Chicken worms: How to ID and is the bird safe to eat

[casportpony]

Quote: I just found it, and it has no de-wormer.

Quote: Source: http://www.durvet.com/dl/ProfitBuilder_Winter_16.pdf

 

[acastlechicken]

Thanks everyone for all the help. I really appreciate it. I am fairly positive my flock does not have worms, at least not at a level that shows. I am going to hopefully be getting a new batch of chicks soon and will harvest the current flock here in a few months. I may harvest a few birds early.

Have a great day!

 

[chicknmania]

I just found it, and it has no de-wormer.

Source: http://www.durvet.com/dl/ProfitBuilder_Winter_16.pdf

OH, well....great. I actually was looking forward to it being back on the shelves as a dewormer, as I like to alternate it occasionally with other dewormers. I think you can still get it as prescription though?

 

[Bmart41685]

My chickens have recently developed what I call "mud butt". Where their poop is runny and leaves a trail on their down feathers when they poop. I've only had birds for one year. I have been using DE for worming but I noticed my new rooster I've had for 4 months started stretching his neck and shaking his head, laying down in the yard, staggering when he got up. I caught him yesterday and examined him visually and couldn't find anything. He acted normal other than the symptoms I described above even topping hens off normally. I went to feed this morning and he was dead in the run. I researched online and found his symptoms line up with worm I festation. So I went and bought Safe Gaurd pellets and gave with feed today. I'm noticing alot of people using Wazine 17. I was thinking wait 10 days and treat with the Wazine? Any advice would be helpful. Also I've started some of my hens in a seperate coop to lay out and hatch off his fertilized eggs while I still can. In an attempted to hatch off a new rooster. Any reason why I shouldn't hatch chicks while worming.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm curious to know if you opened him up and examined his intestinal tract to confirm your diagnosis? His symptoms mimic other things as well, so giving a dewormer may just give you a false sense of security when he could have died for disease related symptoms.

 

[Bmart41685]

I did not open him up. I work long hours and 3rd shift. I found him yesterday morning late and I looked him over externally before burying him. I only had short time before I had to be back at work. I looked for matches to his symptoms online. The stretching of the neck and shaking of his head, the loss of balance, light brown runny poop and the tips of his comb were off colored. Like a blueish purple. He only started with those symptoms two weeks ago and the stumbling only lasted a minute or two and then he seemed fine. He was around 3 years old as well. I'm just puzzled over it all. The first thing all my chicken friends have told me to do is worm and worm with chemicals. Since I've been using DE.

 

[Bmart41685]

Also. I have 10 hens and all seem healthy and happy. No external parasites, no lesions, all eating well and seem fine. Other than some of them having some runny poop.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I did not open him up. I work long hours and 3rd shift. I found him yesterday morning late and I looked him over externally before burying him. I only had short time before I had to be back at work. I looked for matches to his symptoms online. The stretching of the neck and shaking of his head, the loss of balance, light brown runny poop and the tips of his comb were off colored. Like a blueish purple. He only started with those symptoms two weeks ago and the stumbling only lasted a minute or two and then he seemed fine. He was around 3 years old as well. I'm just puzzled over it all. The first thing all my chicken friends have told me to do is worm and worm with chemicals. Since I've been using DE.

Hi, welcome to BYC!

So you must realize that DE doesn't work as a wormer. But I agree with @Beekissed and think you are jumping the gun to assume worms caused a death in an otherwise healthy bird in under two weeks.

You might be busy... but taking a fecal sample to the vet could at least confirm your suspicion or direct you on a more appropriate path to protect the rest of your flock. Thinking there may have been underlying issues?

Checking your birds during the day isn't going to tell you the whole parasite truth.

Checking them at night, under a flash light will give you a more accurate picture. Take them off the roost and lay them on their backs, legs bent towards chest and flash light near the vent. Part some feathers and see what runs away. I hang out with my birds for hours every day. Have a few pullets that sit on my lap regularly and inspect often. Never saw anything until processing cockerels for the freezer stage of their development, taken dark and early off roost. My roost swipe came back negative for mites.

I'm not trying to harsh you.... there are just so many possibilities, I hate to have you put all your eggs in one basket so to speak when other possibilities are easy to rule out before experiencing another death.

Just to be clear.... if one of your chickens has something else going on and you worm because that's what your chicken friends told you to do.... Could actually cause more harm than good, even death. And if you have the misfortune of loosing another feathered friend, a necropsy will tell you why they died, at least more definitively than a bunch of guessing and can often be done for low or no cost at state ag departments and universities. Here is a link...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/799747/how-to-send-a-bird-for-a-necropsy-pictures

 

[casportpony]

 
I just found it, and it has no de-wormer.

Source: http://www.durvet.com/dl/ProfitBuilder_Winter_16.pdf

OH, well....great. I actually was looking forward to it being back on the shelves as a dewormer, as I like to alternate it occasionally with other dewormers.  I think you can still get it as prescription though?

I think you can probably get hygromycin b by prescription, but I have a feeling that the mfg's of Rooster Booster and Strike III will discontinue the products because they were originally meant to be sold OTC. If you ant to buy some, check eBay and Amazon... I bet you'll find it there.

 

[casportpony]

Thanks everyone for all the help. I really appreciate it. I am fairly positive my flock does not have worms, at least not at a level that shows. I am going to hopefully be getting a new batch of chicks soon and will harvest the current flock here in a few months. I may harvest a few birds early. 

Have a great day!

When you do process them you might want to dissect their esophagus, crop, proventriculas, gizzard, intestines, including cecal pouches for all the types of worms they can get. Or you could just process them and not worry about it.