Uuugghhh... constant worms it seems!

dawg53 said:

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Hi again dawg53... what would you like photos of? The poo and worm I saw this morning were blasted away by my hose and my anger - sorry, should have taken a photo. But I'm sure it was a tapeworm. It was one of those small segments with those lines encircling its body and it was "inching" around. I squashed the poo to see if there were more, but just the one. I haven't seen worms in any of their poo for weeks, but still noticed diarrhea/water poo in the run when I would let them out to free range and my EE has produced a few poos that look abnormal (picture - not a great quality photo, sorry about that). It was watery and white with really dark pellet-like poo. Every once in a while I'll find a watery poo that is just white, milky looking with no browns or blacks at all, but not sure who it came from (similar to second photo). But I'm so tired of medicating them and plus their spirits are always good, so it's hard to tell what/if anything is wrong. I'm a little bit emotionally drained by all of it because I love animals, especially mine, and I want them to live happy lives... but of course if the worms are going to kill them if I don't do anything about it then I guess I have to keep doing something but I'm really sick of throwing out my eggs.

The soil isn't... "wet" necessarily... but everyday is hot and humid (today is 67% it says online). I moved my 3 into the driest spot of our yard a while ago and we are going into dry season right now so we haven't had any heavy rains recently. However, during the last week or two I did wet the soil just a bit because it was so hot and I wanted to let them bury themselves into the cool dirt. Maybe that caused a problem? I didn't waterlog it though... now the soil is covered with dry ironwood needles... which are like giant spindly pine needles I guess. The chickens are right up against the side of my garden which obviously has a lot of bugs roaming/flying/crawling/digging around in it, so I imagine if there were tapeworms around that needed a host there are plenty around the area.

It's not possible to just let them live "wormy" for the next two months or so and then try to treat them again? I feel like I'm making them sick with so much dewormer meds.

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dawg53 said:

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Here are pictures from lunch:
Picture 1: Poo photo from either my RIR rooster or RIR hen (not my EE who had a worm in her poo this morning), there's a worm segment there being attacked by ants
Picture 2: Dried up poo from a few days ago - like I was saying, not a lot of actual poo but just watery and white
Picture 3: The kind of poo I've been seeing lately - small, pellet like, but no worms
Picture 4: Right as I put my EE hen in the run after lunch she pooed and it looks terrible... *sigh* I didn't get a super good look at it cuz I was in a rush, but it's definitely not how it should look
Picture 5: The inside of their run - the soil is not moist anywhere except near their water dish, but they don't scratch right up against the container

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akhadley said:

I also just read that you should rotate the wormers so the parasites don't become immune to the wormer? Is this true? Or is it okay that I use Valbazen every 3-4 months (in theory - if my chickens weren't full of worms ALL the time)

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dawg53 said:

The ants carrying off the tapeworm segment photo: Each segment carries hundreds of eggs. The eggs will be eaten by the ants. The ants will carry the eggs internally.
Only use the zimectrin gold on birds that you know for fact that have tapeworms, such as either your RIR roo or RIR hen because you witnessed a segment being carried off by the ants....or other chickens that show segments in feces. Again, to make the wormer more effective, I recommend withholding the chickens feed for 24 hours prior to worming. This will make the worms "starve" for nutrients and the only "nutrients" they'll be getting is a deadly dose of the wormer. Do not give feed to your birds at least 3 hours after worming. Then when you feed them, feed them in small quantities gradually giving them more feed during the day. If you dont feed them gradually and just put the feed out free choice, they will gorge themselves on the feed and possibly cause impacted crop or gizzard.
The valbazen will last you a long time, use it every 3 months to keep your birds worm free, sooner if it rains alot. It would take a long time for it to become ineffective. If you have chicken tractors, move your birds around to different locations in your yard. Chickens have a greater chance of getting worms if kept on the same soil. Additionally you can add sand in your chicken pens, 5 to 6 inches deep. Sand helps in deterring insects and parasites. Sand wont wash away like dirt and it dries quicker than dirt....like the beach. Birds will drink from a nasty mud puddle before drinking clean water from a waterer or container...sand will eliminate mud puddles. The key is keeping everything dry, simply do as best as you can do.

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akhadley said:

*sigh* here I go again...

Is there an easier way to give them the Zimectrin? When I tried to give it on the bread last time they were VERY suspicious and wouldn't take it so we ended up having to shove the little piece of medicated bread down their throats which freaked me out... I don't want them to choke or have it go into their lungs by accident. Is there any way I can water it down so it will go into a syringe and shoot it down their throats like Valbazen? That's much easier for us to do. My RIRs are not keen on being held- especially the rooster - so the faster and easier it is the better.

And thank you, again, for all your help over the past several months.

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