This is what lymphoid leucosis does to a chicken - gross and disgusting pics

[Wyorp Rock]

Carol, I just now ran across this. I'm so sorry about Molly
What a terrible disease this must be to deal with. Thank you for taking the time for photos and sharing with us so we can learn more.

 

[Shadrach]

Poor Molly.
Do you know how they contracted the disease?

 

[azygous]

Poor Molly.
Do you know how they contracted the disease?

Not for certain. I began my flock twelve years ago with two middle-aged laying hens from a friend that died in a freak highway accident. During the first week I had the hens, I found one dead under her perch in the coop. I was about as ignorant as any person who had only just decided to keep chickens, and I concluded she died of "mysterious causes." That's a recognized avian disease, ya know, and very common. (Joke.)

So, LL may have been present from the very beginning. Or I may have brought it home from the feed store on my feet or on chicks I bought since in those days, none of the feed stores practiced bio-security.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

Wow, the amount of tumors is kind of mind boggling. I'm so sorry for your loss and that you have to deal with such a thing. Thank you for sharing pictures.

 

[Shadrach]

Not for certain. I began my flock twelve years ago with two middle-aged laying hens from a friend that died in a freak highway accident. During the first week I had the hens, I found one dead under her perch in the coop. I was about as ignorant as any person who had only just decided to keep chickens, and I concluded she died of "mysterious causes." That's a recognized avian disease, ya know, and very common. (Joke.)

So, LL may have been present from the very beginning. Or I may have brought it home from the feed store on my feet or on chicks I bought since in those days, none of the feed stores practiced bio-security.

It's a terrible thing to have to deal with.
How many have died from this in your flock?

 

[dalasgalas]

Poor Molly.

 

[FloridaChick88]

I’m so sorry for your loss, but thank you for posting. I’d never heard of lymphoid leukosis until now.

 

[azygous]

It's a terrible thing to have to deal with.
How many have died from this in your flock?

It's hard to say how many since I haven't had a necropsy on every one of them. However, it seems most of the casualties have been youngsters in their first year that were hatched within the flock. Most broody-incubated eggs have had dead chicks, and in a clutch of six eggs, if one chick hatched alive, that was about it. LL is passed directly to the embryo from the hen.

The only flock hatched chicks to survive their first three years have been two Legbar/EE crosses, a rooster and a hen. They both are doing well, for now.

I'm only guessing that perhaps Cream Legbars and EEs have a superior resistance to the disease and managed to pass that to their offspring. There are some popular breeds where hatcheries have managed to breed resistance into them.

 

[chrissiemids]

Thank you for sharing,awefull things,these tumors