Uuugghhh... constant worms it seems!

My RIR hen seems to have worms ALL the time. Since about August/September I have tried to treat all 3 of my birds with Wazine (didn't work) and then a standard treatment with Valbazine (seemed to work but worms came back) and then a more serious type treatment with Valbazine when it was confirmed that she had tape worm (direct shots of Valbazine into the mouth of all 3 of my chickens 3 separate times, each session three days apart - as I was instructed to do).

She seems totally fine, they all do! She eats, drinks, runs around, lays eggs... though I've always considered her to be a bit of a pig when she eats and maybe having worms is why she eats so much cuz she isn't getting the nutrition? But she doesn't seem to be losing weight, she's pretty heavy actually.

But today, once again, I saw what looked like 4 or 5 small possibly tapeworm segments that had wiggled their way out of her poo and died out in the sun. I don't know what to do... I live on Guam so it is very hot and humid all the time and we are in rainy season right now so yes the ground is frequently moist and perfect for worms. But I worry about constantly giving them worming meds... not to mention that I can't eat/have to throw away the eggs for what basically ends up being 4 weeks (give the meds, wait 10 days give meds again, then wait 14 days to eat eggs). That is such a waste of eggs and feels like I'm poisoning them rather than helping.

What do I do? Do I just wait it out until "dry season" comes along (December - June)? I'm very frustrated... I've been told it's okay because birds just get worms and while I do agree with that I'm also worried that they will kill her/them. The others don't seem to have it, ever... unless they're just not as "infested"? I don't know. I don't know what to do... at the end of the day, I'm just worried to lose one of them but what's the point of keeping them if all I ever do is medicate them and can't eat their eggs... *sigh*

Please help.

I understand your frustration. I've had the same thing happen. I've dealt with tapeworms as you know, and I've mentioned that they are difficult to get rid of...you can verify that fact for sure. The valbazen worked initially but my birds got reinfected a couple of months later.
The segments you're seeing in feces contain hundreds of eggs. The segments work their way into the soil and then the eggs are released. The eggs are then eaten by insects; earthworms, ants, termites, beetles etc...in turn, your chickens eat the infected insect.
There's no way to treat the soil nor the insects without poisoning your chickens.
Fortunately there's a couple of equine paste wormers that'll kill the tapeworms. Either Zimectrin Gold or Equimax containing ivermectin and praziquantel will kill the tapeworms. It's the praziquantel that'll kill the tapes (same as droncit/drontal to treat tapeworms in cats and dogs.) Dosage is a "pea" sized amount of the paste given orally to each chicken will kill the worms. Repeat again in 10 days. You can put the pea sized amount of paste on a small piece of bread and give a piece to each chicken. Be careful, they'll try to steal each others treated piece of bread. After they swallow the treated bread, they will wipe their beaks off on the ground, this is normal. Good luck.

dawg53 said:

I understand your frustration. I've had the same thing happen. I've dealt with tapeworms as you know, and I've mentioned that they are difficult to get rid of...you can verify that fact for sure. The valbazen worked initially but my birds got reinfected a couple of months later.
The segments you're seeing in feces contain hundreds of eggs. The segments work their way into the soil and then the eggs are released. The eggs are then eaten by insects; earthworms, ants, termites, beetles etc...in turn, your chickens eat the infected insect.
There's no way to treat the soil nor the insects without poisoning your chickens.
Fortunately there's a couple of equine paste wormers that'll kill the tapeworms. Either Zimectrin Gold or Equimax containing ivermectin and praziquantel will kill the tapeworms. It's the praziquantel that'll kill the tapes (same as droncit/drontal to treat tapeworms in cats and dogs.) Dosage is a "pea" sized amount of the paste given orally to each chicken will kill the worms. Repeat again in 10 days. You can put the pea sized amount of paste on a small piece of bread and give a piece to each chicken. Be careful, they'll try to steal each others treated piece of bread. After they swallow the treated bread, they will wipe their beaks off on the ground, this is normal. Good luck.

Click to expand...

You're seriously a guru haha. Thank you, again, for the information. But I'm gonna have to not eat the eggs again for 14 days after the second dose right? And in between doses?

And... I just called both feed stores on island and they do not carry either product. Any other options?

Perhaps you can get droncit/drontal from a vet. Of course it'll be for a cat or dog. I dont know the dosages for chickens using the pill form. You can ask the vet for that info as well as the withdrawal period for the droncit/drontal.

Bleh, well noone can tell me what dosage to give for drontal. What about Safeguard for horses? That's what the feed store has.

Otherwise I'm just going to buy Equimax online. Does it need to be refrigerated or anything like that?

dawg53 said:

I understand your frustration. I've had the same thing happen. I've dealt with tapeworms as you know, and I've mentioned that they are difficult to get rid of...you can verify that fact for sure. The valbazen worked initially but my birds got reinfected a couple of months later.
The segments you're seeing in feces contain hundreds of eggs. The segments work their way into the soil and then the eggs are released. The eggs are then eaten by insects; earthworms, ants, termites, beetles etc...in turn, your chickens eat the infected insect.
There's no way to treat the soil nor the insects without poisoning your chickens.
Fortunately there's a couple of equine paste wormers that'll kill the tapeworms. Either Zimectrin Gold or Equimax containing ivermectin and praziquantel will kill the tapeworms. It's the praziquantel that'll kill the tapes (same as droncit/drontal to treat tapeworms in cats and dogs.) Dosage is a "pea" sized amount of the paste given orally to each chicken will kill the worms. Repeat again in 10 days. You can put the pea sized amount of paste on a small piece of bread and give a piece to each chicken. Be careful, they'll try to steal each others treated piece of bread. After they swallow the treated bread, they will wipe their beaks off on the ground, this is normal. Good luck.

Click to expand...

Okay I finally have Zimecterin. Do I have to withhold their feed for 24 hours like I did with Valbazen? Or can I just give it to them along with their regular feeding "rations"? I think the girls have stopped laying eggs due to having worms... ? So I'd like to give it to them ASAP.

I recommend withholding feed. It will weaken worms making the wormer more effective. Then wait about 3 or 4 hours after worming before feeding your birds. At that point, feed them small quantities of feed gradually back to normal over the course of the day. If you dont, they will gorge on the feed possibly causing impacted crop or gizzard. I recommend mixing buttermilk (probiotic) in their feed for a few days after each worming.

****... Ok well I fed them in the morning but nothing throughout the day or in the evening... then I gave them bread with the wormer on it. Had to stuff it down two of their throats because they were so suspicious of it. So they're bodies weren't totally empty when they got the wormer. Hope that doesn't mess everything up and ruin my worm-free chances AGAIN I should have just assumed to withhold feed. Blah....

dawg53 said:

I understand your frustration. I've had the same thing happen. I've dealt with tapeworms as you know, and I've mentioned that they are difficult to get rid of...you can verify that fact for sure. The valbazen worked initially but my birds got reinfected a couple of months later.
The segments you're seeing in feces contain hundreds of eggs. The segments work their way into the soil and then the eggs are released. The eggs are then eaten by insects; earthworms, ants, termites, beetles etc...in turn, your chickens eat the infected insect.
There's no way to treat the soil nor the insects without poisoning your chickens.
Fortunately there's a couple of equine paste wormers that'll kill the tapeworms. Either Zimectrin Gold or Equimax containing ivermectin and praziquantel will kill the tapeworms. It's the praziquantel that'll kill the tapes (same as droncit/drontal to treat tapeworms in cats and dogs.) Dosage is a "pea" sized amount of the paste given orally to each chicken will kill the worms. Repeat again in 10 days. You can put the pea sized amount of paste on a small piece of bread and give a piece to each chicken. Be careful, they'll try to steal each others treated piece of bread. After they swallow the treated bread, they will wipe their beaks off on the ground, this is normal. Good luck.

Click to expand...

Well... I am officially frustrated out of my mind. I didn't withhold feed before giving them the Zimecterin but I gave it to them around 5pm and only fed them in the morning around 7am. So that happened... I gave it to them on the 13th so the second dosage will be coming soon. I've examined the poo from both my hens and they both have worms/worm segments coming out. Is this a good sign? Does this mean they are purging them... the worms are still squirming though. Or does this just mean that I'm only managing to kill some of them... I'm afraid that since I didn't withhold feed the meds aren't gonna work and when I give them their second dose its just gonna be a waste because there will still be adult worms in there that will just keep on going...

I'm really at a loss it seems. I really don't like giving them these meds because I feel that it messes with their bodies though I know it is necessary. But I've given them so much in the past several months because these worms just won't go away. And I know that sometimes worming meds can make them stop laying their eggs... but I also heard that when they have worms that can slow down their eggs too. So what do I do! AH! If I don't give them meds they have worms and no eggs. If I give them meds they may or may not have worms... and still have no eggs.

I just feel so frustrated and confused and wanna just say screw it, but I can't. I love my chickens and want whats best for them. But I also want eggs! Then someone at the feed store freaked me out by saying that his boss, who owns the store, told him that worming RIR is SUPER important for some reason... and I have two of those so then I was all weirded out thinking why why why is it so very important for RIR? Then he told me, after I bought two bags of layer feed, that I should give them gamebird grower "because that is medicated too and it will clean out their system." Now, I'm not one to believe anything they tell me because they also told me it is fine to eat the eggs while worming the chickens. So... I didn't entirely believe him but it did put stuff in my head. MORE stuff to think about. *sigh*

Am I just wasting my money on these meds? Is it likely that the worms are not gonna die because we didn't withhold feed? I just want to give their systems a break from all this medicine. I need words of advice. Sorry I'm complaining, there just isn't anyone around my area that I can really talk to. Most people think I'm crazy for taking care of my chickens the way I do.