Necropsy on suddenly dead hen - Need Help! *Graphic pics*

Bleenie

Wyan-DO's
10 Years
Jul 14, 2009
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The Beautiful Pacific NW ,WA
I lost another hen last night. This brings the count to 2 'sudden' deaths (first hen seemed to recover then died later). I decided, in the interest of keeping the rest of my flock alive, I HAD to open her up. Grandmother suggested checking her crop first and I am thankful for her advice(planned on starting from the vent and moving up).

I opened her crop and there was Immediately a foul smell, gagging foul. I didn't expect it to not smell, but this was awful. After getting it fully open and removing the liquid I right away saw a large worm-like thing. pulled some stuff out to find a horrible infestation of eggs, larvae & worms in her crop. I've never seen any worms like this before in all the chicken health stuff i've seen/read.

They seem to have died with the hen but I did the exam on a garbage sack so EVERYTHING got bagged up.

What the H*&! is it!? and how do i go about de-worming the rest of my flock??


This large "worm" was approximately 1 inch long. Almost all the white flecks are tiny worms and i am assuming the ornage were eggs, that's what they looked like.



Please Help.
 
Could be crop worms. There is a link in my signature on worms if you want to read on crop worms. Here is a worm treatment some people use. Sorry for your losses.


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1. Wazine17 - two ounces in two gallons of water for one day - dump eggs for two weeks
*****
...Ten days later:
2. Valbazen -one half cc/ml for standard size chickens, one quarter cc/ml for smaller chickens including silkies. You can use a syringe to squirt it down their throats individually or you can inject it into a small piece of bread and give each chicken a piece of bread....they gobble it up. - dump the eggs for two weeks
*****
3. ...after a couple of days of using both wormers....give your chickens plain yogurt or buttermilk(probiotics), canned beef cat food (extra protein), all mixed in their feed and give it to them to build up their immune systems, do this about 3 days in a row.

The next time you worm,say in about 6 months or whenever you see fit...you can use the valbazen first, no need to use the wazine unless you want to.

_____________________

Wazine is a mild wormer that only paralyzes roundworms. Since chickens have many different kinds of worms, especially if they free range, you don't want to use ivermectin or safeguard first because they kill all those different type of worms (except tapeworms.) The overload of dead worms in the chickens system will poison and kill the chicken. Using wazine first gets rid of one type, roundworm, reducing the wormload in the chicken. Then in 10-14 days use ivermectin or safeguard to kill roundworm larva that have grown from eggs in the chickens system since the wazine usage. The ivermectin and safeguard will not only kill the roundworm larva, they also kill gapeworm and several other types of worms. You can use ivermectin pour on, it not only kills all those worms, but it also kills lice and mites on chickens. Remember, ivermectin and safeguard are off label and used for cattle, horses, goats.
 
All of the worms(big & small) look the same. I forgot to add that they were treated not too long ago(maybe a mopnth or so?) with Ivomec, topically to get rid of lice.

I thought Ivomec was supposed to kill internal parasites as well?

Tractor supply sels the Wazine17 but not Valbazen(she said other stores carry it) so I have to wait until tomorrow to call the other 2 feed stores here for that since they're both closed on Sundays.


ETA: I just e-mailed the WSU Avian Health Lab with the pics and info so hopefully they can help as well.
 
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All of the worms(big & small) look the same.
I can't see the small ones very well, but the large one looks like it has legs/feet.

I forgot to add that they were treated not too long ago(maybe a mopnth or so?) with Ivomec, topically to get rid of lice.
I use Safeguard, so I can't comment on the efficacy of topical Ivomec.

I thought Ivomec was supposed to kill internal parasites as well?
It does not get tapeworms.

Tractor supply sels the Wazine17 but not Valbazen(she said other stores carry it) so I have to wait until tomorrow to call the other 2 feed stores here for that since they're both closed on Sundays.
Valbazen or Safeguard would be best.







 
It DOES have legs/feet they kind of hook back. it looks similar to a grub or something but all of them look the same, that was just the only big one.

Safeguard & valbazen are pretty-much the same, right? the tags look like it's the same main drug but hard to read on the safeguard.

I will call TS back about the safeguard. thank you!
 
It sounds like sour crop. The worms with legs are probably grubs she ate. The little white worms look like round worms.
 
The fact they have a heavy worm load probably compromised them to their ailment.
 

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