Top Ten Worming and Wormer Misinformations - Graphic Pictures!

[casportpony]

So many to list, but I'll start with:

• 3cc Safeguard per gallon. This is a huge pet peeve of mine! Who started this and why do so many people still think it's an effective way to worm? This is a chick that had been treated with 3cc Safeguard per gallon.

Read more about it here:
Post #54 - https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...feather-damage-while-molting/50#post_14133795

• Wazine is a good wormer. Nope, it only gets roundworms.
• DE, ACV, pumkin seeds prevent/treat worms. Nope, they don't dont.
• Ivermectin is a good wormer for poultry. Nope, many studies show otherwise.
• My bird doesn't have worms because I don't see them in it's poop.

-Kathy

10/28/2014 - Added text in red
10/28/2014 - Added text in red

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/934088/top-ten-misinformation-lists

 

[Wyandottes7]

Good information!

If I may add another misconception, here's one that seems to be pretty common:

• Diatamaceous Earth works as a dewormer. Not true! Diatamaceous Earth, though sometimes effective against external parasites, is pretty useless when wet, such as when it travels through a chicken's digestive tract. It will not treat your birds if they have worms, and may not work well as a preventative, either.

 

[Michael Apple]

With the Benzamidazole class of dewormers, it is clear that their anthelmintic effectiveness upon Helminths (intestinal worms) is due to their ability to compromise the cytoskeleton through a selective interaction with the Helminth.
http://www.wormbook.org/chapters/www_anthelminticdrugs/anthelminticdrugs.html

This is important to know since anthelmintics such as Piperazine (Wazine) and Levamisole cause paralysis in intestinal worms rather than destruction of the worm itself. A high number of worms paralyzed in the intestinal tract of a chicken could cause impaction if the intestinal tract is irritated/inflamed.

"Benzimidazoles represent the only class of truly broad-spectrum anthelmintics, however, they also show activity against fungi and mammalian cells. This raises the question as to why benzimidazoles can selectively kill helminths and yet exhibit little or no mammalian toxicity."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/016947589090227U

Examples of Benzamidazole classes of anthelmintics would be Albendazole (Valbazen) and Fenbendazole (Safe-guard). Both are safely used in the removal of Helminths in chickens.

One example of a study with Albendazole:
http://japr.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/3/392.full.pdf

 

[Michael Apple]

What about not worming unless you see it in their stool? Honestly this is so disgusting it is turning me off from raising chickens. And I really enjoy it otherwise. Can't handle helminths. Can they pass to humans through all the bird droppings in my yard?!

Intestinal worms are generally species specific, and intestinal worms that infect chickens are not transferable to humans or dogs. You say you can't handle it, so what do you do if your dog or cat or child gets worms? Hold your hands up and surrender? This is nature in our material world, and those living things in nature that seek to kill you or your animals need to be combated. See it as a perpetual war of sorts, and you are the one who wants to conquer.

 

[Michael Apple]

Lol@Michael Apple , ok then, if it's war I must win! Good point. No dogs or cats but if worms infected me or my children they would get a whooping with antihelmintics so I guess I should do the same for the chickens. I just haven't seen any of the reported signs of infection except one girl not laying for a few months.

That's good. The thing about chickens is they are stoic like many animals. Often, when symptoms become severe, an infection has existed for awhile. There could be a number of reasons one hen isn't laying while the rest are. Supplementing nutrition is always a good first step, but underweight hens, hens eating more than usual, foamy droppings and diarrhea that become common, are obvious early signs of intestinal problems, worms and coccidia being the most common.

I firm up loose droppings pretty quick with a couple days of Probios and vitamin-electrolyte powder in water in most cases. I won't use junk feed and remain picky about feed formulations ( I choose organic from a particular local mill). If that doesn't work in couple days, generally treating for Coccidiosis, worms is the next step. Generally, I will be sure to deworm before breeding season and before moult. That's only twice a year. Many people expect to see intestinal worms in droppings as a revelation, but many types are not visible without a magnifying glass in sunlight such as capillary sp. and cecal worms before reaching maturity.

Of course, keeping grass cut around range and pen areas, avoiding that goofy deep litter method (I don't want to change my litter for 6 months or a year, so I let it build up to attract more vectors because I want to be perceived as Mr. Natural or Captain Ecology, running around naked and eating quinoa ), feeding birds in troughs instead of spreading feed on dirt, well draining soil (amending sand and oyster shell flour into soil helps), cleaning up rodent or bird carcasses on range (I have crows, jays, and cats that kill other birds/rodents and leave body parts occasionally out on range. I get rid of them if I see them to keep my birds from snacking on them when ranging), are all good preventative methods.

Birds will eat snakes, bugs, worms, snails, and slugs, and that is the way it is since we don't keep them in our homes or in a lab. We can keep an eye on their health though, and treat accordingly if we take preventative measures or catch symptoms early enough to prevent mortality. Chickens are lots of work, but certainly worth it to me. I may get older and have fewer chickens, but I'll always have them if I can take care of them.

 

[andreanar]

Following this thread. Is there a thread listing correct info on what to give and dosages for different ailments?

 

[Michael Apple]

Following this thread. Is there a thread listing correct info on what to give and dosages for different ailments?

With all the varying percentages of ingredients in medications among different manufacturers, the different medications targeting the same disease, that could be a long intensive list. Some medications are more effective than others, some are safer than others, some are for broad spectrum use, and others meant to target specific diseases most effectively. Contacting the manufacturer of the medication is always the best first step since there is so much misinformation on the web, even among sellers of certain products..

 

[casportpony]

One of these days I'm gonna do a side-by-side comparison of Safeguard and Valbazen.

-Kathy

 

[KsKingBee]

Adding any medication to a wet feed is really pretty simple. Those of us who regularly feed a wet or fermented feed have it really easy as we already know how much feed to make up each day. For example, I feed twice per day and make up the same amount for each feeding. When I make my mash I start with a measured amount of water in a bucket and add the feed to it and after it sets for all day or all night I use a large paint paddle on a heavy duty drill to mix everything up into an oatmeal consistency . The five gallon bucket of mash I make feeds about 75 peafowl.

When I add medication to my mash I can either put it in the water before I add the crumbles or I can add it to the mash and beat it in with the paint paddle as long as it is soupy. If you perfer a drier mash I suggest that you add the medication to the water and then add the crumbles.

Don't worry if the bird is getting enough feed, smaller birds eat less and larger birds eat more. As long as you put the right amount of meds in the recipe it works out. I believe that putting the medication in feed or a direct drench is the only sure way to deliver a correct dosage. Beware of putting meds in water, if they don't drink it they are not medicated. Then there is the hard water problem, many of the meds are reduced in potency or negated altogether when mixed in hard water.

 

[dawg53]

How do you know you need to deworm your birds??

Your soil determines when and how often you should worm your birds. Warm moist or wet soil requires frequent wormings. Soil that is cool/cold, rocky or hot dry desertlike may require less frequent wormings. Birds kept on the same soil should be wormed on a regular basis. Birds infested with worms are lethargic, eat/drink little or not at all, no egg laying, unthrifty, and can have pale combs. When you see these signs, internal damage has already occured and it's possible the bird may be on her way out. It's best to set up a regular worming schedule according to your soil conditions as you see fit for your area where you live. Worms weaken a chickens immune system which opens the door to many types of diseases....worms being the root cause.