Chicks hatched 9th/10th passing worms??

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! My friend was given a bunch of RIR eggs to hatch for someone and they are not doing well.
Chicks didn't hatch well and what few did hatch started dying at 4-days-old.
We had (we thought) narrowed the problem down to 'breeders nutrition' (or lack of).
Today she found a WORM in the brooder (a translucent thin wiggle-y 1/4" long worm).
Not possible it could have come from anywhere BUT one of the remaining chicks.

WHAT-IN-THE-WORLD kind of worm could a 4-day-old chick be passing?
Is there a worm/worm egg that is passed and possibly in the egg and grows while the embryo is (yuckyuckyuck) developing, so the chick hatches with worms?
I'm perplexed and she's (understandably) freaked.
Thanks for any help.

Lisa

 

[speckledhen]

Wow, I've never heard of it happening, but I know that if the worm load in a flock is out of hand, that's when you may find a worm in an egg. It's one for the books, Lisa.

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi Cynthia! His 'worm-load' may well be off-the-chart.
I sent her the link to this post (she's tried to register here several times and never can) along with this:

But after I thought about it, what you said about the guy feeding rabbit entrails/offal to his hens --- that is probably the cause.
It's not a terrible practice (in moderation), but the birds have to be wormed religiously to rid them of the parasites they get from the 'stuff'.
I'll call if I get answers, but I think that may be the problem.

I'll be interested to find what worms can pass from hen to egg (yuckyuckyuck). I don't know of any wormers safe to use on chicks that young.

That is beyond oogy to me. I got my 'spring worming' done before the hens started laying well again.

Lisa​

 

[speckledhen]

Ew! The longer you have chickens, the more odd stuff you hear and this one is really icky! That'd really gross me out, finding worms in the brooder.