Necropsy - What is this?? (Graphic)

[SheenaBee]

Caution: Graphic Pictures

Just had a Silkie hen euthanized today. I’m unsure of her age as she was a rescue that looked very rough when we got her 6 months ago, but I had been told that she just started laying... Anyway, a little over a week ago when letting the chickens out of the coop in the morning, she walked out just fine. When I looked away I heard a squak and saw her lying in the ground having a major seizure (neck twisting, leg spasms, eyes closed, beak open full width). I initially thought she was dead. But I brought her inside and within a couple hours she seemed back to normal, so I put her back out in the coop and she seized again right away.
After a week of being in the house, being fed vitamins, water and electrolytes with a syringe and her refusing to eat, fecal float tests, and trying just about everything I could think of, she was only getti worse - it was time to put her down.
I did the necropsy this evening, but her insides certainly didn’t look like any video I’ve watched.
Anyone know what the yellow is surrounding her gizzard? Seemed sort of like fat, but not really. Some parts inside the yellow blob did appear to almost look like it could have been egg yolk peritonitis. But there was also a few white “cheesy” spots on her ovary - ovarian cancer perhaps? Fatty liver?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Saaniya]

@casportpony

 

[Saaniya]

Seems to me tumor I'm so sad to hear her struggle

 

[SheenaBee]

Yes, was very sad, she had a rough life before we got her. I don’t think a tumor, or at least not like ones I’ve seen. The dark colour lump in the middle of it is her gizzard.

 

[coach723]

I'm so sorry for your loss.
Did you take any pictures of individual organs as they were removed? Other than the large amount of abdominal fat, nothing in the pictures stands out to me. All the yellow stuff is abdominal fat, and far too much, so diet needs to be considered. It can be very hard to look at pictures sometimes and get a good idea of what is going on. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes not. Maybe someone else will see something I've missed.
Here is one link with info on obesity in chickens, and after that a manual on doing a necropsy on a bird, with lots of pictures, which may help you in the future. That's not in any way meant as a criticism, I really commend you for trying to figure out what happened. But knowing where things are located and what they should look like can be very helpful, my first time doing a necropsy I literally had no idea what I was looking for or at.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/chickens-obesity-silent-killer-how-to/
https://vet.uga.edu/oldvpp/programs/afvet/attachments/how_to_necropsy_a_bird.pdf

 

[SheenaBee]

I was following these two sites
https://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/veterinarians/avian-necropsy-examination

And

But unfortunately, because she was a Silkie, many parts were difficult to visually determine abnormal tissues - so many things rely on colour etc. For example, the trachea should be relatively clear (pale tan to whitish) and a person should look for small hemorrhages or lesions.... well, apparently on a Silkie this isn’t the case. Difficult to determine on black if lesions are present etc.

 

[SheenaBee]

With obesity, apparently two of the biggest dangers are heat stress and Fatty Liver Hemorrhagic Syndrome. The weather here has been very cool (it’s been snowing already) and her liver looked very good - as far as I could determine from all the videos.
She was fed a standard layer pellet diet in addition to access to a large vegetable garden all summer. Flock free ranges on an acre all day, except the rare day that I’m not home and are secured in the coop overnight. When taking the gizzard out to examine it, and cutting through that yellow ‘pad’ to do so, inside the ‘pad’ had the yolkish appearance. Looked kind of like when you had over-easy eggs and some yolk dried on the dish. The outer portion definitely had a fatty feel to it.

 

[coach723]

I understand, the coloring is a bit different. I've necropsied and found reproductive issues like salpiingitis and cancers. I've had heart and liver failures, in which the organ was obviously abnormal. I had an impacted gizzard, gizzard was abnormal in size and shape and nothing was past it in the digestive tract (this was suspected prior due to symptoms and crop problems). I would 'think' that if there was a gizzard problem you would have seen some weight loss prior to losing her. This link has some images of reproductive cancers, they are graphic images. These are all in fairly advanced stages. Maybe one of them will be similar to what you saw - the first chart will enlarge some if you click on it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...omas-in-laying-hens-graphic-pictures.1064118/
Her symptoms sound like there may have been a neurological component, but also sounds like could be typical of what can happen reflexively when they pass. I'm sorry I'm not able to help more!

 

[AlleysChicks]

Yes lots of fat in those pics. Being a silkie and the fact that she had seizures I would assume a neurological problem. She could have been hit or pecked in the head.

 

[SheenaBee]

Yes lots of fat in those pics. Being a silkie and the fact that she had seizures I would assume a neurological problem. She could have been hit or pecked in the head.

I did remove skin to see if there was some sort of hole in the skull (like some silkies do) which was what I initially thought it must be... that she got pecked on the head. But alas, her skull was definitely solid. Without a hole, I don’t know if a peck could cause enough damage to cause her issues...?