Fecal Float Slide

[ZedikerStation]

Hi @Sue Gremlin !

I have a slide that I would like your opinion on.

This was a fresh sample (3 minutes old) taken from our deck. This hen has been "off" for a few weeks. We don't believe she has laid an egg in several months. We are trying to rule things out one by one. We treated her for salpingitis last year. She responded well. She started acting similarly 2 weeks ago except we've not seen any lash eggs. She just finished 10 days of Amoxicillin. She perked up for 2 days and is heading back the other direction. She has been passing dark green "stringy" poop, but doesn't eat enough greens to cause that. My next thought was to rule out worms.

The sample was not out very long so I'm thinking the debris would not be pollen. What do you think about the picture that looks a bit like snake skin? Could that be intestinal shedding? Other than that, I see no signs of worms. Do you agree?

 

[dawg53]

I dont see anything of concern in the slides.

 

[theoldchick]

The funky looking stuff is plant material.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Slides 3-6 depict coccidia oocysts, the others are all just schmoo.

the skin-like thing is a chunk of plant tissue.

 

[ZedikerStation]

Slides 3-6 depict coccidia oocysts, the others are all just schmoo.

the skin-like thing is a chunk of plant tissue.

Based on the amount, would you treat for Coccidia? Only one is showing signs of illness. All the others are doing normal chicken stuff....

 

[ZedikerStation]

Are these the Coccidia Oocysys?

 

[Sue Gremlin]

No, not without clinical signs of coccidiosis, and what you describe doesn't sound like it. It's normal for some oocysts to appear in the feces throughout their lives.

It makes me happy to see that you are ruling out parasites while working through her issues. With this fecal, I'd say you've done that. (I'd recommend a repeat fecal just in case though).

Some species of coccidia would cause greenish diarrhea, which isn't what you're seeing here from what I can glean from your post. Bright green feces is a sign of anorexia. The obvious rule-out would be salpingitis, unfortunately. How is her body condition?

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Are these the Coccidia Oocysys?

Yes. They are small, and have a characteristic sparkly center and are often sort of pinkish under the microscope lighting.

 

[ZedikerStation]

She is slightly under weight. Not horrible. She is the very bottom of the pecking order, but only 1 other hen really bothers her. Salpingitis is on my radar. We've not found any lash material since her last treatment. I would've expected a more dramatic improvement from 10 days of Amoxicillin if it was Salpingitis. After 10 days she still presents the same. Also on my radar is Mareks. We know from sending one hen to the Penn State lab many months ago, we have it. She is showing none of those signs though. I suppose Mareks could just be affecting her enough to cause other symptoms.

We have been making a mash out of her pellets a few times a day. She loves that.

She definitely has strength. She just got 3 days of Safe Gard and definitely resisted the syringe.

 

[ZedikerStation]

These are from a random sample this morning. I have no idea which hen. After a lot of searching the slide, I came up with these 4. Not sure what to make of them, but I'm concerned that #2 could be thread worm. Thoughts??