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Kayte

critters in the egg? please help

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hiya, my girls queenie and belle just started laying last week and we have been getting one or two eggs most days.

 

I just boiled 3 of the eggs this morning for breakfast but when i bit into one there was a dark bit in the egg white. I guessed it was just a little speck of blood, like i've seen in shop bought eggs but when i broke the egg apart it looked like some sort of critter. I have to admit i freaked out a bit - seeing as I had just taken a bite out of the egg - so i didn't investigate further just chucked it in the bin and spat out what was in my mouth. It looked like it had segments, like a worm or something, but it was too lumpy to be a worm. Can anyone help explain what it was? is it possible for parasites to get inside the egg? Is there a less disgusting explanation? the other two eggs seem clear.

 

It has put me off my breakfast a bit as you can imagine, and more importantly if one of the girls has some kind of infestation i need to get it sorted asap

 

please help

 

Kayte

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Well, since chickens only have the one exit, as it were, I suppose it's possible for a parasite to get into the egg. Or it could have been a tiny bit of the reproductive tract (bits of it sometime come away, like shedding a piece of dead skin) that happened to look like a critter.

 

For peace of mind, get yourself some Flubenvet and worm your girls - it's cheapest to buy online (try www.wormers.co.uk) and there are detailed dosing instructions in the Chicken Clinic section of the forum.

 

Hope you don't find any more nasties!

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thanks eyren - would they have any other symptoms.? one of the girls, whose egg i think it was only seems to lay every other day...

 

i'll worm them regardless thouigh, they do free range so its possible that they picked something up....

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thanks eyren - would they have any other symptoms.?

 

Apparently they start to look a bit down if they have lots of worms, but I've never seen mine like that. And if they have gape worms they yawn a lot because it's hard to breathe with a load of worms blocking your lungs :vom:

 

one of the girls, whose egg i think it was only seems to lay every other day...

 

That's fairly normal for a hen that's just started laying - it can take a bit of time for their egg-making tackle to get going. Also, is she a hybrid or a pure breed? Purebreeds usually don't lay every day (mine lay about two days out of three in spring, and every other day - if at all - at other times of the year).

 

i'll worm them regardless thouigh, they do free range so its possible that they picked something up....

 

Very possible - best to do them about every four months if they have a limited ranging area, as they can get reinfected more quickly.

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Right - just looked in my book, Practical Poultry Keeping by David Bland.

 

Meat spots...may be caused by a small piece of tissue being torn from the oviduct and included in the white. These eggs are edible once the offending meat spot has been removed. Causes are the same as for blood spots.

 

Blood spots...due to the rupture of a small blood vessel in the ovary...eggs with blood spots are completely edible.

 

I've looked all through the chapters on eggs and parasites and can't find any mention of the possibility that anything can get into eggs.

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I've just braved the bin and pulled apart the egg. The 'thing' was a bit deflated (it was probably a bit plumped up before because it had just been cooked (yuk) ) and when i looked at it up close it looked like a tube. the best way i can think of describing it is when a snake sheds its skin but a very minature version of that. maybe it could be a bit of the reproductive system as you suggested... as we dont get many pygmie snakes around here

 

they are hybrids, both bought form omlet....

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