Tremetodes Yup The great wormer debate

[dawg53]

I've not seen one of these that I remember, but the necropsy said the hen was loaded with Trematodes. The vet is recommending praziquantel, with an 80 day withdrawal period. I only hope that they haven't damaged their oviducts so much that they are permanently affected from laying.

BTW, I was told by the vet and the necropsy doc that Trematodes can't be diagnosed in a fecal...

Necropsies are sometimes the way to go to get down to the nitty gritty of a problem. Flukes can be seen in feces, that's part of the reproductive lifecycle. I guess the vet and necropsy doc simply wanted to verify that they were in fact flukes. I rely on my eyes to ID parasites, then treat accordingly saving time and money. If I dont know what it is, I look it up. Here's a link, scroll down to "Life cycles."
All poultry roundworms, cestodes, trematodes have a lifecycle; either a direct lifecycle or indirect lifecycle. Eggs or segments are excreted from chickens in feces onto the soil...seen or unseen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trematoda
In any case, I'm glad you're treating your hen and hope she recovers soon.
BTW: Did you have the necropsy performed on another hen?

 

[DownwardDog]

The hen initially would have watery diarrhea. Then one day they wouldn't want to walk much, and eventually just sat sort of penguin-like, hiding in the coop. They would breathe through an open mouth, and you could hear sort of a wheeze. They stayed this way with their eyes shut until they convulsed and died.

 

[DownwardDog]

I think they meant that normal fecals do not test for Trematode eggs and not to rely on fecals to rule out Trematodes. I would think that the adults stay in the hosts (oviduct) and then shed eggs. I have NEVER seen a fluke in any poop yet. I did not necropsy the 2nd hen because her symptoms were exactly the same, and I know she has had watery poop all this time (we use Sweet PDZ under the roosts so it's easy to see the poop).

Also, our first indication we had a problem was that egg production got really low. Also, our eggs were getting really soft shells, and there were sometimes no shells.

 

[casportpony]

Did a necropsy on a horse with my vet once and it had liver damage from flukes. She sent a sample of the liver off to a lab and the pathologist commented that he hadn't seen a liver like that in well over 20 years, and this was 10-15 years ago.
Picture below from: http://www.wormboss.com.au/programs/vic/appendices/liver-fluke-control.php



-Kathy

 

[DownwardDog]

Are these beads you mention on the outside or inside of the shell? Are they actual eggs?

The avian vet is most definitely recommending praziquantel for these oviduct flukes. He had to submit a FARAD report to see what the withdrawal period was --80 days. It is given in 2 injections, a week apart, FYI.

 

[Branch Chickens]

Do you have any further update on treatment?
We're up in Maine and have been struggling with a mysterious and similar problem for a year now, and now I believe I've found a trematode/fluke inside at least one egg. We have also lost a couple of hens with symptoms very similar to yours.

 

[DownwardDog]

I did not end up treating anyone. We are more aware of not letting them out when it's really wet outside, and they rarely hang out around our pond anymore. I did look at meds but like our vet said, the healthy ones will have systems that can handle a slight wormload and the weakest may die. We did not lose any more, but our egg production is down so I do think they have permanent reproductive damage. They are our pets now, despite not laying any more eggs.