Wierd greenish liver - WHY?

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I butchered my 4 Royal Palm Turkeys this afternoon. I was semi-random in the order, taking the smallest hen first (thought she'd be easiest to handle) and then the two toms and finally the second hen. While this was my first time processing turkeys, and it was a bit more work than I expected, everything went according to plan until the last turkey. When I opened her up I noticed that her liver was a wierd, greenish color, rather than the dark purplish brown of a normal liver. It also seemed larger and more firm than a liver should be, almost more like a cooked liver than a raw one. I discarded it, but nothing else looked or smelled strange. The hen turkey had been acting completly normal and didn't notice anything wrong with her. Should I be concerned?

 

[loveourbirds]

good question, subscribing.

 

[ivan3]

Here is a thread that describes a couple of different paths that can lead to the `greening' of livers:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/565739/diseased-liver

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Thank you for sharing that link. I did a Google search on my own and found several articles on a condition called Osteomtelitis (shortened to OM). Which has some associated leg problems as well as the greenish liver. I do know when we butchered this girl we noticed that her legs were tiny, which seems to be one of the symptoms, but I hadn't noticed anything like a limp or difficulty moving. This paper states that the USDA doesn't consider OM a public health risk.

http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/dphp/phm/documents/AAAP2011Hoffman.pdf

The link Ivan3 provided seems to link the green liver to Blackhead. I can honestly say I didn't see any of the symptoms of Blackhead which are listed as:
:
Birds develop foamy yellow diarrhoea and sit huddled up
They appear depressed and ill
They stop eating and get very thin
Increased thirst
Droopiness
Drowsiness
Darkening of the facial region
The birds can be so ill, that their wattle and comb goes blue (thus the name blackhead)
If not treated the birds usually die
Any sulphur coloured foamy droppings should be considered as blackhead, even if the bird is not showing any other signs of the disease
Blackhead acts as an immune suppressor, which will allow other diseases to have greater effect on your bird’s health
It may cause stunted growth, poor feed utilization and then death.

I think I'm going to go out on a limb here and rule Blackhead out as a cause of my bird's wierd liver.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

This other BYC thread has some information on greenish or yellowish turkey livers.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/761136/yellow-turkey-liver-help#post_12262727

 

[ivan3]

Hummingbird Hollow wrote: The link Ivan3 provided seems to link the green liver to Blackhead. I can honestly say I didn't see any of the symptoms of Blackhead which are listed as:

The OP, in that thread, apparently had the shots of the liver checked by vet(s) who felt it was congestion secondary to Histomoniasis.

My initial guess was TOC (Turkey Osteomyelitis Complex) and provided two links for further reading: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/565739/diseased-liver#post_7308922

From the further description of your turk it seems that could well have been what it was suffering from.