Suspected Fatty Liver: GRAPHIC pictures of internal organs : what do you think?

[1000years]

Wow! That is a fantastic resource! Thanks @beekissed !

I am going to download those pics for next time!

!!!!!

 

[lindaanddlinda]

Hi Everyone
- I have EXACTLY the same problem AND my chickens also free range (over 10 acres) & eat a small amount of 'fermented' grain almost daily (I soak it at least overnight in water containing leftover brewing solids - for the yeast & vitamins that comes with it - & a bit of molasses to feed the yeast so it can multiply). to this I have started adding 'lucerne dust' (the dusty crumbles leftover from the bales) wetted with either some of the yeasty soak water or kombucha tea or whey from milk keffir because I suspected they were low in protein. They also have layers pellets in a 'help yourself' feeder but only 1 bird can eat at a time & I have between 20 & 40 at any given time so they cannot really over feed. I really don't think I feed them too much (I used to & already cut back) My roosters are fat but my hens are every bit as bad as the one this post is about PLUS their livers are very yellow & mushy (1000years I can't see a liver at all in your photos but the one in the diagram photo of internal organs is a bit yellow whereas the photo added below that shows a healthy dark red liver). Mine are much yellower than in the diagram.

I did not take photos but I found a picture on the net that is pretty close so added it (the yellow liver is in the middle) the page this picture is from used it as an example of fatty hemorrhagic liver disease but my hens were not bleeding from the liver but the livers did pretty much 'disintegrate' to mush when I pulled them out

Plus the hens were fully active & basically looked & behaved 'healthy', I chose to cull them because they had shitty backsides & were constantly getting heavy lice infestations whilst the rest of my flock would only end up with a few lice if any (these birds equated about 1/3 of my flock, though I only dissected 6 out of the 16 or so I culled, the rest went into the freezer as was for the dogs)

Also they ranged in age from approx 3 years to just reached adulthood (6 months max)

- ALL THAT SAID: I use MOXIDECTIN to treat my flock & have used it quite heavily of late because of the repeated lice & mite infestations that have been plaguing my flock (point to note the roost is not the problem it has been sprayed & the hens that are sitting in the nest boxes do not have any lice despite having been in the same spot for a very long time & having those lice infested ones I just culled climbing in with them to lay every day (I keep taking the eggs away & they keep sitting) & YES the hens in question were still laying, I separated them into a different pen before culling them & I was actually getting a higher egg ratio from them than the rest of the flock (it's winter here ATM) I have always presumed the mites & lice come from the wild birds

- RE THE MOXIDECTIN, I had no way to weigh them for dosing so I just guessed their weights & dosed them individually preferring to overdose by 1-2kg of bodyweight rather than risk underdosing (it is supposed to be quite safe but now I'm not so sure)

- SO MY QUESTION TO YOU ALL IS: DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THIS PROBLEM CAN BE CAUSED BY THE MOXIDECTIN? I HAVE JUST BOUGHT A SCALE TO USE BUT AM SCARED TO RE-DOSE THE FLOCK IN CASE THIS IS THE CAUSE

Another possibility I've entertained is: It could be genetic - my flock has a pretty small gene pool re hens though I do change out roosters more often than I'd like (due to predators mainly), but I always have at least 2 unrelated roosters in the flock

ALL of my hens I've raised myself - either incubated by me (I started with 1 hen, 1 rooster & an incubator, then bought a few unsexed chicks) or hatched by my hens so MOST of my flock is related maternally but I USUALLY cull all related roosters though I have kept a couple that are extra big since I lost some to foxes & a chicken hawk.

 

[AmeliaGrowsPlants]

Here's a pic or two that shows a couple of each organ and a digestive tract.....



Left to right: Lungs, right above those is a bile sac that is attached to the liver and has to be cut out carefully to avoid rupturing it and spoiling the meat, to the right of the lungs is a pair of testes, below the testes is kidneys, to the right of those are two livers, below the bottom liver is a spleen, moving right are two hearts and below all of these is the digestive tract...should have spread it out better than this, but left to right is the esophagus, crop, proventriculus, gizzard, small intestine, at the intersection of the small and large intestines is the ceca, which you cannot see here but are two long pouches where cellulose is digested....when you see a tannish and really stinky liquid stool it's from these pouches. About every 10th BM is from that source, so they say.

Here's a better pic off the web of the entire digestive tract of the chicken....




Here's a closer pic of those various organs.....




Here's a pic of an old hen opened on the half shell, with the organs in the place where they normally reside...you can see in this pic her liver is pretty fatty and discolored, but she didn't die of that...she was killed while still healthy as can be so she could be eaten. If you have any questions about this pic and the various organs you can see here, just ask. This pic even shows her ovary and oviduct.




Here's a closer look at that ovary and oviduct....




And you thought YOUR hen was fat?? Take a look at this old gal.....

This was her gizzard...



Under her skin....



On her body....



I didn't even take a pic of the huge layer of fat she had stored in her abdomen and around her vent....a good 2 in. thick and big as the palm of my hand.

Before you think I overfeed my birds, this bird was living mostly on foraged feed all day long and sharing 1 1/2 c. of fermented layer mash each evening with 13 other LF birds, so she wasn't getting enough at the feeder to get her this fat....the fall forage here is phenomenal. She had to walk all day long to get that feed, so she was exercising aplenty but still managed to be the fattest bird I've ever processed and I've butchered hundreds and hundreds of birds in my lifetime.

Hope these help! .

Thank you for posting these. I had a couple of older egg eating chickens we culled and they looked similar to this. I wasn't sure if they were safe to eat but they were acting fine...other than their love of eggs.