What is in the chickens poop? Bugs? **Photos** graphic

[chknmomma]

BEWARE:

Poop photos are graphic.


I went out today to clean the coop and add more shavings. I pulled the poop tray and saw something bizarre. All I can think is a trip to vet is in my future. But holy cow, I am stumped and disgusted. What in the world is going on? It may even be hard for me to describe.

You could see some normal poop (in the left section), but then it looked like they are no longer pooping normal chicken poop. You can see in the photos there is a section of large, dark mass on the right. I would suggest that maybe their poop is just liquid now and that things don't seem to be holding together? It looked like it was just coloring the shavings in the tray the normal color of poop - but it certainly didn't look like normal poop.

So that's weird.

I pull it out and look at it. There are these tiny bugs in it. They are not moving. They have tons of legs and they are brownish red color - the color of the poop. There are literally 1,000s of them in it. And just in the poop. Not in the other section of the shavings in the poop tray.

I have researched tonight and looked online. But seen or heard of nothing like this.

Here is our background - I feed them normal layer feed. I have 8 hens all different breeds. They free range during the day so the contents of the poop looks like normal stuff - grass, etc. I have one chicken that has been acting out of the ordinary. She went through a horrible molt starting midAugust. Probably lost and regrew every feather. She started walking backwards at recently (which I've read can be due to lack of vitamins, etc). It has gotten less frequent as the molt seems to be finally finishing. So I was thinking that things were getting better.

Then the poop and bugs. Here are the photos - poop tray. Contents in the poop. Then close up of the bug. Any ideas? Thank you.

 

[Pharm Girl]

How long has the poop been there? I toss my chicken's poop into a plastic bucket with a lid and there have been some very strange bugs I've never seen before hatch in the bucket. They didn't come out of the chicken, but hatched from other bugs who laid eggs in the poop. Could that be the case here? If you don't clean the poop every day or two, I would think it could be possible for things to hatch in it. The bugs themselves resemble mites or ticks to me. Have you checked the chickens vent area to see if there are any bugs on the birds that you can see?

 

[greenegglover]

Is that chicken lice??? Never had them....but Im going to check other threads....brb

 

[Pharm Girl]

My chickens have lice right now and they are not that big! Well, maybe they are. I've never seen ones that big! Here is an actual picture I took of the lice that are on my chickens. I took a piece of masking tape and dabbed the lice off the birds, then took a picture. They are so tiny you could easily miss them, but I zoomed in with my camera. The poop bugs look like they are bigger with more legs?

 

[chknmomma]

Convinced the molting chicken also caught lice or mites while she was down on her immune system, I have been checking them for signs. And reading what I'm supposed to look for. But, I could look and seriously have no clue?? I have gone out there at night and stared at them. They seem more upset to see me out there with a flashlight staring at them and at the posts, roosts, etc. They seem pretty quiet when I am not shining a light on them. And I can't seem to find anything on them.

Also, isn't it a concern that their poop is no longer normal chicken poop? It's no longer pooped out like a chicken tube looking thing. That freaks me out and makes me think internal problems. That poop tray is probably 2 weeks old of poop. Do I need to dump it every day? Usually it collects the poop, starts to decay or petrify and I dump it when I put more shavings in. Probably once a month. Usually it is just petrified chicken poop. Not dark colored shavings with grass and moss from free ranging.

As for bugs, I wondered if mites hid in poop? I noticed the bugs were only on the poop side. Not the clean shavings part. Finally, they were wiggling their feet a little moving, but specifically were not crawling around in there.

And yes, they probably the size of a tick. Small but quite visible. My camera wouldn't zoom well enough.

 

[Pharm Girl]

Do they always free range or has it only been lately? Sometimes I give my chickens more greens or veggies from the garden and they get loose stools from it if they eat too much. Plus we are starting pine needle season. It could have more plant material than normal in it if they are free ranging. If they are not doing anything out of the ordinary for them, then that is concerning poo.
I'm still not convinced the bugs didn't just hatch in the poop itself. I've had some seriously strange bugs crawl out of my poop bin. I clean the poop piles every day in my coop, but two weeks seems long enough to hatch something. I would think if it actually came out of the chickens intestines, it would be more worm-like and less bug-like. I would clean everything up and check the fresh poop in the morning for bugs.
It took me about four tries to find the bugs on my chickens, and the ones that looked bad and were missing belly feathers weren't the ones I found the most bugs on. It was my healthy robust EE who housed the most lice. You have to cradle them in your arms and really dig down in the bum fluff, like down to the base of the feathers. My EE is very docile and rather enjoys my picking around on her, so she is the one I finally found them on because she would hold so still.
I don't mean to disregard your concerns about the poop, you know your chickens, what they eat, and what is normal for them, so I'm excited to read the expert advice from other BYC'ers.

 

[KandiandJerry]

I would definately go ahead and dust them just in case....if you can catch your chickens...look at the area around the vent and lift up the feathers above and watch for about a minute...if they are there you will see them running around.....if you dust be sure and get under wings, vent area etc....mine looked like it had snowed on them by the time I got through dusting them....LOL Those things give me the creepy crawlies.....

 

[krissteff]

I have no idea about the buggy pooh situation, but I'm wondering if it would help to sprinkle some food grade diatomaceous earth down on the shavings in the poop tray. That should take care of any bugs that are thriving in the environment.

You could also restrict them to their run for a few days and feed them nothing but their chicken feed to see if the change in pooh is from something they ate in the yard.

 

[chknmomma]

The poo is concerning to me because I've never seen it look like that. They always free range. So it normally has grass and stuff in it. But it is never that weird looking dark mass in the poop bin. Usually dried round poops!

I will definitely be doing more inspections tomorrow. And dusting. Again. I dusted them all in August. Then the molting one in September and then I changed the bedding today in the smaller coop and dusted it. I was going to dust the larger coop after putting in shavings when I discovered bugs and poop.

Going to bed now and will hopefully not think of bugs. Will take a look at the nights poop in the morning and post more pictures if necessary.

Thanks.


Are the only kind of bugs that can live internally in chickens those two kind of worms? I think it is tape worms and another kind of worms? Are there other bugs that can live internally in chickens.

Do mites hide in poop?

 

[chknmomma]

Krissteff - thank you. I have been meaning to get some DE - where do I find it? I read that was useful in keeping the environment clean.