Worms and Sudden Illness??

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KCNC06

KCNC06

Crowing
15 Years
Sep 19, 2009
538
543
371
Central NC
Could a worm infestation cause a sudden onset of the following symptoms: lethargy, decreased appetite, wanting to sleep on floor rather than roost, watery poo with a slight hint of yellow to the liquid? My EE hen (Hawkface) seemed ill last night so I brought her inside and had her sleep in a dog crate in the spare room - she's still in the crate today. Her poo is very watery with a slight yellow to the water, and little green specks - I'm attaching pics of all poo described here.
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She just seems a little "blah". She doesn't seem to want to get up and walk around, but that could be because I have her in a crate in the house and she's a little creeped out by not knowing where she is. It's a decent size crate, about 3.5'x2.5'x2.5' (my 65 lb pit bull puppy was still comfortable in it last time he tried to use it) so I assume she has enough room to move around a bit if she wanted to. She was acting normal up until last night. None of the other chickens are acting sick, though I did see what appears to be worms in another chicken's poo this morning. I have been trying to avoid chemical wormers since they say not to use them in chickens producing eggs for human consumption. I've been feeding them food grade DE with their feed since early November, but it appears that they're either not getting enough or it doesn't work as well as it claims to work.

Here's the two different poo's. Hawkface's poo is the one with the green specks, the wormy poo was in the chicken house this morning.

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My last question (for now) is, if the chickens have a bad enough infestation of worms that they're shedding them in their poo, is it safe to eat their eggs or should I toss the ones I have in the fridge?
 
Get them on Wazine (Piperizine) immediately. It's a mild wormer that will kill only round worms but since they are loaded, a gentle wormer is what you'll need first. Don't eat eggs for 2 weeks.
In a month, I'd give them fenbendazole...it kills virtually all worms. I use "Safe-Guard" for dogs.
After that, I'd continue with the DE, but still worm them every 6-8 months.
 
Quote:
Awesome! Thank you SO much!!! I feel absolutely terrible that they're so badly infected. I mean, what sort of neglectful chicken mom lets her babies get so sick without noticing?!?!
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Is it safe to assume that the symptoms Hawkface is exhibiting are from worms? If so, she obviously seems worse off than the rest...should I be preparing myself for her to...you know...? What do you think about uping their protein for a bit to help in recovery? They're currently on Layena layer crumbles (16%), would/could it be beneficial to them to switch to the starter/grower (20%) for a week or so? Or even to mix 50/50 of the layer crumbles and starter/grower?

I'll swing by Tractor Supply (the only place I know of locally that sells Wazine) and pick up a bottle. As for the Fenbendazole/Safe-Guard - how do I determine the dosing and how do I administer it? Do you just sprinkle the Safe-Guard over their food? And do you do it for the same amount of time (is it 3 days?) as it recommends for dogs? Our puppy had an infestation of roundworms and tape worms a couple months ago. The roundworms were apparently killed by the Safe-Guard, but he had the kind of tapeworm that Safe-Guard doesn't kill. Considering the puppy and the chickens probably eat the same bugs (this darn puppy literally chews everything he gets his mouth on, including mud clumps), should I assume that the chickens could potentially have this same type of tapeworm that Safe-Guard doesn't kill? If so...what is my other option?

Thanks again!! I really, REALLY, appreciate the help! Oh - by the way. The eggs that we've collected over the past couple weeks...should we toss them? We've been eating them and I haven't noticed anything unusual in the eggs. Can worms be transmitted through eggs?!?!
 
I would boil the eggs and give them back to the chickens (the ones you already have), since you wanted to up the protein.
During treatment I'd toss all the eggs.

Safe-guard does kill tapeworms, I'm reading my package right now and it's first on the list. Here's what MSU says about Safe-Guard:


Fenbendazole Treatments

One-day Treatment

1 oz Safeguard or Panacur per 15-20 lb feed

Dissolve the fenbendazole product in one cup of water. Mix this solution well into the feed and give to the birds as their only feed source for one day. When completely consumed, untreated feed can be given. Be sure that the commercial medication contains 10% fenbendazole.

Safeguard is a product of Ralston Purina, and Panacur is a product marketed by American Hoechst. One ounce of medication will treat about 1000 10-oz bobwhite quail. Adjustments of the amounts of medication and feed needed may be necessary depending on the number and size of the birds.

Three-Day Treatment

1.2 oz Safeguard or Panacur in 100 lb feed
-or-
4 oz pkt of "Worm-A-Rest Litter Pack" (Ralston Purina) in 50 lb feed
-or-
5 lb bag of "Worm-A-Rest Mix Pack" in 495 lb feed

Feed all the medicated feeds free-choice for three consecutive days. The feed mixtures provide 75 ppm fenbendazole. Quail will receive about 1.7 mg/bird each day for adult birds or 2.75 mg/lb of bodyweight.

Fenbendazole has been shown to be a very effective treatment for eliminating Capillaria (capillary worms), Heterakis (cecal worms), Ascaridia (roundworms), and Syngamus spp. (gapeworms). Toxicity from overdosing with fenbendazole is very remote. Research indicates that amounts up to 100 times the recommended dosages have been given under research conditions without adverse effects to the birds. Use of this product during molt, however, may cause deformity of the emerging feathers.



On the back of the package it says 1 gram for 10 pounds. Estimate all your chickens weight and buy accordingly.

PS: You are a good chicken mommy! Sometimes it's hard to observe things until it's almost too late. I've been there many times!
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I hate medication directions.
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That's just about as confusing as the directions on the Duramycin we used to treat them in late fall when one of the chickens had a sneeze. It worked great though! Sneeze/rattle/wheeze was gone within a few days of starting treatment.

Okay, so, let me see if I understand this correctly. Once I've treated with the Wazine, I'm supposed to dissolve the packet of Safe-Guard and wet the feed with it? Will they really eat soggy feed?! And how to I make sure this is their only feed option? Do I have to keep them closed up in their house for a day with the feed? .... Maybe the 3 day method would be easier? We have 7 chickens (1 Leghorn, 1 EE (unless she doesn't make it), 1 Barred Rock, 2 Partridge Rocks, and 2 Seabrights) - am I supposed to guess the weight of each chicken, add them up and treat by total weight?

The worms I saw in the poo this morning definitely looked like round worms, based on the descriptions that I've read recently and the descriptions from when the puppy had worms. I could have sworn I read something while the puppy was being treated that said there are multiple types of tapeworms and Safe-Guard doesn't treat them all. Oh well, I don't usually count on my memory I don't know why I should start trying now!
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Here's what I'd do. First the wazine. I do 2 tablespoons in 1 gallon of water. (Directions say grown chickens 1 ounce to 1 gallon)
In two weeks I'd buy safe guard. I estimate your total weight around 30 pounds. So that would be 3 grams of safe guard.
I'd mix it with the wet feed and something good, like oatmeal, eggs, etc.
Divide the treated feed into a few bowls so everyone gets their fill. That's it. Replace w/ regular feed after that.

Ditto on the medication directions! So confusing, especially if you just have a dozen chickens or less!
 
Thanks!

Yes, the directions are very confusing when you don't have hundreds of birds to treat and when they give the measurements in grams. I can't imagine that the average household has a scale to measure grams.
 
Just thought of another question.
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Should I plan to continue keeping Hawkface (the one who is acting sickly) inside until she perks up? Assuming that I'm not to late to save her?
 

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