Possible parasite/cyst found in dropping - what is this?

[Basters]

One of my chickens did an abnormally large dropping this morning, and I saw this THING on the side of it... I've taken some pictures but I'm a new member so don't have the access to upload images yet unfortunately. The dropping is compact and circular, white coated, and about 5-6cm diameter, and the "thing" is about 3cm long. I wonder if it is a parasite, cyst, or maybe even a malformed egg? It appears to be either fluid- or air-filled, and external appearance is slightly segmented and cream in colour. It had pinkish fluid on it when it came out with the dropping, which I assume was blood.

Has anyone seen anything like this before?

The chicken appears to be in normal health and is laying, although she has always had a tendency to be a bit more sluggish than the others, and puffs up more when she is roosting. She's my favourite, so I hope this isn't something serious!

Thanks for any help/advice anyone can offer.

 

[paddock36]

Wish I could help but I don't

have a clue.

 

[Imp]

Can you email the pix to me? I will post it for you.

Imp

 

[honeydoll]

It sounds like she could have been egg bound and finally passed it. Has she been laying lately? From all the post I have read about passing the old egg so to speak from an egg bound hen, it sounds like what you are describing, but if she has been laying daily I don't know if that would be the case. Lots of others on here with a lot more knowledge will probably help soon.

Carolyn

 

[Cass]

Sorry, I can't help, but I will bump it up so it doesn't drop off the list on the homepage. Someone will wake up soon and be able to help you.

 

[Judy]

How old is the bird? Do they forage or are they confined to a pen? Have you ever wormed them, and if you have, with what?

 

[Basters]

Thanks for responding, even if we haven't got far in our diagnosis! Thanks Imp who is going to post the pix for me.

To respond to the questions in this thread:

She had definitely laid the day before The Thing in the poop as I had the full quota of eggs, but was one egg down the day she did The Thing (Thursday), and one egg down today (Friday). The chickens are 8 months old, and only started laying just before Christmas, so being one egg down isn't unusual. I only have a small flock - 4 hens and 1 rooster - all Barred Rocks. We had 5 hens originally but we already lost one in November(ish). Unfortunately I can't tell who isn't laying as I have to go out to work and don't get to see who settles down into which nest boxes - so it may not be her.

I live in northern BC so we're snow-bound at the moment so they're not free-ranging but they will go out in their run because I shovel it out for them and put hay down for their footsies. They were free-ranging until winter came - they don't like the snow.

They're deep-littered on shavings, but I keep it clean and regularly put down clean shavings, change the water daily, etc. They have layer ration (self-serve), plus warm pellet/porridge mash in the mornings, scratch and fresh veg/fruit, and have access to grit. I'm very careful about ventilation, so even though the coop is insulated and they have a heat-lamp on 24/7 I still open the pop-hole and open windows according to the air temperature so that they have good ventilation but not draughts. I only have to close it all up when it goes down to about -20C, which is rare.

I've never wormed them. (Didn't know I had to.)

Any more clues?

 

[Imp]

Here are the pictures:

Sorry it's so late, just got home from work.

Imp

 

[Judy]

Worms are in the soil. A regular worming program with a chemical wormer is one of those things that some people feel strongly should be done and others do not. A load of worms will damage the intestinal wall, and to an extent the feed feeds the worms rather than the chicken. One wormer, ivermectin, also kills lice and mites that bite. Some also use things like pumpkin seeds, cayenne pepper (birds do not have taste receptors for capsaicin) or a "natural" formulation like Verm-X as a preventive; I haven't seen evidence thus far that these are more than marginally effective. Chickens can certainly live a long time with some worms, but it is also true that an infestation can kill them. It is quite rare, however, to see evidence of worms in the poop. Very rarely, one is seen in an egg. A vet can do a fecal smear and see it microscopically; usually this is not expensive, and used for other animals (and people) so is generally available. I worm regularly; I've had dogs diagnosed with worms who live on this property, though, and I know there are lots of worms in my area. If you worm them and confine them to a run, the worm eggs will then be in the soil, and in time they will be reinfested. I'll put some links at the end of this for you to read further.

That said, I'm not sure what I'm looking at in the pics. Chickens will eat just about anything. There was a thread not long ago about a chicken who was ill, probably with a partial intestinal obstruction due to having swallowed a piece of electrical conduit; she was fine after she passed it. People see their chickens eat styrofoam peanuts, string, cigarette butts, plastic -- you name it. I wonder if this is what happened with your bird.

Perhaps someone with better eyes than mine will come along. Good luck, anyway.

http://healthybirds.umd.edu/Disease/Deworming Birds.pdf

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=203048&p=2

 

[Basters]

Thanks for the links on worms, I'll read up about that.

I should have said that the thing in the poop is definitely organic, not a piece of plastic for instance. It has a soft, fleshy/rubbery texture and is hollow. Kind of reminds me of calamari!