- May 21, 2015
- 12
- 3
- 79
Hi there,
My black sex linked Victoria became ill quite suddenly last night. I let the girls out to free range for a little while before bed and noticed Victoria hadn’t come out. I found her quite lethargic and breathing hard in the coop on the roost. Her crop felt full but not super squishy like sour crop. When I picked her up to bring her in to quarantine she immediately started vomiting. I held her head down and let the fluid come out so she wouldn’t aspirate. Put her in the dog crate in the basement with shavings/hay for a nest and water only. I also noticed her vent was all caked up with yellow-ish diarrhea.
My plan was to assess/treat her after opening Christmas presents with my children this am. Again when I picked her up she started vomiting a little. I held her and waited for her to stop. I massaged her crop which was definitely more solid than last night. As soon as I started doing that she started vomiting and I tipped her head so she wouldn’t aspirate. I don’t like doing this to my chickens and try to avoid this, I’m always careful to not massage or tip them for too long if they start vomiting. She became very weak after this episode and I thought she was going to die right then. We wrapped her up in towels, held her and groomed her pin feathers - she was just growing out a bunch of new feathers after a molt. She was relaxed and peaceful up until the moment she passed.
I decided to do a partial autopsy on her - her crop was full with chicken food, some leftover cooked rice my husband had given the girls 2 days ago, but not impacted. I’ve done crop surgery before and this was not an impacted crop.
When I penetrated her abdomen above her vent with the knife she poured out about a liter of yellow fluid. She definitely had water belly. I had my husband take a picture of the abdomen right after opening it - you can see small yellow clusters which I’m assuming are fat. I didn’t take her liver out but both lobes appeared normal in color and size. Her gizzard was full of grit and dirt - I didn’t take a picture of it.
What I want to know is what is this huge mass/organ? Is it her kidneys or proventriculus? I have large hands (my Grandfather’s Swedish farm hands) - I have to buy men’s large gloves and whatever this is that I found was huge. I cut it in half as you can see and it didn’t contain anything identifiable other than white fat/lard like deposits. You can see that there is a distinct thickened membrane inside that separates it from the outer substance. Any idea??
I stopped at this point and did not dissect her chest cavity.
Would love any input if anyone has a clue what I’m looking at and if this is what led to her demise?
Thanks,
Elisha
My black sex linked Victoria became ill quite suddenly last night. I let the girls out to free range for a little while before bed and noticed Victoria hadn’t come out. I found her quite lethargic and breathing hard in the coop on the roost. Her crop felt full but not super squishy like sour crop. When I picked her up to bring her in to quarantine she immediately started vomiting. I held her head down and let the fluid come out so she wouldn’t aspirate. Put her in the dog crate in the basement with shavings/hay for a nest and water only. I also noticed her vent was all caked up with yellow-ish diarrhea.
My plan was to assess/treat her after opening Christmas presents with my children this am. Again when I picked her up she started vomiting a little. I held her and waited for her to stop. I massaged her crop which was definitely more solid than last night. As soon as I started doing that she started vomiting and I tipped her head so she wouldn’t aspirate. I don’t like doing this to my chickens and try to avoid this, I’m always careful to not massage or tip them for too long if they start vomiting. She became very weak after this episode and I thought she was going to die right then. We wrapped her up in towels, held her and groomed her pin feathers - she was just growing out a bunch of new feathers after a molt. She was relaxed and peaceful up until the moment she passed.
I decided to do a partial autopsy on her - her crop was full with chicken food, some leftover cooked rice my husband had given the girls 2 days ago, but not impacted. I’ve done crop surgery before and this was not an impacted crop.
When I penetrated her abdomen above her vent with the knife she poured out about a liter of yellow fluid. She definitely had water belly. I had my husband take a picture of the abdomen right after opening it - you can see small yellow clusters which I’m assuming are fat. I didn’t take her liver out but both lobes appeared normal in color and size. Her gizzard was full of grit and dirt - I didn’t take a picture of it.
What I want to know is what is this huge mass/organ? Is it her kidneys or proventriculus? I have large hands (my Grandfather’s Swedish farm hands) - I have to buy men’s large gloves and whatever this is that I found was huge. I cut it in half as you can see and it didn’t contain anything identifiable other than white fat/lard like deposits. You can see that there is a distinct thickened membrane inside that separates it from the outer substance. Any idea??
I stopped at this point and did not dissect her chest cavity.
Would love any input if anyone has a clue what I’m looking at and if this is what led to her demise?
Thanks,
Elisha
Rest peacefully sweet hen. 
