In retrospect I did botch the autopsy, I was really expecting gallons of fluid to gush out and was really surprised when there was none- I didn't have a good plan B.
Next time hopefully there isn't one, but I have her chicks so you never know. I'll try and do a better job. I can just picture myself with the chicken belly up on the morgue slab, the skull cut open with a saw and the brain in the scale
Sorry just a bit of black humour, actually I am very sad, I am very sorry
to lose this hen. I felt badly that I had killed her for just being fat, but now I do feel a little bit better thinking she really did have serious issues.
Pet quality wheaten/blue wheaten ameraucanas, welsummers, barred rocks, light brown leghorns; Projects on the go: rhodebars, welbars
You didn't botch the necropsy, either, it told you what you needed to know. It was an awesome job for a first time or a fiftieth. She was broody, had loads of yellow fat, had a congested liver AND had eggs in various stages of ripening. Her hormones were all out of whack and she was on the verge of catastrophe--if she didn't just suddenly sicken and die from toxins, ascites would have been next from blocked blood flow in liver, or kidney damage or both. Or she would've simply starved to death from an inability to process nutrients/break down proteins.