These are unlike any worms that I know of.

[mamabahre]

I don't know what they are at all.

I was giving one of our birds a once over. She is scrawny compared to the rest and frequently picked on. Her comb/wattle got beat up by another hen a while back and I was checking how it is healing when I noticed in a tiny, I mean barely visible little translucent worm crawling on her beak.
I pulled it off and DH and I both surmised that it must have crawled out her nostril....we think, we don't know for sure.

I immediately freaked and started checking the rest of the flock. Yup a couple others had the little worm things right by their nostrils. Very very tiny little translucent worm things.

They are unlike any worms that I have googled/read about. I checked all the chicken poop I could and there is no evidence of any worms in any of it. The rest of the hens besides the one scrawny one (who is very skinny, her keel is very very well defined for a bird her age) are all very plump and healthy. Bright eyed, combs and wattles are nice and bright, their poops look good, they are all energetic and eating and laying nearly every day even with the much shorter days...


So what the heck is going on here. I just can't figure it out. we planned slaughtering them all this weekend anyway for freezer camp and now I am bumming hard that we might not be able to eat them. We are moving in the spring and we aren't keeping them over the winter no matter what. Their coop isn't really suitable for winter around here and I don't feel comfortable giving them away now with this worm issue.

Any suggestions on what might be going on here. I want to buy a wormer but don't know if it will do anything at all.

 

[ChicKat]

Look into eye worms. They are thin and like a thread, but easily white as much as transparent.

Talk to your county extension agent about the worms. I think That they would not affect the abiity to eat the chickens, because you won't be eating the eyes, or head.

Good luck with your diagnosis.

If you don't get enough information email me or PM and I can send you some information I dug up from a couple of months ago.

 

[dawg53]

Here's a pic of eyeworm. One is above the thumb and the other is in the front corner of the eye, the tearduct area, white in color and very thin. Scratching the eyes is an indication of eyeworm. Treatment is an equal mixture of valbazen and water dropped into the eyes. Then dose the chicken with 1/2cc valbazen orally undiluted. Repeat treatment in 10 days.

 

[hokankai]

I'm actually in a parasitology class and what you describe is very characteristic of some abdominal worms, such as ascaris species. This species of worm lives in the digestive system, lays eggs that are pooped out (which is why you aren't seeing any adults in the poop...they're all inside), eaten again, and the eggs hatch in the stomach. After that the larva ride the circulatory system and live in the liver for a short time, and then travel to the lungs. Once they're mature, they take advantage of the host's natural defense against organisms in the lungs and rides the mucociliary escalator up the host's trachea, where the larvae are coughed up and then swallowed again, which is how they end up in the intestine.

My guess is that you are seeing worm larva that are being coughed up or sneezed out on their way back to the intestine. Your hens are probably heavily infested if you are seeing them, and the scrawny one is being deprived of nutrients due to the number of worms in her body.

I don't know the treatment for roundworm in chickens, but here's a thread discussing it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=74037

Good luck! Treat them and give them a good hearty diet to replenish the nutrients they've lost! I'd also do a thorough cleaning of the coop and poop area.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
You're absolutely correct hokankai. Alot of worms have similar travels through their system, gapeworm and eyeworm come to mind, roundworms as you stated. Valbazen will kill them all. Dosage is 1/2cc orally for standard size chickens, 1/4cc for smaller chickens. Redose in 10 days. FYI, gapeworms may require a third, maybe fourth dosing...but I dont believe you're dealing with gapeworm in this situation.

 

[chkn]

Ha, I forgot all about that, the round worms basically go just about everywhere in the lungs and digestive tract. Yuck!

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Yep. This is why it's always important to redose at the tenth day...to kill larva before they become adults...before the adults lay eggs again to deposit eggs onto the soil, restarting their lifecycle all over again. A vicious lifecycle indeed.

 

[Pine Grove]

In chickens The only migration of roundworm larvae is from intestine to the intestine mucosa, Then back to the intestine..I know of no internal parasite that fowls get that migrates outside of the body

 

[hokankai]

Roundworms are also known to "wander" if the host becomes stressed and/or the females are having trouble finding mates. Or maybe the larva just got lost...LOL