Fatty Liver Syndrome: Common Cause of Death in Poultry

I lost Miss Sassy on Easter morning.
1. Common illnesses in chickens.
2. Fatty Liver Syndrome is more common than one would think.
3. Keeping a healthy dietary and exercise balance.
4. Does genetics play a role?
5. Experimental supplements for at risk groups. 
We also have an interview with our veterinarian coming soon on this subject.
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Article:  Fatty Liver Syndrome https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/fatty-liver-hemorrhagic-syndrome/fatty-liver-hemorrhagic-syndrome-in-poultry

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, y'all welcome back to another episode of Wilma. The wonder he podcast I'm Mel and I am your host and creator today. We're gonna talk a little bit about what happened to sassy, which was my old English game bird Banham Heon. She was around six years old. Uh, this is how happened to another hand of mine. If you remember miss Brittany from last year, she was of the same, uh, breed and out of the same line. And if you happen to hear whining and screeching in the background, do not worry, do not be concerned. That is miss pumpkin. She is loud and she is proud today and she had some things that she wanted to share. Uh, on this episode, we, uh, will get back to her shortly. Thank you, miss pumpkin. Hey y'all I'm Mel and you are listening to Wil at the wonder hand, Are you a chicken mouth love mama daddy together. We'll dive into the latest poultry keeping adventures. Shout about everyday life. We're the generous mix of some hilarious stories, Bringing you fascinating interviews with poultry owners from all over you'll find tips and basic advice from your local veterinarian. Along with new chicken, keeping gadgets and reviews. I'm gonna see what Mr. Jes and Wilma has to say about that. We're going to encourage and help you build a stronger, healthier flop. Let's go see what Mr. Jes and Wilma is up to you. Let's go let these heifers out. If you've been around long enough, you, uh, remember back, uh, last year, miss, uh, Brittany, she, um, took a turn for the worst and within 24 hours, uh, she had passed away. We did an Aroy that veterinarians report, uh, showed that she did have fatty liver syndrome. Uh, and this is what I believe, uh, sassy also passed from, I don't have confirmation on that yet, but that is what I'm going with. Yeah, she was in the same bloodline, uh, and she showed exactly the same symptoms. She had a very purple calm, uh, she went one minute from being fine. And then the morning, the next morning she had passed. So let's kind of talk a little bit about fatty liver syndrome. Uh, I am not a veterinarian do not claim to be one. This is just my personal experience. My communication with my veterinarian communication with the state veterinarian and topics that I have read online through Merck vet, manual.com and other reputable, uh, scientific, uh, notations. This is also referred to as fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome, which will get into a little bit more of that. But it's basically a hemorrhage of the liver and each case can have a different degree of, um, where the hand bleed out, uh, there's different levels. And that's a lot of scientific stuff that we probably won't go over today. We're just gonna give you the synopsis, the basic layman explain, explaining of, uh, what goes on inside of their body, the causes of it, things that are experimental right now, I did read some cases that could help prevent are lessen the degree of a group, a flock that may have this within their bloodline. But like I said, this is all just my knowledge that I've gained from bits and pieces. And like, I always say, do your own research, you know, look at the risk factors. Um, so yeah, let's get into it. Fatty liver syndrome is one of the top noninfectious, uh, causes of death and backyard HES because, uh, the HNS liver will have a yellow, fatty, mushy appearance to it, but not always not in the Naroy that we had done in miss Brittany. She didn't all that fat deposits on her liver, even though she had a hemorrhage of her liver. So not in every case, uh, when you're doing a crop. So you're gonna find a big fat muy liver on a hand that has passed from this, everything I did read, uh, it states its primary lean Hins. And this has to do with the estrogen and the egging production. Uh, this doesn't mean that it can't happen in a male, but from the material that I have read it is primarily, uh, female, and they believe this to be true because the egg legging process does stimulate estrogen, which then the estrogen stimulates storing fat in the liver. Uh, the material does state that it usually occurs during springtime. This is when their egging is in their highest peak, but the majority of the material did state that it has to do with the improper G balance, uh, and overweight. He a hen taking in too much energy through, um, extra fat confined birds, that lack exercise. But like I said, that old English game, bird pin always free ranged. The only reason why they're upright this moment is because of the H five N one threat. So everyone is on lockdown or lockdown. And so, yeah, the, this basing it on my experience and talking with our veterinarian, this is more than likely a genetic issue that is in that bloodline. But you also have to remember, these are my older HNS and this does occur in older HNS. Um, miss Brittany was like I said, probably five, five or six. She was one of the original ones. And then miss SASY and that group would probably have miss pumpkins, either mother or her aunties, at least. So this is a concern of mine for miss pumpkin. Uh, we will probably not be breeding anymore of that particular group. Uh, that is the only group that we have had that has came back that has had this, um, diagnosis of fatty liver syndrome. And the symptoms of this is really, uh, there really isn't many symptoms prior to death. Uh, it is quick in our experience and the things that we have read, uh, your birds are usually found dead without any clinical, uh, symptoms, uh, you know, like withy crop, you, you know, you have symptoms leading up to that. Or during that, you know, in egg binding, you're also gonna have symptoms and things leading up to that. Uh, this is usually very, very quick, um, as sassy was fine, uh, probably an hour before I noticed her, uh, she just started to stand in one PA place. And when I went back to check on her, she was kind of randomly standing in another place. Uh, you know, she wasn't active and forging like those things that we talk about, you know, when you notice something is going on, they usually will stop forging. Uh, they will just kind of stand and stare. And that's what she did. I scooped her up. I put her in the, she shed gave her poultry cell, which is a really great, um, boost. Uh, vitamins gave her her own little place to rest. I noticed her calm was really, really changing, uh, in color and the darkness of it. And I went out and checked on her before bed and made sure she was drinking and eating. And she was, uh, drinking and eating just a tad. She, she, okay. And the next morning, the early morning I went to check on her and she had passed away. And, uh, there was nothing out of sorts. She didn't have any signs of Soro, any signs of like diarrhea. She didn't have anything. She looked perfectly healthy, physically looking, and then she was dead. Now, now there are other instances when your chickens die, they call it sudden death syndrome. And this can be, you know, heart issues. Uh, in this case, it may have been a heart issue. I'm more leaning towards sea fatty liver syndrome, but, uh, I don't believe as anything cont, um, there was no sneezing, no coughing, no drainage, nothing out of sorts. She looked like a normal, just happy little bird. You just wanna keep your birds at a healthy weight, uh, and keep a check on the balance between carbs and added fat. They did suggest that adding carbs, extra carbs, like during the winter time instead of extra fat, um, I don't know how that, um, actually works out in real life experience. Uh, just know in general, you need to keep your birds outta healthy weight, keep an eye on their weight. Um, we all know he loved to feed'em all those, uh, fating, uh, scrubs and stuff. Uh, the research did suggest more of carbs instead of the fats. Now this is outside of their normal feet. Your feed needs to be a well-balanced layer feed. We're just talking treats here. Okay. And we all know that treats should be less than five to 10% of your chicken's total volume of feed. So we're just talking about snacks, not, not your feed here. You wanna be certain that your chickens have enough room in their run to, you know, provide, uh, exercise, physical activities. You know, COVID Clockers has her little jungle gym over on her page for her birds. Just something to get them active. If you cannot, free-range them watch this H five N one thread is over the heifer farm will be released and we will be back to our regular, just happy, happy chickens. Now, will that have any change in the bloodline of the old English game? BAMS? I don't know. I, I don't think so. I think it's a genetic there. Um, this is just in general for your own birds exercise limit. You know, those fats keep a check on their weight, uh, make sure they get plenty of exercise. I did read some experimental things that are going on. You could add fish meal, you could add selenium. This is for like at risk groups. This could be like my group. Um, that is something that we are going to do. We're gonna start adding, will this stop any further, um, losses from the syndrome? I don't know, but we're gonna give it a try. We are going continue monitoring their weight, continue providing them with good nutritious food and keeping an eye on everyone, making sure they're getting adequate exercise. I just think a lot of people have not heard a lot of this information, uh, in talks in groups. I think it's something that, uh, we just kind of wanted to share with y'all great little tidbits of information, because it is one of the highest, uh, like I said, sudden, death of your backyard hands, they are fine. One day dead. The next losing, uh, one of your birds is never easy. And I know that most of our listeners, um, have been in this same position. Uh, you've either lost a dog or, um, you know, a cat or in this case, a chicken that are are pets. And we tend to get very, very close to them. And when you've done all you could, or you think you've done all your goods, you keep them safe. Uh, something happens and they do pass. So I hope that you can glue some information off of this and that Brittany, miss Brittany and miss Sassy's death can, um, bring awareness and education to something that I don't really see a lot talked about online. Um, but if you have a bird that has this diagnosed, or you have lost a bird from this, we would love to hear from you and hear your story and to gather more information. Um, you can send us an email at Wilma the wonder, hand.com. You can message us. Uh, you can send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook. We would love to hear from you. And until next time, bye y'all. You got anything to say? Miss pumpkin. Okay. She's laying at egg. Y'all. Bye y'all.

Speaker 2: 12:55

I'm Mel.

Speaker 1: 12:55

And you are listening to will

Speaker 2: 12:57

The wonder hand.