Tapeworm? Broody? Both? Help!

Newbie here. Arrived home around 6pm to find one my hens sitting in the nesting box. Did not come out when I shook their feeding can. Just checked on her, still sitting in the nesting box. Picked her up and placed her among her friends in the run. She went through a broody stage which ended a month ago. Checked her vent, noticed a yellow blob south of the vent. However, she laid an egg today, so not egg bound -right? Not to mention I found a pile with what I believe contains a tapeworm. One long worm with something akin to rice. Broody wormy hen? She was fine this morning. If tapeworm, any suggestions what to use? Treat the entire flock?

I'm no expert and have not had to treat my flock for tapeworms, but offer the following info:

There are many species of tapeworms = Cestodes that can infect chickens. Only some species are effected by treatments - many species are resistant to all and it is difficult to really cure an infestation - the "head" of the worm likely remains attached in the small intestine even when you see the body excreted ). Most adult chickens can handle a few tapeworms, but if the worms are large or numerous they will cause problems and death.

There are 2 treatments that may work - Fenbendazol which is available as a goat wormer - and Albendazole. There are a couple of branded Fenbendazole products available from on-line stores, haven't searched TSC but they may have it. There are some on line dosing suggestions for poultry but none I can find from a DVM source. If you have a vet that treats poultry you could ask their advice or get a prescription? Or as your county Agriculture Agent to acquire the information from their Poultry Vet Expert connections. Search our forums for the Fenbendazole and there are some past posts with dosing suggestions.

You would need to treat, then retreat at 10 days - and discard all eggs from day 1 thru 7 days after the last dose. ( but there have been some folks who report eating those eggs during treatment without sequelae).

I would suggest making 100% sure what you have seen is tapeworm evidence and treat only the hen in question. The infestation requires an intermediate host ( insects, slugs, earthworms) to first eat the eggs or proglottids and then for a chicken to eat the bug. But cleaning out all suspect droppings is necessary and trying to reduce the flocks access to infected bugs is needed ( if they free range avoid letting them into areas of fresh tilled dirt).

Hope this helps.

There are some studies that show Safeguard and Valbazen will treat some species of tapes, but the most effective way to treat them is with praziquantel. The most common praziquantel dose is 4.54 mg per pound and repeat in ten days.



You could worm orally with Equimax (ivermectin/praziquantel). Dose is 0.03 ml per pound, so a 6 pound hen would get ~0.2 ml (1/5 ml).

Repeat in 10-14 days



-Kathy

More praziquantel dosing info:


-Kathy

Tape segments:









-Kathy

casportpony said:

There are some studies that show Safeguard and Valbazen will treat some species of tapes, but the most effective way to treat them is with praziquantel. The most common praziquantel dose is 4.54 mg per pound and repeat in ten days.



You could worm orally with Equimax (ivermectin/praziquantel). Dose is 0.03 ml per pound, so a 6 pound hen would get ~0.2 ml (1/5 ml).

Repeat in 10-14 days



-Kathy

Click to expand...

Luv your new Avatar.

What would be the egg discard duration for this med?

sunflour said:

casportpony said:

There are some studies that show Safeguard and Valbazen will treat some species of tapes, but the most effective way to treat them is with praziquantel. The most common praziquantel dose is 4.54 mg per pound and repeat in ten days. [COLOR=333333]You could worm orally with Equimax (ivermectin/praziquantel). Dose is 0.03 ml per pound, so a 6 pound hen would get ~0.2 ml (1/5 ml). [/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]Repeat in 10-14 days[/COLOR] [COLOR=333333] [/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]-Kathy[/COLOR]

Click to expand...

Luv your new Avatar. What would be the egg discard duration for this med?

Click to expand...

My best guess would be 2-4 weeks after last dose, but it's just a guess. -Kathy

One can have their veterinarian submit a drug withdrawal request here:
http://cafarad.ucdavis.edu/farmweb/index.aspx

Or they can try to find info by googling "piperazine egg withdrawal" and "ivermectin egg withdrawal".

-Kathy

Regarding use of Equimax or Valbezen for tapes. My flock free-ranges and some have had tapes for a year or more. I've tried treating with Valbezen once, but seemed to have little effect, and I'm not planning to do it again for the flock. I don't plan to quit free-ranging and they eat lots of bugs. It killed me to throw out eggs for 2 weeks and I don't like using drugs generally. No evidence yet of any hens suffering obviously from the tapeworms - many don't seem to get them. However, I have a 20-week old pullet who has had tapes since she was maybe 10 weeks old. She is not of the weight she should be for her age, and does not appear close to ready to lay yet. Would it be safe for her to give her Equimax while she is still growing (since Valbazen didn't seem to do anything to whatever species of tape they have)?