Two sick pullets

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry for your loss

Good for you for performing a necropsy. Let's get @rebrascora and @coach723 in here to take a look as well.
The yellow fluid, was that in the abdomen when you opened her up? Do you feel that was egg yolks or possibly something got punctured during the examination?

I don't know enough about the nerves to say one way or another, so hopefully someone else can comment on that. I did find a "comparison" on the Cornell site (photo and link below) that you may find helpful.
Under "Gross Lesions" tab, photo #11
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/search/disease/502#/disease/Marek's_Disease

 

[Eggcessive]

I’m sorry that she is gone, but so glad that you did the necropsy, and posted it here. I am not experienced enough with necropsies, and cannot recognize anything that looks like Mareks. The liver, spleen, and intestines looks pretty clear. Usually with Mareks I think there may be tiny tumors visible. Did you find anything that looked like lash egg, or was there any yellow ascites fluid that came out when the abdominal wall was opened?

 

[RumneyRoost]

The liquid came out of her intestines. The abdominal cavity looked normal when I opened her up. No lash eggs or egg material anywhere.

Can anyone identify what is in the two body cavity pictures? Sitting beside the proventriculus? It looks vascularized, but doesn't look to me like lungs/air sacs. Under the lobules (more superior in a live bird) was what looked like the ovary with either very small follicles or perhaps they were tumors.

I was expecting to open her up and see something more obvious, either full of tumors or worms, etc.

I do still have the body, it's in a bag in the garage which is sitting at 4C so she's essentially being refrigerated right now.

And thank you everyone. In university I spent 8 months doing a full human cadaver dissection. I just wish I had of had some sort of poultry anatomy book with images while I was doing it.

@Wyorp Rock thanks, the section of sciatic nerve that I examined looks fairly normal in size compared to those photos and a couple other that I found. I can't rule out a lesion closer to the spine though.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The liquid came out of her intestines. The abdominal cavity looked normal when I opened her up. No lash eggs or egg material anywhere.

Can anyone identify what is in the two body cavity pictures? Sitting beside the proventriculus? It looks vascularized, but doesn't look to me like lungs/air sacs. Under the lobules (more superior in a live bird) was what looked like the ovary with either very small follicles or perhaps they were tumors.

I was expecting to open her up and see something more obvious, either full of tumors or worms, etc.

I do still have the body, it's in a bag in the garage which is sitting at 4C so she's essentially being refrigerated right now.

And thank you everyone. In university I spent 8 months doing a full human cadaver dissection. I just wish I had of had some sort of poultry anatomy book with images while I was doing it.

@Wyorp Rock thanks, the section of sciatic nerve that I examined looks fairly normal in size compared to those photos and a couple other that I found. I can't rule out a lesion closer to the spine though.

I'm not sure what that is to be honest. Hopefully someone else recognizes that.
You may find the following links helpful though.

A couple of basic necropsy "manuals"
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/focus/contents/ceva_necropsy.pdf
https://vet.uga.edu/oldvpp/programs/afvet/attachments/how_to_necropsy_a_bird.pdf
Cornell has a series of videos, I believe there are 10 of them

 

[coach723]

I agree with everyone, I'm traveling and on my iPad so pictures are smaller than I'm used to, but nothing is leaping out as obvious. I do think you did the right thing since she was deteriorating. I haven't done a Mareks necropsy (yet), so have only pictures to compare with also. I think from the pictures I've seen the nerve enlargement can sometimes be very subtle. So sorry for your loss.

 

[RumneyRoost]

Just another update.

The legbar with the impacted crop is doing well. I think she was just dehydrated and her food turned into an impacted, slightly doughy ball. I brought her in the garage where she was happy to drink a lot on her own. After two days it was smaller, but hadn't disappeared so I picked up some stool softener (docusate sodium). She got the liquid from one gel cap Friday evening, and again Saturday morning and it seems to have worked. Two mornings in a row now we've had normal empty crops! She's eating and drinking with the other girls.

As far as my poor barred rock I'm hesitant to point the finger at Marek's. None of my girls are vaccinated so it seems odd that only one of five would be affected, and that it would present at nearly a year old. I think that vascularized mass is a very large tumour.
Thank you everyone

 

[RumneyRoost]

Final update.
My poor legbar “Snowflake” was euthanized today. I did another necropsy, sorry no pictures.
Her crop stopped emptying and she started dropping even more weight. The warm spell ended and she wasn’t happy.

It looked like she had similar vascularized tumours. The biggest ones being right near her vent and I imagine were putting pressure on intestines. All of her other organs looked totally normal. Her sciatic nerves seemed symmetrical with no obvious lesions.

Hopefully just bad luck. Discouraging to lose two girls so close together.
Really hoping it isn’t Marek’s...

 

[Eggcessive]

I am sorry that you lost Snowflake. Hopefully, it wasn’t Mareks.