devinpaige
In the Brooder
Hello all…I’m a long time reader, but first time poster. I created an account just for this question specifically because I am stumped.
This week, one of my hens took a sudden decline. She lost weight, stopped eating, became lethargic and listless, and hasn’t been laying eggs. Her poop has been pretty normal, if a little runny, and we haven’t seen anything in it that looks like parasites.
To give you an idea of how bad she got: it rained one day, and I found her just sitting in the rain- she wouldn’t even go inside her house.
I brought her inside and did a thorough inspection, but found no obvious signs of an injury. We proceeded to give her an epsom salt soak, thinking maybe she was egg bound, and during the soak we were shocked to see…worms? larvae? we weren’t sure what they could be. There were 6-7 total, they were a little less than an inch long, they were white/clear in color but you could see through them a bit, and they had a reddish/brown spot on their head area. They squirmed around at the bottom of the tub for 30+ minutes, but didn’t drown or die.
Again, there was NO wound or injury that they could have come out of. I’m stumped! I’ve googled everything I can think of, but with no luck. So I humbly come to the one place that might be able to give us some answers and ask….have any of you seen something like this before?
(side note, we also discovered a small spot of bumble foot while inspecting her, so i’m wondering if that has anything to do with the worm things? she is doing better after the bath: eating and drinking a bit, more alert and feisty. i’m more concerned with these unidentified things and where they came from/what i should do in case there are more)
Thanks for reading and any help possible
This week, one of my hens took a sudden decline. She lost weight, stopped eating, became lethargic and listless, and hasn’t been laying eggs. Her poop has been pretty normal, if a little runny, and we haven’t seen anything in it that looks like parasites.
To give you an idea of how bad she got: it rained one day, and I found her just sitting in the rain- she wouldn’t even go inside her house.
I brought her inside and did a thorough inspection, but found no obvious signs of an injury. We proceeded to give her an epsom salt soak, thinking maybe she was egg bound, and during the soak we were shocked to see…worms? larvae? we weren’t sure what they could be. There were 6-7 total, they were a little less than an inch long, they were white/clear in color but you could see through them a bit, and they had a reddish/brown spot on their head area. They squirmed around at the bottom of the tub for 30+ minutes, but didn’t drown or die.
Again, there was NO wound or injury that they could have come out of. I’m stumped! I’ve googled everything I can think of, but with no luck. So I humbly come to the one place that might be able to give us some answers and ask….have any of you seen something like this before?
(side note, we also discovered a small spot of bumble foot while inspecting her, so i’m wondering if that has anything to do with the worm things? she is doing better after the bath: eating and drinking a bit, more alert and feisty. i’m more concerned with these unidentified things and where they came from/what i should do in case there are more)
Thanks for reading and any help possible
Sorry I cant help you, but there are others here that can possibly help identify, and give a solution/remedy.
