Worms. Help.

[4Crazychickens4me]

Ok so I have had my chickens for about a year now and never have seen any type of worms in my girls poop until this morning. I took a picture so you guys can help me as to what I need to do. I was reading online a bit but I’m getting so much info and not sure what works the best. I will say I am not able to catch my girls so I need something that I guess they eat or drink. Is that a possibility o get that? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

That doesn't look like a worm to me. The poop looks like it has quite a bit of mucous.
Can you take a sample to your vet for testing?

@dawg53 @casportpony

 

[rebrascora]

A better close up photo would help but my initial impression from that photo is the same as @Wyorp Rock
What do you feed them including treats? I believe oatmeal can cause mucous stools.

 

[007Sean]

Can't really tell much from the pic. I take it, since you can't catch your hens that they have never been wormed?
You can use Wazine for the first time you worm them and follow up with Safeguard, 10 days after the first worming. Both can be used in their waterers. Wazine is good for round worms, doesn't kill them but paralyzes them and they will be expelled from the digestive tract. Safeguard will take care of almost all other worms your birds might have...doesn't work for tape worms, though, and as @Wyorp Rock suggested, if you can get a fecal test performed by a vet, it would give you the information needed to know what worms are present and give you a plan of action for worming your flock.

 

[4Crazychickens4me]

That doesn't look like a worm to me. The poop looks like it has quite a bit of mucous.
Can you take a sample to your vet for testing?

@dawg53 @casportpony

Even the tho g on the leaf that’s what I was trying to get a picture of. Sometimes they have foamy poop and other times it’s normal.

 

[4Crazychickens4me]

A better close up photo would help but my initial impression from that photo is the same as @Wyorp Rock
What do you feed them including treats? I believe oatmeal can cause mucous stools.

. They eat the crumbles food and I give them scratch and some bird seed. And scrapes from leftover dinner. They have been in a run for about 6 weeks due to neighbor redoing their yard and did t want the chickens tearing up grass seed. But they are back to free ranging for the past week.

 

[rebrascora]

It sounds like they may be getting too many treats. I would cut out all other items and just give them the crumbles. If you want to offer a treat, sometimes just a warm mash made by soaking the crumbles in warm water gets them excited. The crumbles are a complete feed designed to provide everything they need to be healthy (and lay eggs if it is a layer feed) Whatever else you give them means that they eat less of the formulated feed and that starts to knock their diet out of balance. Over a period of months, this can start to have a detrimental effect on some birds. Scratch and seeds can lead to fatty liver Haemorrhagic Syndrome and/or obesity which can cause laying ailments like egg binding and prolapse as well as the risk of sudden death from a liver rupture.

Foamy cecal poop can be normal but they could have worms. Getting their poop tested would be the most sensible way to approach the problem and it is not expensive. Most vets can do it without seeing the chicken or you can probably send a sample off to your state agricultural diagnostics lab.

If you need to administer medication, it can be done by picking them off the roost at night but some wormers can be added to the food or water, they just don't necessarily treat all types of worms and there is often an egg withdrawal period afterwards, so it can make financial sense to get their poop tested to see if they do actually have worms, rather than spend money on medication that may not be the correct one and discard eggs. I have not dewormed my flock in 4.5 years and I am not seeing a problem with internal parasites. Some people seem to have to deworm every few months. Environmental factors like climate and population density and ground management will play a part in that.

 

[dawg53]

It is shed intestinal lining.

 

[rebrascora]

It is shed intestinal lining.

You may be right! It is an odd colour for shed intestinal lining but the shape and consistency is correct. It is also a lot to be shed at one go!

 

[4Crazychickens4me]

It is shed intestinal lining.

What is that? Sorry new to all this chicken stuff still learning.