Wht Rock died for no reason. Can you See Anything wrong in these pics?

[nittanyxi]

My 11 Mo. old White Rock just Died for no apparent reason today.
I was out earlier and didn't notice anything suspicious.
A few hours later she was laying out in the run dead with no sign of what happend. No marks or missing feathers.
Definitly NOT a predetor. The whole coop and run are wrapped in hardware cloth. sides, top and bottom.
Her crop was empty but there were no signs she wasn't eating and she looked healthy.
There was no problem with the reprodutive tract and she was not eggbound.
She was holding a fully formed egg that would have been laid today.
None of the other hens are acting out of the ordinary.

I did a necropsy on her myself but I don't really know what I'm looking at.
Necropsy pics posted below. Don't scroll down unless you don't mind seeing them.
I suspect it may be some sort of problem with the liver. if you agree, any idea what could have caused it?
Can anyone tell me if they see anything out of the ordinary?
Any idea what could have caused a healthy egg laying hen to drop over dead?

















This was just inside the body cavity. not sure what it is. It looks like it may be a blood clot. Anyone know for sure?
The next pic is the liver and I"m thinking there may have been a problem with that that maybe caused the clot.

This is a pic of the top and botom of what I believe is the liver. I'm not sure but I think the left side was damaged. hard to say because I don't know if I did it myself in the process of removing it. There is a distinct difference in color from the left and right side. One side is darker in color and more solid. the other side (that is somewhat damaged) is a lighter red and not as solid.


Top

Bottom

Heart Left - looks normal to me. unless the fatty tissue would have been a problem

Heart Right

Gizzard (I think) Left

Gizzard Right

Kidney I think

Reproductive tract

 

[nittanyxi]

Anyone?

 

[Erica]

Hi nittanyxi,

okay, I'll have a try, but don't quote me. I do my own semi-autopsies here but I wouldn't say I'm any kind of expert. With that caveat...

The heart looks quite good from the photo, but that's not to say it's normal inside or was normal in situ (in the bird). Any excess clear liquid around the heart would only have been noticeable before it was pulled. However it looks like an ordinary heart just at a glance.

There is a lot more fat on the gizzard and proventriculus (the swollen area just above the gizzard -- actually this is the stomach) than I'm used to seeing. Was she a fatty bird?

The really obvious thing are the blood clot and the liver discoloration. It looks from the photos as though there's a point of hemorrhage just to the right in one of the liver photos. That might be the source of the bleeding that ended up in the cavity. The liver discoloration, I would think, is almost certainly a sign of liver disease.

My feeling as a fellow BYCer (not an expert) is this could be fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome. Typically the liver bleeds while the bird is straining to lay an egg.

I didn't look closely at the liver photo, but fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome apparently causes liver enlargement. The way to tell if the liver is enlarged isn't to measure it (livers vary a lot) but to look at the edges (margins) of the organ. In a non-enlarged liver, the bottom margins of the liver come to quite a sharp taper. In an enlarged liver the edges can look almost rounded.

I hope some of this is helpful, apologies if I've gotten the pictures at all wrong. By the way, FYI firstly the thing you've labelled as a kidney looks more like the spleen. It also looks a little lighter than it should, which could be a result of having bled out. The kidneys are right up in the pelvic skeleton and are long lobed organs, nothing like a human kidney.

best wishes
Erica

 

[chicken crazed 1o1]

I dont know why but looking at her reproductive track she must have laid lots of eggs.And sorry for your loss

 

[nittanyxi]

Yeah she was a good layer. Very sad to loose her. She was a healthy bird to look at and she did have some fat pockets throughout when I did the necropsy.

 

[Country4ever]

Is it normal to have all those eggs where they're at? Shouldn't they be in an oviduct.....or did you remove that?