as described in this rooster’s clinical signs. Changes in the liver and spleen indicate increased production of white blood cells. The dark color noted regionally in the lungs was likely due to poor perfusion of that area, which may have been due to impingement of a major blood vessel by one of the aspergillomas.
LABORATORY FINDINGS MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS RESULTS: TEST REQUEST: Influenza A Virus Matrix PCR - Live Bird Market NO. ANIMAL ID SAMPLE IAV MATRIX _______________________________________________________________________________________ ********** Chicken Tracheal Swab Not Detected _______________________________________________________________________________________ UPDATE: PCR results for avian samples are reported as "detected" (instead of positive) or "not detected" (instead of negative) and include the cycle threshold (Ct) value. The lower the Ct value, the more nucleic acid was detected.
PATHOLOGIC FINDINGS HISTORY: 4 day ago, the chicken was fine. The next morning, it was the last to leave the roost and had stopped eating and drinking. Owner started giving 5-10mL three times a day via dropper. The fluid being given had electrolytes, vitamins, probiotics and also 9.5 cc corid to 1 gallon water.
GROSS FINDINGS: A 6-month-old, 3.2kg rooster was submitted alive. The rooster was humanely euthanized and necropsied. It was in good body condition. Scattered throughout the liver, kidney, testis, spleen, and lung were small numbers of well-circumscribed white foci up to 7mm in diameter and slightly firm on cut surface. The caudal 20% of the right lung lobe was discolored mildly brown. There was a small amount of brown gruel consistent with extruded feed in the crop, and a small amount of soft brown formed feces in the rectum.
HISTOPATHOLOGY: Tissues examined on slides A and B: KIDNEY, LIVER, LUNG, GALLBLADDER, ADRENAL GLAND, TESTIS, TRACHEA, PROVENTRICULUS, VENTRICULUS, SPLEEN.
SPECIAL STAINS: GROCOTT’S METHENAMINE SILVER. Slides A and B. LIVER, KIDNEY, TESTIS, PROVENTRICULUS: There is uptake of stain that defines fungal hyphae within granulomatous lesions as parallel walled, septate, with dichotomous branching.
I am posting this because when we have a sick chicken alot of people come running here to see what it could be including myself. I wanted to post facts and not speculation that is why i have waited to get all my information back before adding the thread. If there is a Vet in the house that can explain the final results in english (simple terms) so that the rest of us can better understand that would be great. Also if you know a possible cause for the illness that would be helpful.
What i take away from the results and this may NOT be correct is that the rooster got ahold of and consumed some bad/moldy food. I am not sure where he would have gotten this or if it was something he had while out free ranging, it was about 2-3 days before he got sick i had let them out and they went to my mulch beds along the house which is 2 years old mulch and boy were they tearing it up.
I also have 10 other birds that have shown no signs of illness so if it was bad feed i think i would have had some other birds that would have shown signs of sickness.
Now i am really happy that it is not some contagious illness that was going to keep me from bringing in any more birds.
One morning i entered the coop to let the chickens out. Mr Rooster was the last to come down off the roost. Was not normal for him to do this. He came outside and just stood in several different spots all the while closing his eyes looking "sleepy". Was not interested in his normal rooster activities. He had been mounting the hens and he stopped that. He was no longer eating or drinking. First night he went back up onto the main roost with the girls. Each day it kept looking like he was getting more and more tired/sleepy. His left eye was no longer really opening only if startled and his right eye would open briefly and return to close. When you would approach him it was almost like he was somewhat blind granted he wasn't opening his eyes really to see. He could still see because as i approached him to pick him up and get fluids in him with a dropper he would try to back away. The last 2 days i had closed the flap to keep him isolated. He would just sit on the floor or jump up on a low roost and just spend all his time not really doing anything. He had really smelly poop that was green and white fluid. Very few small pieces or solid poop. So the fourth day i made the decision to take him to have a Necropsy done to see if his illness was something contagious. After all everything your read kinda scares you into thinking its Mareks. Which it was not come to find out.
Here are the Necropsy Results:
Breed : Orpington
Sex: M
Age: 6 months
Weight: 3.2 kg
FINAL DIAGNOSIS: ASPERGILLOSIS
MORPHOLOGIC DIAGNOSIS: LIVER, KIDNEY, TESTIS, PROVENTRICULUS: multiple aspergillomas VENTRICULUS: fold mild lymphohistiocytic ventriculitis ADRENAL: regional moderate lymphocytic adrenalitis LIVER, SPLEEN: extramedullary hematopoiesis
COMMENTS: Gross necropsy of this chicken revealed multiple off-white circumscribed lesions, which histopathology demonstrated to be aspergillomas—Aspergillus fungus surrounded by marked granulomatous inflammation. The inflammation stimulated by the presence of the fungus can cause lethargy and anorexia, as described in this rooster’s clinical signs. Changes in the liver and spleen indicate increased production of white blood cells. The dark color noted regionally in the lungs was likely due to poor perfusion of that area, which may have been due to impingement of a major blood vessel by one of the aspergillomas.
LABORATORY FINDINGS MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS RESULTS: TEST REQUEST: Influenza A Virus Matrix PCR - Live Bird Market NO. ANIMAL ID SAMPLE IAV MATRIX _______________________________________________________________________________________ ********** Chicken Tracheal Swab Not Detected _______________________________________________________________________________________ UPDATE: PCR results for avian samples are reported as "detected" (instead of positive) or "not detected" (instead of negative) and include the cycle threshold (Ct) value. The lower the Ct value, the more nucleic acid was detected.
PATHOLOGIC FINDINGS HISTORY: 4 day ago, the chicken was fine. The next morning, it was the last to leave the roost and had stopped eating and drinking. Owner started giving 5-10mL three times a day via dropper. The fluid being given had electrolytes, vitamins, probiotics and also 9.5 cc corid to 1 gallon water.
GROSS FINDINGS: A 6-month-old, 3.2kg rooster was submitted alive. The rooster was humanely euthanized and necropsied. It was in good body condition. Scattered throughout the liver, kidney, testis, spleen, and lung were small numbers of well-circumscribed white foci up to 7mm in diameter and slightly firm on cut surface. The caudal 20% of the right lung lobe was discolored mildly brown. There was a small amount of brown gruel consistent with extruded feed in the crop, and a small amount of soft brown formed feces in the rectum.
HISTOPATHOLOGY: Tissues examined on slides A and B: KIDNEY, LIVER, LUNG, GALLBLADDER, ADRENAL GLAND, TESTIS, TRACHEA, PROVENTRICULUS, VENTRICULUS, SPLEEN.
SPECIAL STAINS: GROCOTT’S METHENAMINE SILVER. Slides A and B. LIVER, KIDNEY, TESTIS, PROVENTRICULUS: There is uptake of stain that defines fungal hyphae within granulomatous lesions as parallel walled, septate, with dichotomous branching.
I am posting this because when we have a sick chicken alot of people come running here to see what it could be including myself. I wanted to post facts and not speculation that is why i have waited to get all my information back before adding the thread. If there is a Vet in the house that can explain the final results in english (simple terms) so that the rest of us can better understand that would be great. Also if you know a possible cause for the illness that would be helpful.
What i take away from the results and this may NOT be correct is that the rooster got ahold of and consumed some bad/moldy food. I am not sure where he would have gotten this or if it was something he had while out free ranging, it was about 2-3 days before he got sick i had let them out and they went to my mulch beds along the house which is 2 years old mulch and boy were they tearing it up.
I also have 10 other birds that have shown no signs of illness so if it was bad feed i think i would have had some other birds that would have shown signs of sickness.
Now i am really happy that it is not some contagious illness that was going to keep me from bringing in any more birds.
