Deworming chickens

[MyPetNugget]

I read on here that you need to deworm your chickens yearly or every 6 months. I didn't know this and I don't ever want them to get worms.

Is there a natural way to deworm them without any medicine? I've also heard somewhere that feeding them squash and things like that will help prevent worms. Is this true? And if not are there any other ways? Thanks in advance!

 

[mullys]

Dewormed chicken eggs should not be given to any other animal. Incorrect dosing with dewormers (by feeding drugged eggs to dogs) causes parasite resistance. How much of the drug is passed through?. Eventually we will be seeing parasites that don't respond to our best drugs.
Eggs are cheap, just safely discard them. Even throwing them on the manure pile is not a good idea. The drug in the eggs should not be eaten by any animal or leach into the ground. And be careful to wash your hands.
Drug resistant is growing across the board. If it continues, animal owners/ farmers will not be able to freely purchase drugs.
Google Baytril resistance to learn more.

 

[Eggcessive]

Vinegar will not deworm your chickens. If you want to treat for all chicken worms, Valbazen would be good, SafeGuard Goat wormer or horse paste will treat all but tapeworms. Wazine will only get roundworms. It depends on the conditions where you live for how often you worm. Twice a year is the average to worm, but people living in hot humid areas may need to do it more often.

 

[IZZYBELLA]

I have had chickens for a year and didn't know about needing to deworm until I lost a chicken and then found a huge roundworm in one of the surviving ones droppings. Tough lesson to learn... I felt so guilty. At least you are catching on before you have a problem!

I used Wazine and Valbazen the first time and then went with just Valbazen when I dewormed the second time 6 months later. I just question how much Wazine they really all get and plus it only kills roundworms. I have not mastered the use of syringes, so I soak the dose in bread pieces and feed it to each bird.

 

[dawg53]

This is the third time this week. I just got her from a friend about two weeks ago, she's only a couple months old

Go ahead and get her started on Corid 9.6% liquid solution. Dosage is 9.5cc's per gallon of water for 5 days. Make it fresh each day, dont add anything else to the mixture and it must be made fresh each day. It can be found in the cattle section in a feed store.

 

[BethLeopard]

The people at the feed store where I purchased my chicks told me to use apple cider vinegar in their drinking water.... 2 capfuls to 1 gallon as a natural wormer and preventative.

 

[dawg53]

The people at the feed store where I purchased my chicks told me to use apple cider vinegar in their drinking water.... 2 capfuls to 1 gallon as a natural wormer and preventative.

The people at the feed store gave you misinformation. ACV will not prevent nor treat worms. I've used it for years and my birds still got worms.
There are plenty of products available for worming: Wazine, Safeguard, Valbazen, Pyrantal Pamoate are just a few.

 

[Eggcessive]

Safeguard liquid goat wormer (fenbendazole) is used off-label in chickens. Most older posts said to give 1/2 ml orally and repeat in 10days which would get the round worms and probably cecal worms. But if there could be the more complicated worms such as gapeworm or capillary worms, then a larger dose given for 3 days (for gapeworm) and 5 days (for capillary worms.) In many posts by Casportpony, she instructed most people to give it the maximum amount 23mg per lb for 5 days in a row since most don't know what worms their chickens have. I usually just round that off to 1/4 ml per pound, and give for 3-5 days.

It helps to not read posts that are too old about worms, since drugs and dosages have been updated. Sticking with threads that have been posted in the last 2 years are usually better.

 

[Katkumo]

Just joined officially, and wanted to express my gratitude to everyone on this thread. I'm deworming my flock today, and thanks to all the information provided here, I'm confident that this will be successful. I'm so glad I have a stockpile of eggs right now, lol.

 

[dawg53]

oh, I see. I actually have never wormed my chickens before, ( I didn't know). It does get humid quite often. Were would I get any of those products? Do they carry them at TSC? Or maybe amazon? My chickens don't have any signs of worms now, but I was just reading about them and wanted to be preventive. I 've heard that sometimes squash prevents worms; is this true? Thank you so much for your help!

Squash seeds are questionable at best. I use what I know is effective against internal parasites, no guesswork about it. Our TSC carries wazine and safeguard liquid goat wormer. I recommend the safeguard liquid goat wormer, it costs about $20 for the 125ml bottle and has a 2-3 year expiration date. Administer the wormer orally undiluted using a syringe without a needle. Dosage is 3/4cc orally to each chicken for 3 days in a row for large birds, 1/2cc for standard size birds, 1/4cc for smaller birds. There's a 14 day withdrawal period after the last dosing.