PLS HELP! New chicken owner and I think they have worms! What do I do????

[RedneckGurl]

I've only had my girls a week today and I thought everything was going great with them until this morning. I adopted 13 older hens from a friend who is "freshening" her flock and didn't want to cull her older girls so instead I adopted them. Anyway, they have been doing fine, a few are already laying eggs despite all the strange and new things they've been exposed to over the past week. Anyway, I went out late this morning to give them a treat of some cucumbers and there was a very fresh, wet, chocolate brown poop on the steps up into the coop. I have seen pics on here of poop like that and didn't think it was cocci since it was classified as a "normal" poop....then I noticed that the poop was moving!!!!!

I looked closer and there were hundreds of tiny little things, I'm guessing worms, wriggling around in the poop. You can barely see them, they are no bigger around than sewing thread and not very long...it's mostly their movement you notice. I have no clue what to do at this point? I tried searching some of the existing threads on here but they mostly addressed tape worms and just got me more confused. Can anyone who has some experience with this give me some suggestions/answers? I already adore them and I can't bear to think of them being sick or hurt. Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

 

[coopmaid]

Your perception and realizing a problem is the key tool for correcting the problem. Apparently the adopted chickens were wormy. Go to our local feed store and buy diatomaceous earth and feed according to the directions on container. There are two kinds white powdery and grey color....both works great. You may need to do this treatment about 3 times for the whole flock ..1st 3weeks. however, Treat everything.... Worms are contagious. Note: keep this product on hand... I use it twice a month on my flock. My friends ask me how I know when to worm.... My answer is to look at your eggs.... Do your chicken eggs look dirty with poopy looking stuff on them or do they look clean? If you notice your eggs are not clean when u gather them .... Signs to worm your chickens. I use diatomaceous earth as a maintenance protocol and never let my eggs develop dirty/poop appearance. This is a step towards maintaining backyard chickens.... It all works out

 

[coopmaid]

Your perception and realizing a problem is the key tool for correcting the problem. Apparently the adopted chickens were wormy. Go to our local feed store and buy diatomaceous earth and feed according to the directions on container. There are two kinds white powdery and grey color....both works great. You may need to do this treatment about 3 times for the whole flock ..1st 3weeks. however, Treat everything.... Worms are contagious. Note: keep this product on hand... I use it twice a month on my flock. My friends ask me how I know when to worm.... My answer is to look at your eggs.... Do your chicken eggs look dirty with poopy looking stuff on them or do they look clean? If you notice your eggs are not clean when u gather them .... Signs to worm your chickens. I use diatomaceous earth as a maintenance protocol and never let my eggs develop dirty/poop appearance. This is a step towards maintaining backyard chickens.... It all works out

By the way, take a container of diatomaceous earth to your friend who blessed you with her chickens. She may not know the importance to deworming her flock..... This will benefit her chickens too.

 

[dawg53]

Your perception and realizing a problem is the key tool for correcting the problem. Apparently the adopted chickens were wormy. Go to our local feed store and buy diatomaceous earth and feed according to the directions on container. There are two kinds white powdery and grey color....both works great. You may need to do this treatment about 3 times for the whole flock ..1st 3weeks. however, Treat everything.... Worms are contagious. Note: keep this product on hand... I use it twice a month on my flock. My friends ask me how I know when to worm.... My answer is to look at your eggs.... Do your chicken eggs look dirty with poopy looking stuff on them or do they look clean? If you notice your eggs are not clean when u gather them .... Signs to worm your chickens. I use diatomaceous earth as a maintenance protocol and never let my eggs develop dirty/poop appearance. This is a step towards maintaining backyard chickens.... It all works out

Two facts: Chicken eggs with poopy looking stuff and not clean does NOT mean chickens have worms. Secondly, diatomeceous earth is useless as a wormer despite what a salesman or the DE website tells you.
Purchase either valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer or safeguard liquid goat wormer to worm your birds, then repeat dosing again 10 days later.

 

[ten chicks]

I've only had my girls a week today and I thought everything was going great with them until this morning. I adopted 13 older hens from a friend who is "freshening" her flock and didn't want to cull her older girls so instead I adopted them. Anyway, they have been doing fine, a few are already laying eggs despite all the strange and new things they've been exposed to over the past week. Anyway, I went out late this morning to give them a treat of some cucumbers and there was a very fresh, wet, chocolate brown poop on the steps up into the coop. I have seen pics on here of poop like that and didn't think it was cocci since it was classified as a "normal" poop....then I noticed that the poop was moving!!!!!

I looked closer and there were hundreds of tiny little things, I'm guessing worms, wriggling around in the poop. You can barely see them, they are no bigger around than sewing thread and not very long...it's mostly their movement you notice. I have no clue what to do at this point? I tried searching some of the existing threads on here but they mostly addressed tape worms and just got me more confused. Can anyone who has some experience with this give me some suggestions/answers? I already adore them and I can't bear to think of them being sick or hurt. Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

Sure they were not maggots?

 

[dawg53]

Sure they were not maggots?

They probably were maggots. When worms are excreted, they cant survive outside the host. They are either dead or dieing.

 

[RedneckGurl]

No, they weren't maggots....I've seen plenty of them this year due to the over abundance of flies we've had. Maggots would be considered enormous compared to the size of what was in that poop. I went back out about an hour later and there were lots of flies on what had been the pile of chocolate colored poop on the step. There were a few pieces of what looked like "regular' poop left on the step and all the wet, jelly-like stuff was gone but the worms, tiny little things, no more than 1/8th inch long, very very thin, and curled up into "c" shapes were left drying out on the wooden steps. What kind of worms are those -- does anyone know? As for DE, I've sprinkled it all around in the sand on the inside of my coop, on the roosts, in the nest boxes, and all over the run, along with some sand. I am waiting on the chickens to eat all the grass in the brand new run before I haul in the 14 tons of sand I plan to use once the grass is gone. I put Bragg's ACV in their waterer last night too. Dawg, how do I know the appropriate dosage of this stuff and how do you administer it? Will it kill all worms or do I need to know what kind they are before I know which stuff to buy?

 

[dawg53]

For either valbazen or safeguard liquid wormers: Dosages are the same....give 1/2cc orally undiluted to standard size birds, 1/4cc for smaller birds. Repeat dosing in 10 days. There's a 14 day withdrawal period after last dosing. By your description of the worms and since they're not moving.... sounds like cecal worms. Both valbazen and /or safeguard will kill cecal worms.

 

[coopmaid]

Two facts: Chicken eggs with poopy looking stuff and not clean does NOT mean chickens have worms. Secondly, diatomeceous earth is useless as a wormer despite what a salesman or the DE website tells you. Purchase either valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer or safeguard liquid goat wormer to worm your birds, then repeat dosing again 10 days later.

now she has options to choose which method of wormer to use. Weather she uses goat wormer or tried and proven natural healthy wormer. I use diatomaceous earth and it works fantastic. The point here we must focus on when posting a reply is we are giving advice and not challenging another's members answers. We must focus on the fact ..... It is an important step in keeping a healthy flock ......deworming is a must

 

[Eggcessive]

Albendazole (the same as Valbazen) is used to treat worms in humans also.