Hen Necropsy - Cancer?

[maringirl5]

Hello friends, Our 3 year old Leghorn was showing signs of illness a few weeks ago, she had vent gleet and was lethargic. I gave her an Epsom salt. bath, isolated, and gave meds and a raw egg. She seemed to recover so we placed her back with the other hens. However, she still did not lay an egg. 2 days ago, I noticed her staying behind in the coup and she had vent gleet again so I repeated the previous steps, except this time she would not eat/drink anything and she was lethargic and closing her eyes. I left to run errands at 10 am and by 1 pm my husband called and said she had passed. Her neck was completely twisted backward when he found her, which I thought was strange.

We placed her in the outside refrigerator and this morning I did a necropsy on her to see what I could find (I'm new to this but watched a bunch of YouTube videos) The first thing I noticed was food from her crop in her mouth and her sinuses. As I continued to open her up I noticed small fat deposits throughout her body, which I am not sure is normal or not, I can't seem to get a definitive answer on the internet! Lol

Finally, I opened her thoracic cavity and immediately noticed very black tissue. Her Liver looked ok, but the edges were dark and thin, and when I opened the oviduct it was filled with tumor-like bumps and egg yolk. Was this cancer? I want to make sure she didn't have anything contagious that my other hens could contract.

 

[MysteryChicken]

That is a cancerous mass.
Did you cut it open?

 

[maringirl5]

That is a cancerous mass.
Did you cut it open?

No, but by looking at it I figured that was what it was. We already buried her.

 

[MysteryChicken]

No, but by looking at it I figured that was what it was. We already buried her.

It's okay. Sometimes looking at the internal structures of a tumor gives more clues.

My rooster had a tumor in his gut that was consuming his blood, which was interesting.

 

[coach723]

I agree, cancer. Probably reproductive, it affects all the organs as it spreads and grows.

 

[maringirl5]

I agree, cancer. Probably reproductive, it affects all the organs as it spreads and grows.

I suspect that is the case as well. Nature is so intriguing, and I like to learn as much as I can, but I'm sad she had to go through that in the end