Dead chicken on coop floor.

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. I lost a chicken in her first year of life of no apparent reason. If you do a home necropsy on her body, if you can take a few pictures of the organs, especially the liver and major organs, if there is a lot of fat, any yellow fluid that comes out of the abdomen when it is cut open, to post here we could offer some thoughts. Most state vets will do a thorough necropsy if you send the body in, but it must be kept cold. Here is a video of a more complicated necropsy, but the organs are labeled which is helpful.

 

[hrayb]

Sorry for your loss. I lost a chicken in her first year of life of no apparent reason. If you do a home necropsy on her body, if you can take a few pictures of the organs, especially the liver and major organs, if there is a lot of fat, any yellow fluid that comes out of the abdomen when it is cut open, to post here we could offer some thoughts. Most state vets will do a thorough necropsy if you send the body in, but it must be kept cold. Here is a video of a more complicated necropsy, but the organs are labeled which is helpful.

I did open her up to try and see anything. There was yellow fluid in her stomach, almost looked like a broken egg yolk but I don’t think that’s what it was. I took a picture of a few things. Granted, I did my best to keep everything intact but didn’t do a great job. I will post what I got pictures of.

 

[Kiki]

I did open her up to try and see anything. There was yellow fluid in her stomach, almost looked like a broken egg yolk but I don’t think that’s what it was. I took a picture of a few things. Granted, I did my best to keep everything intact but didn’t do a great job. I will post what I got pictures of.

Good job. Sounds like she had a serious infection.

 

[Kiki]

I did open her up to try and see anything. There was yellow fluid in her stomach, almost looked like a broken egg yolk but I don’t think that’s what it was. I took a picture of a few things. Granted, I did my best to keep everything intact but didn’t do a great job. I will post what I got pictures of.

What do you feed?

 

[Eggcessive]

Yellow fluid in her belly is a sign of water belly (ascites.) Water belly can occur for a variety of conditions, including cancer, fatty liver disease, egg yolk peritonitis, and heart failure. Did you see a lot of fat? Did her liver look normal and red? I will look at any pictures you post.

 

[azygous]

Mold toxicity will first cause imbalance and stumbling. If you see that get some activated charcoal into the chicken asap. Buy it where they sell people vitamins. Give a couple capsules and repeat in an hour or two if the chicken is still alive.

 

[hrayb]

I did open her up to try and see anything. There was yellow fluid in her stomach, almost looked like a broken egg yolk but I don’t think that’s what it was. I took a picture of a few things. Granted, I did my best to keep everything intact but didn’t do a great job. I will post what I got pictures of.

What do you feed?

We feed a egg layer mix that a local feed store makes, with the occasional black soldier fly larva as a treat. And they have grit and oyster shell available.

 

[hrayb]

Yellow fluid in her belly is a sign of water belly (ascites.) Water belly can occur for a variety of conditions, including cancer, fatty liver disease, egg yolk peritonitis, and heart failure. Did you see a lot of fat? Did her liver look normal and red? I will look at any pictures you post.

There was quite a bit of fat, covering most organs I had to remove a lot of it to see mostly anything.

 

[hrayb]

Thank you all for your responses.

 

[azygous]

I applaud your willingness to open up your dead chicken to search for clues to her death. Since you describe the abdominal fluid as looking like broken egg yolk, that would be more consistent with internal laying than ascites. Ascites fluid is clear usually, and brown when bacteria is present in it.

What causes internal laying? It's not known for sure. Stress or injury can cause the ovum to reverse course in the oviduct and bounce out of the top and into the abdominal cavity. This can happen at any stage of the egg building process. I've found what you've just found as well as whole eggs in the cavity. Death is almost always the consequence.