Yellow spot on liver? Freaking out a bit

[BlackberryAcres]

I've googled and can't find the answer, so I hope someone can help me! We butchered two drakes yesterday, they were about 16 weeks old. Both seemed perfectly healthy, but one had a yellow bump on its liver. It looked perfectly fine otherwise. I thought "huh, that's interesting, I'll have to look that up." and then promptly forgot about it as I finished cleaning the bird and got it in the fridge and everything. Tonight I roasted the ducks, and it wasn't until I was getting ready to put the organs in the stock pot that I remembered about the spot, so I came to the computer to google it and now I'm freaking out that it might be some kind of bacterial infection or something and I've just made my entire family sick! Guess I shouldn't make that stock now. . . but I still don't have any specific answers. What exactly could it be? Is there any way that it is harmless? If not, is there something I should do to prevent us from getting sick? Do I need to worry about the rest of the flock???

Help!!!!!! Ugh, I can't believe I didn't look it up sooner. . .

 

[BlackberryAcres]

Or does anyone have a site to direct me to? Or who would I even call to figure this out?!?

Thank you!

 

[maryhysong]

what kind of a yellow spot? was it a spot or a bump, flat or raised? Did it seem like it was hard tissue?

did your birds ever show signs of coccidiosis? The only time I have seen yellow spots on a liver was in a batch of fryer rabbits that had gotten stressed and had a mild case of cocci. It actually looked like hard nodules all through the tissue. We are told that the meat is fine, just don't eat the liver.

 

[delisha]

Depends on the yellow and depends on the type of spot..
Was it like this?

 

[BlackberryAcres]

Thanks for the replies. It looked like a tiny yolk attached to the edge, actually. Kinda like a yellow pimple. It stuck out more than the photo above. I poked it with a knife last night and it oozed out yellow. I actually have it in the fridge (just in case we all got horribly sick and then it could be tested so the doctors knew what we were dealing with) so I could go take a picture and post it. It was just the one spot though, none of the other organs seemed affected at all.

 

[delisha]

Thanks for the replies. It looked like a tiny yolk attached to the edge, actually. Kinda like a yellow pimple. It stuck out more than the photo above. I poked it with a knife last night and it oozed out yellow. I actually have it in the fridge (just in case we all got horribly sick and then it could be tested so the doctors knew what we were dealing with) so I could go take a picture and post it. It was just the one spot though, none of the other organs seemed affected at all.

Please post a picture..

 

[BlackberryAcres]

Okay, now that I poked the yellow sac it all drained out and became a pit. In the top picture it's on the top left. I re-examined the liver very closely and saw three pin-point sized yellow spots on the other side, but other than that I didn't see anything unusual. Also I compared the two hearts and didn't see one that looked like it had something wrong with it.

 

[delisha]

Your duck livers look nice and healthy. They do not look stressed or diseased at all. Your livers is a good place to look for diseases and problems. Doing an autopsy and actually looking is good animal husbandry. Good for you.

 

[BlackberryAcres]

Thank you. So would you be concerned about eating the meat, then? I think I'm not going to make stock with the organs or bones, but do I need to throw away the meat?

Do I just chalk it up to a fluke? Maybe I should add ACV to the other birds' water just in case. . .

 

[delisha]

Thank you. So would you be concerned about eating the meat, then? I think I'm not going to make stock with the organs or bones, but do I need to throw away the meat?

Do I just chalk it up to a fluke? Maybe I should add ACV to the other birds' water just in case. . .

I would eat the meat, because I know my birds.
If your birds are healthy, I do not see why not. If you culled these birds because they were acting ill,
that is different.
They look healthy to me. That one spot could be cancer, infection, injury, brusing during butchering. I understand why you are hesitant about eatinng the organs. Personally I would just cut out the part that makes you nervous and cook it. If you don't want to eat it, feed it to the chickens.