Worms?

[Mama5]

I don't know if this goes here or in the sickness threads.... but since worms are pests, here goes!

I am almost a complete beginner when it comes to chickens. I have had them for a few years now, but they stayed pretty healthy on a diet of chicken feed and free range roaming. I have laying hens.

I have a question that I can't seem to find the answer to by just googling. Can worms get in the eggs? A few days ago, I cracked open an egg, thought there was a blood spot, removed it with a spoon and when I looked at it, it moved like it was a worm I watched it for a while to make sure I knew what I was seeing was right LOL. It was shaped like a red, round spot, but it would lengthen itself out. The only info I have been able to find on chicken worms so far has been intestinal. I haven't found anything that talks about any kind of worm that can get in the egg. I also haven't talked to anyone that's ever heard of this before.

This also happened to me several years ago, and I used a commercial wormer on the chickens. Of course, it has been long enough ago that those chickens are gone now.

Has anyone here experienced this? It would be nice to have someone else back me up so I know I"m not crazy! LOL

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I've not heard of worms in eggs, but after reading the following... anything is possible:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/16/2246597.htm

 

[cjeanean]

I saw a pic someone posted on here of a worm inside an egg. The intestine and the egg laying chute (LOL) both end at the vent, so I would assume that in severe cases (or maybe just luck of the draw) a worm could end up in the laying chute and getting into the hen's hardware. I would worm your chickens and keep an eye on the one that laid that specific egg, cause that would be soooooo nasty to eat an egg with a worm in it!!!! Just watch your eggs!!!

 

[cjeanean]

Here's the link to the thread I was talking about:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=47487

 

[Mama5]

Thanks for the replies and the link to the other worm problem. As gross as that is

that isn't what I had in my egg. What was in my egg looked like a blood spot.

I had the egg sitting on the counter for a few days before I used it... it couldn't have been a developing chick, could it? But the reason I decided that wasn't what it was, was because when it moved, it would stretch out at the end...almost kinda like a snail would. There wasn't any resemblance to a chick embryo, IMO anyway.

 

[arlee453]

http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/sgilber1/DB_lab/Chick/chick_stage.html

i think it could have been a chick embryo....

the first couple of days, the developing chick looks basically like a curled up worm - with a bump at the top which becomes the head eventually, and the rest of the body is a long and worm-like.

Most round worms is what can get in eggs in a really really heavy infestation - they look like this:


http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/egg-quality-handbook/35/roundworms-in-eggs

BTW...stage 20 is about 3 days incubation...

If it is as hot there as it is here, just letting the eggs sit for a while before collection could have them developing slightly. My parakeets have had a clutch of eggs for a while - I thought they weren't going to sit on them since I never saw her go in the box except at night. Low and behold, they hatched out some this week - it's been so hot that they haven't had to brood the eggs much at all

 

[Mama5]

If it was just the embryo, would there have been a lot of visible blood vessels around it? One of those pics of the embryo does kinda look like what I saw, but I don't remember any blood vessels.