Does my pullet have worms?

[elabell]

I have an 11 week old pullet, Lilly, who has very watery droppings. Not runny droppings, but watery, as in the brown part is well-formed and surrounded by what looks like water. To be honest, I haven't really been seeing any urates, either (the white part of the dropping). Her droppings have looked like this for a while. Aside from the peculiar droppings, she seems healthy. She is very active and spunky. She eats pretty voraciously, which could also be a sign she has worms, I guess, but she is also a growing chick that needs food to grow. I don't know if she is underweight or developing slowly because I only have her and another pullet of that age right now (all my other chickens are adults). The other pullet, Abby, is a bit bigger than her, but Abby is a Jersey Giant, so I would think that she should be a little bigger than Lilly. Lilly is a Speckled Sussex. I guess you could say her comb (tiny as it is) is pale/yellowish, but she is a little hen and her comb really hasn't started developing much, so a pale color could be normal at this age, right?

I would like to know if you think she does have worms/parasites. Is it possible only she could have the worms/parasites? I thought they were very contagious. (My other chickens don't seem to have the same symptoms. Not even the other pullet that is always with her.) If this is worms, is it safe to deworm a chick/pullet?

Thanks for your help!

 

[tiffanyh]

You can go ahead and deworm, there are various dewormers at feed stores for different types of worms. You could see if any of your local vets will run a fecal sample for you so that you know for sure.

 

[ChickenGirl3]

Did you feed her any oatmeal? When ever my chickens eat oatmeal they have watery droppings. Try feeding her rice.

Hope this helps

 

[elabell]

Quote:
I do sometimes feed my chickens some oatmeal, but I haven't recently, and I don't think I have ever feed it to the babies. I just fed them some rice yesterday, coincidentally. I will try and keep and eye on her droppings today to see if they are any different than usual.

I am hoping either (a) it's worms (should be an easy fix, I would think) or (b) she just has different droppings and that's the way she is. I really hope it is not indicative of a more serious (possibly genetic) problem, such as malfunctioning kidneys.

 

[elabell]

UPDATE: Now her poop is changing, but not quite looking like it should, still. They are long (or rather, the proper length but they don't curl). It is covered in a film, like a sausage. I broke it up and inside looks like undigested plant material. She must be eating various weeds in the yard, because we don't have grass.

She is still spunky and active. It's like I can't get the symptoms to match up. She is not lethargic, withdrawn, ruffled. Her appetite is good, she drinks, and she is as active as any of the other chickens.

 

[ChickenGirl3]

Thats great! Hope she gets better

!