Worm Help

Hi there fellow chicken lovers!

Tonight my son noticed a white stringy looking thing in someone's poo....I googled it and it looks like Roundworm. Seems fairly common. What is the best medicine (prefer something I don't have to stick down their throat as I'm very new to this!) I'm going to watch them tomorrow and try to figure out who has the worms. But, I figure I should worm them all. Is there an all around across-the-board worm med?

I also have a gold laced Wy. with a huge chest. She's had it since she came to live with us about a month ago. She is eating and pooping fine but oh my goodness, she stinks horribly. Like a dead animal. I isolated her today and gave her bread soaked in olive oil and tried massaging her crop. I've read about gapeworm....I've not seen any red wrigglies in her poos but do her other symptoms sound like it? She is fast if you try to catch her but certainly not lively like the other chickens. Red comb but I did notice she has plucked out some of her breast feathers. Which made me think she was broody not too long ago....I also thought she had 'broody poo' but now I think maybe it was just her that smelled.

Thank you all for your chicken wisdom helping this newbie.

Deworm with Valbazen (.08 cc per pound of bird). If you don't want to use a syringe without a needle, put the amount needed on a cut square of bread and make sure each bird eats one in the morning before setting out feed. Deworm again 10 days later. Use some Probios dispersible powder a couple days a week in water to aid in digestive health. During breeding season, some hens will pull breast feathers while nesting on eggs. It is instinctual and you may notice they add it to nesting material. So long as there is no excessive pulling of feathers and hens are not wounding themselves or others, it is normal. Check birds periodically by parting feathers on body, under wings, and around vent to prevent mites, and lice. Head lamps come in handy for this so you have two free hands to work with.

Thank you Michael. So just medicine one day on the square of bread and then medicine one day 10 days later? That sounds easy enough.

ranchgirlcooks said:

Thank you Michael. So just medicine one day on the square of bread and then medicine one day 10 days later? That sounds easy enough.

Click to expand...

You're welcome.
Yes. One dose each bird, then another dose for each bird 10 days after. .50 cc for a 6 lb bird is acceptable since Albendazole, the anthelmintic in Valbazen, has a wide safety margin.
http://japr.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/3/392.abstract

Keep an eye on that Wyandotte with a full crop. Check it in the morning before feeding and it should be empty. If not, you may have to separate her and give just poultry vitamin-electrolyte powder in water for a day and withhold feed. Then the next day give only moistened feed with no scratch grains. A little buttermilk soaked bread is good, but only give small amounts periodically throughout the first day. Then check the crop the following morning to see if food is leaving the crop.

Capillary worms can inhibit crop function, invade the esophagus and gizzard, as well as lack of grit for the gizzard, or too much protein. Sometimes it is not the crop that is the problem, but the gizzard, or farther down the intestinal tract. I make sure I feed birds well before letting them out to range. That way they don''t gorge on grass, which can often cause blockage in the crop if they eat enough of it. Keeping pasture grass cut short helps prevent it too.