de-worming chickens with goat safeguard(fenbendazole)

I recently took a chicken to vet(big $ for me,big $ to call to ask this ?) I am getting ready to deworm my flock and was given ivermectin injectable(was told can be used orally, I know how to do that) my ? IS, and I saw dosages before but don't know where i saw if before,(ramble ramble) how do I apply the safeguard and at what dosage for chickens?? oral/topical????? this is a big shot vet(IMO) as he treats the exotics,etc at the columbus zoo(OHIO)and I trust him just don't want to take forever with a call/? to him.

Quote:
I've never used ivomec 1% injectable, I dont know the dosage to be given orally. However, it can be added to water to worm your chickens; 4cc per gallon of water, leave it out for them to drink 2 days in a row, then discard, it must be their sole source of water during those 2 days. 14 days later dose them with the safeguard 10% suspension liquid goat wormer; 3cc per gallon of water. Leave it out for 2 days, then discard. It must be their sole source of water. Discard eggs for 14 days after using the ivomec, and 14 days after using the fenbendazole.

good enough! thanks.

Just a bit of advise, a much cheaper and more natural way to de-worm chickens is by feeding them pumpkin seeds. They have natural chemicals in them that paralyze and kill worms.

Quote:
Just abit of advice. Pumpkin seeds are a preventative, not a treatment...especially for an infestation.

well-they ARE infested(thus the "unnatural" stuff now unfortunately) and I want to start doing the apple cider vinager as a preventative because that seems realistic to me .

Quote:
Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) is not known to help in worm management. Use 2 tablespoons per gallon of water. ACV is an acidifier which helps in calcium absorption and lower gut PH...to help with bacterial issues. It also helps prevent sour crop.

Ivomec INJECTABLE cannot be mixed with water. Ivermectin POUR-ON can, but I have never seen a good published (backed by research) dose.

Safeguard (not ivermectin) can be mixed with water.

I know that's what the prior poster meant, but since the two brand names were getting mixed up I wanted to make it clear.

The -zoles (fenbendazole, albendazole - marketed as Panacur, Safeguard, Valbazen, and a few other brands) are safe broad-spectrum dewormers that will kill everything but tapeworm and are poorly absorbed by the chicken. Since most of the medicine stays in the gut you can even eat the eggs if you don't mind getting a tiny trace of human-safe wormer in them (don't sell them, obviously).

The dosage of the -zoles varies depending on the active ingredient and the brand (goat, sheep, dog, etc.). Make sure you don't get mixed up between them. I think pretty much all of them are water-soluble, though.

The -ectins (ivermectin, selamectin, moxidectin, marketed as ivomec and zimectrin and Quest and several others) is a very broad everything-killer, effective against worms and mites in mammals and birds. The bad news is that the reason it has such a broad action is that it's absorbed readily into the plasma and tissues of the animal that touches it, including people. It'll get into your eggs, the meat, and so on, and will medicate you if you get it on your skin. Withdrawal periods are very important if you use them, and if you're worried about your own exposure use gloves. The -ectins have varying reports of effectiveness in chickens depending on how they're given (injectable, oral, etc.) and are not necessarily great at doing a good deworming. The published research shows that the medication in ivomec injectable, which is what most people buy at the feed store, isn't very good until you get up to an oral dose close to the toxic level of the medication. Works very, very well on mites, though.

Injectable ivomec is sitting in a glycol base. That means it won't mix well with water. If you're using it orally you need to either give it straight, if you've been given a dosage by your vet, or mix it with another glycol or glycerine or something thick like karo syrup that will hold it in suspension. If you're using it topically for mites, you can open the plumage and drip it on the bird and the glycol should spread it through the oil production under the feathers. Dripping it on the bird won't worm the bird, though.

how about epernix do you use it like the pour on ivermectin for worms and mites?

Quote:
That's eprinomectin, which is one of the pour-on -ectins, and I cannot find a safe published dose or recommendation for poultry.

The problem with any of the medications that are readily absorbed into the body, like the -ectins and piperazine (Wazine) is not the medication itself. It's the metabolites of the medication that are left in the body when the animal has broken down the original. Wormers are pretty universal, and the animal wormers are the same as human wormers. It's not all that bad to accidentally dose yourself with a tiny bit of it. What you want to watch out for is what you're eating after the bird has absorbed and broken down the original medication, and for how long. Some break down really fast and don't end up in the blood in much of a concentration, like pyrantel and the -zoles. Some take weeks and weeks to break down completely (Wazine), and some end up in high concentrations in the blood (the -ectins).

If all I had was eprinex and I knew I had a mite problem I'd probably dose a few drops and then NOT eat eggs or meat for at least two weeks. I'd rather use injectable ivermectin, though, as a similar drop, because I know that works and there's published research on it. I'd still not eat the eggs for a while.