Worming chickens..........

I wonder how many of you routinely 'worm' your chickens, and with 'what' meds...........??
Or, does anyone have an opinion on putting DE, at the recommended amount, in their feed, as
the sole form of 'worming'???

My friend Nathalie Ross "threehorses" put this on one of her posts on worming

Time to evaluate your whole flock. Pick them up, check their keels. If you feel sharp keels, it's time to consider your worming protocol. If you haven't wormed in a while, then worm first with piperazine to knock back the majority of roundworms, the most common worm in poultry. It won't kill them all - and that's good. If your birds are heavily infested then you only want to kill a good number and not all so as not to overwhelm your birds' systems with dead parasites. Overwhelming could include rejection of the foreign proteins which the dead worms become, or clogging of the intestines with the passage of dead worms. So piperazine first, wait a bit, then either do it again or go with something more strong like ivermectin or another broad-spectrum wormer recommended here.

Any time you treat with anything, including wormers, you should always use probiotics thereafter in the following week. These can include store bought livestock probiotics like Fastrack or Probios, avian specific ones from Petsmart/Petco like Ornabac, capsules of acidophilus (or yeast-infection treating pills) from the grocery/health food store/pharmacy, or even plain yogurt with live culture (most are). Mix whatever probiotic you choose into something you know they'll eat quickly - wetted down crumble with egg yolk is generally irresistable.

with that said for round worms
I will post the next one on Ivermectin
about using Ivermectin for the other worms

ivomec kinds
Ivomec 1% is water soluable and injectable, fast
release and needs lowing down going thru the gut. that
is why they use proplene glycol 3 drops to 1 drop of
ivemec 1%.
5% pour on is oil based and only used on shoulder of
the bird in drops. Slow release going into the
body
Something I noticed when comparing labels is that
Ivermectin Pour-On( 5%) kills both sucking & biting lice
whereas Ivermectin Injectable(1%) kills sucking lice but
not biting lice.

The words that people can't eat the eggs after worming is this:
It just means that the eggs can't be used for 10 days
A friend of mine Nathalie Ross gave this infoon using Ivermectin


If you go with Ivermectin injectable, you'll also need to buy propylene glycol to use with the injectable.
By the time you do this, you've spent the same amount of money as the pour on with what I feel isn't the
same level of effectiveness honestly, but some
people have access to injectable and not pour on so it's an option.

For the pour on Ivermectin (not Eprinex) the dosage I
use is as follows:
1 drop - OEGB sized small bantam female
2 drops - OEGB sized small bantam male
3 drops - average bantams
4 drops - large bantams, small commercial fowl
5 drops - most commercial fowl, small giant hens
6 drops - giant breeds of chicken

I always use a 3 cc syringe that I just fill to about
2 cc's with a 20 gauge needle. The needle WON'T be injected into the chicken, but does make it easier to dispense a controlled correct sized drop. It also is easier to get in there between the feathers.

For location, you'll want to find an easy to reach
spot with as little fluff as possible. I've had the
best luck with the back of the neck when I am by myself.

I just pick up the chicken in my left
hand, ruffle around the feathers with my right hand until I find a nice clear spot, then rotate the syringe around to dispense the drops exactly on the skin.

If you hit the fluff, it will soak in before
you can do anything and will be wasted. That stuff soaks in like lightening (which I discovered to my horror when I accidently got about 1 cc of it on me from the bottle - I'm worm free now!)
after giving Ivermectin.

Do the throwing of the eggs away for 10 days and then the medication will be out of the gut of the chickens

But at least you would rid the chickens of the worms which are eating 90% of the chickens daily feed!

they will be better off by getting the Chemical wormer first ( I would give wazine first then in 10 days the ivermectin)
so the chickens body can be rid of the adult round worms and then the other worms from Iermectin

It will cause a less poisonous effect on the gut of the chickens. If not having been wormed before the killing of the round worms is enough for first time then in 19 days worm with Ivermectin

If after worming you want to get what adults are in the gut of the chickens you can put 2% of daily feed by giving DE

The chemical wormer goes into the blood stream and the DE worms by knicking the soft worms skin and they die of dehydration
so the chickens are covered both ways

email me for any questions you have

I will put the herbal ways and DE on next post

Okay the reason I believe in using a chemical wormer first is that they get to the blood stream and the kill off the worm larvea

then you can fee the DE with 20% of DE to 80% feed
for the amt you feed daily

as the DE goes thru the gut and the diadems (which are fossil shells from the sea beds)
they knick the adult soft skined worms and the dehydrate and the chickens body uses the dead worms as protein

then the DE comes out in the chicken manure and the flies light on it and are knicked and killed

so it does doble duty

then you can use a herbal wormer like cayanne pepper

with that said
really if going with a herbal wormer
I would use cayanne pepper
as pumpkin seed doesn't get that amt of worms

feed crumbles 1 gallon
3 tbsp of cayanne pepper feed for 2 weeks
then feed it for life as it will worm them generally right along

also the cayanne pepper kills the coccidiosis germs

so that will keep your flock healthy
any questions just email me PM

Such good info, Glenda! Thanks a bunch! How do you use piperazine?

pepperzine is same as wazine
it has been around longer so those of us that are older say peperzine
use the wazine either strength and do as they say on the bottle

any other questions email me

I don't routinely worm because we live in a very dry climate and parasites are rarely a problem. If I suspect anything I take a stool specimen (mix several different stool specimens from different birds to get a complete overview of the flock, especially pick up anything that looks suspicious) to the vet for a fecal float.

What the vet has given us in the past is Panacur (Safeguard if buying it from the ranch store, fenbendazole is the chemical name) 10% solution. Give 0.25 ml to each bird for 5 days (use a needleless syringe) or 1 ml to one liter of water, stir well a few times during the day as the solution will settle. Since my flock will go through more than one liter each day I mix up a new liter a few times each day and give them fresh stuff....for 5 days.

The vet said fenbendazole is fairly harmless, though not approved for use in poultry. I believe the drug companies won't invest the money for the studies because the market is so small it doesn't pay for them to do the work. But it is a very wide spectrum wormer and will kill even gapeworms.

Even so, I don't use the eggs for human use from the time I start dosing until 7 days after the last dose. Since studies haven't been done on chickens I based my withdrawal on the longest elimination half-life of any animal tested which was 3 days, so I figure 7 days is safe for me. That gives me a total of 12 days withdrawal (days treating and 7 days after).

Is it absolutely necessary to deworm my chickens? I deworm everything ont he farm here, but never thought to do the chickens. Do I have to? Will it hurt them not to deworm them?

Thanks : )

here is the thing on worming

the not worming allows the adult worms to harvest the benefit of the food value of the chicken feed
they will eat up to 90% the food value fed the chickens
so really your birds are unhealthy

with thar said

if you have never had skinny chickens with worms in the manure or in the eggs ( yes they will be laid in the eggs if the body is full of worms)

it is just a means to having healthy birds

I would go the route of feeding
3 tbsp of cayanne pepper to gallon of feed
daily as total feed consumed

this will keep the birds worm free and avoid coccidiosis in adult birds as well as chicks

any questions email me

So, to be clear, cayenne pepper is supposed to be added to food if you don't worm your chickens?