Small white eggs in poop

[A05951]

I found this poop about a hour ago inside the chicken run on top of some newspaper. I only have one chicken, so I know where it came from! It seems to have small, no more than 1 mm in diameter, eggs in a loose cluster in what might be some shed intestinal lining on top of the urates. She has been laying, eating and drinking fine. I talked to my vet, and she is going to look at the sample later today. I was wondering if anyone here had thoughts as to what these could be. The same chicken had one poop last summer that had exactly the same looking eggs on it. I did not have that poop examined but did post a picture of it here. The conclusion was that they weren't tape worm segments and that maybe it was an insect that laid the eggs on the poop. We are just starting to see flying insects here in Wisconsin, but honestly this poop wasn't sitting around that long, and I haven't really seen a population of flies hanging around at all. Thoughts?

 

[sourland]

Are you certain that it is not grit that has passed through her digestive tract ?

 

[A05951]

No, I don't know if it's just grit, so hopefully the vet can look under the microscope to evaluate for that. Here is the photo of last July's episode of these mystery eggs. They seem so similar looking to one another, the egg-like shapes that is. I would guess pieces of grit would look a little more irregular.

 

[A05951]

My vet looked at the sample. The white egg-like things are calcified and very hard. Her best guess is that they are kidney stones. Also, the stool sample was very dark, and in light of the fact that the chicken hasn't been eating anything that would make it that dark, she thinks there is blood in it. I did relate that her cecal poops are very dark too. Nothing really to do she said. Keep an eye on her. I told her I use Denagard as a preventive for mycoplasma gallisepticum because she regularly get sneezes and shoots out snot from her nostrils. The Denagard seems to help with it. Even though she didn't or wouldn't prescribe that for a chicken, she was fine with it. She said it's a type of antibiotic and might even help out with whatever else is going on with these stones and possible bleeding.

 

[coach723]

That is very interesting! Thank you for sharing. You might consider having a professional necropsy done when she eventually passes, might let you know in more detail what the cause could be.

 

[A05951]

Yes, I've always planned to have a necropsy done at the vet school here in Madison when she passes. She's been an interesting chicken to care for!