Is it even worth it to continue?

[Blackhillboulder]

Hey friends, I write today asking for some insight regarding my hens.

I wanna preface by saying that there isn't a vet that will really help me, so I am coming to you for this.


So i had a few girls pass, and was worried. Eventually noticed these white worms.

Thanks to the threads here, I found out that means Tapeworms.
Being very excited to have found the cause, I went to the vet and ask for a dewormer product.
I got it, gave it to them as fast as I could, and waited. The Vet worker told me I should wait a day or two before I eat the eggs.

Eventually, after the rush of having found the fix wore off, I decided to look up the product.
That was Baycox (Toltrazuril) 2.5% 50 ml. I saw there is no official egg withdrawal period for this product, and that laying hens should't have it in the first place.
It has been a month since I gave them. In that period, I have only lost one hen. Im just not confident in the choice of eating the eggs again, and im worried about providing close friends/family with eggs that do more harm than good.

If anyone smarter or more informed could give their 2 cents, I would appreciate it immensely.
For context I have about 40 hens, two 5-liter water feeders, and I gave them the Baycox over a period of 2 days.

 

[AinaWGSD]

If it's been a month all traces of the dewormer will have worked its way out of their systems by now. There should be nothing remaining to pass into the eggs.

Edited: I have underestimated the length of time this medication can hang around, found an article on sciencedirect.com re: Risk of residues of toltrazuril sulfone in eggs

•
Highest residues of toltrazuril sulfone was found in yolk and whole eggs samples.

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After 70 days no residues for toltrazuril sulfone was found for dosage of 7 mg kg−1.

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Setting Maximum Residue Limit of 50 µg kg−1 reduces withdrawal time to 44 days.

So it looks like if you want absolutely no trace of toltrazuril detectable you should wait 70 days, but at 44 days residual toltrazuril levels should be "acceptable" for human consumption.

 

[Eggcessive]

Tapeworms may only occur in a particular chicken, so it is only necessary to treat a chicken where they are passing the tapeworm segments.

To my knowledge, Baycox/toltrazuril treats coccidiosis, not worms or tapeworms. The ingredient that will treat them is praziquantel, found in Droncit and Drontal tablets, Zimectrin Gold, and Equimax horse paste. Dosage for Equimax only is 0.16 ml for a 5 pound chicken given orally once and repeated in 10-14 days. Egg withdrawal time for praziquantel is at least 2 weeks according to some studies.

As far as toltrazuril egg withdrawal times, here is a study with results:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0308814621010608