My 2 year old BPR hen died the day after being dewormed, so I decided to do a partial necropsy to see if worms clogging her intestines were what killed her. My findings were inconclusive (I did rule out egg-bound and worm intestation), but don't know why she died 1 day after receiving the valbazen, when she was fine the day before.
This is the link to the thread where I posted her symptoms:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=599977&p=1
I did not dissect every single organ - I was mostly looking for worms or something obvious.
A view of the liver while in the body;
This photo is reversed from the previous one - the left side where the fat is, is the cloaca area (the amount of fat there surprised me). There were no eggs in her body - she hadn't started laying again since molting. I noticed white liquid down in her clocoa (looking at it from the inside cavity).
The liver - the top, left piece shows the color of the underneath, while the right piece shows a top view. The heart is on the left and the spleen is on the right.
The top pile of fat came from the hen's lower area, near her vent/clocoa as seen in the 2nd pic I posted. I'm not sure how much fat there should be and where it should be located on a chicken - this seemed like a lot to me. Also shown is the gizzard, covered in fat. The inside of her crop looked normal - still had feed waiting to be digested. The gizzard also looked normal and had feed, along with pebbles in it.
The pile of intestines. After removing the organs and taking a picture of them, I pulled out the pile of intestines so that I could look for worms. The intestines were almost impossible to separate and straighten out like you see in online pics. I finally gave up and cut into them while they were still together. I only found 1 round worm and that was found inside what might be one of the ceca - there could have been a few more somewhere, but not an infestation.
We did find 2 separate earthworm looking things, but are assuming they must be the ceca. I expected the ceca to be attached to an intestine -- these 2 things seemed to be unattached to anything - both ends of each one were free, yet they were bound up in the mess of intestines. One was about 9 inches long and the other was 3-4 inches long.
I slit it open and there was a little light green liquid on one end, along with tiny white things (Tapeworm eggs?). On the other side, about 2 inches from the end, there was a dark green, thick material (I took a pic). My impression was that it looked like a big earthworm, but it was not flat or segmented, so it couldn't be a tapeworm. Was this the ceca?
This is the link to the thread where I posted her symptoms:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=599977&p=1
I did not dissect every single organ - I was mostly looking for worms or something obvious.
A view of the liver while in the body;
This photo is reversed from the previous one - the left side where the fat is, is the cloaca area (the amount of fat there surprised me). There were no eggs in her body - she hadn't started laying again since molting. I noticed white liquid down in her clocoa (looking at it from the inside cavity).
The liver - the top, left piece shows the color of the underneath, while the right piece shows a top view. The heart is on the left and the spleen is on the right.
The top pile of fat came from the hen's lower area, near her vent/clocoa as seen in the 2nd pic I posted. I'm not sure how much fat there should be and where it should be located on a chicken - this seemed like a lot to me. Also shown is the gizzard, covered in fat. The inside of her crop looked normal - still had feed waiting to be digested. The gizzard also looked normal and had feed, along with pebbles in it.
The pile of intestines. After removing the organs and taking a picture of them, I pulled out the pile of intestines so that I could look for worms. The intestines were almost impossible to separate and straighten out like you see in online pics. I finally gave up and cut into them while they were still together. I only found 1 round worm and that was found inside what might be one of the ceca - there could have been a few more somewhere, but not an infestation.
We did find 2 separate earthworm looking things, but are assuming they must be the ceca. I expected the ceca to be attached to an intestine -- these 2 things seemed to be unattached to anything - both ends of each one were free, yet they were bound up in the mess of intestines. One was about 9 inches long and the other was 3-4 inches long.
I slit it open and there was a little light green liquid on one end, along with tiny white things (Tapeworm eggs?). On the other side, about 2 inches from the end, there was a dark green, thick material (I took a pic). My impression was that it looked like a big earthworm, but it was not flat or segmented, so it couldn't be a tapeworm. Was this the ceca?
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