Two chickens died in two weeks, when autopsied they were full of what looked like cooked egg yolks?

[Cellochick]

I had a two year old black sex link hen, and a three year old red sex link die in the past two weeks. they both started fine, then the black one I found laying on the coop floor in the middle of the day. I brought her inside to my sick chicken kennel, and feed her sugar water mash chicken crumble. I also gave her vitamin E oil, as this has helped with other sick chickens in the past. the next morning I found her dead. then a week ago, my red hen started acting lethargic and moving slower. I separated her like I did the last one in case It was something contagious. She died a few days later. They had both lost almost all their body weight, so I thought it could be worms and I dewormed them with Febendazole. When I autopsied the red one, I didn't find any worms and everything looked normal besides the edges of her lungs were black, and her reproductive tract was FULL of this yellow stuff that looked like cooked hard boiled egg yolks! I pulled almost a pound of this stuff out of her. she had stopped laying earlier this spring. The Black one had something a little more interesting. when I started plucking her feathers, her skin was green!! I kept looking, and her crop was green, and so was what little meat was left on her body. She also had a lot of yellow stuff in her, and same as the first one she didn't have any worms. And now I have another red sex link hen acting lethargic like the first ones did. Does anyone have any ideas what this could be? or how to treat the still living chicken?

This was all of the egg stuff I found.



This was the black sex link that had the green stuff. She also had a lot of the yellow stuff, only hers was brighter in color

 

[casportpony]

Sorry for your losses, but thanks for posting, it's very informative. Looks like egg yolk peritonitis was the cause of death, but I don't think there's anything other than surgery that can be done for it and that if it's caught early enough.

-Kathy

 

[Eggcessive]

I agree. Many of the hatchery high production chickens will end up like this if they live very long. It is a learning experience for all of us to try to get chickens who are heritage birds, who don't have to lay an egg every single day, but who may live a long life giving us less eggs for more years. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Cellochick]

So does that mean this isn't contagious? and if its just high production breeds, should my cochin bantams and wyandottes be ok? And why was one green?

 

[casportpony]

So does that mean this isn't contagious? and if its just high production breeds, should my cochin bantams and wyandottes be ok? And why was one green?

EYP itself is not contagious, but I think there are some other diseases that can lead to this, but don't quote me on that. If you get another, you might want to have a necropsy done to rule out an underlying disease.

-Kathy