Can you see gapeworms in poop?

[Sarahjean756]

My chickens have been sneezing for about a month now, what originally thought was a respiratory infections my vet thinks is gapeworm now due to their symptoms. I have them the wormer the one night but then put the wormer in their water for another 3 days. After that I noticed their symptoms weren’t getting better so I googled and found that putting safeguard in water isn’t really ideal. So switched back to orally for 3 days so far. Symptoms are better but not gone totally. I want to know if it’s working and I found this poop, does this look like dead worms?

 

[Eggcessive]

You cannot see gapeworm larvae in the droppings, but your vet could do a fecal float to look for them under a microscope. What dosage of SafeGuard are you using? Are you shaking the bottle well since it is a suspension? I would treat for 5 straight days.

What are the other symptoms other than sneezing that your vet thinks is gapeworm? Have you seen bubbles/foam in an eye, swollen eyelid, gasping or gaping, rattly breathing or others? There are at least 8 respiratory diseases in chickens. Some are viruses, and they have to run their course over a month or so.

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC.
The only way to tell if there are gapeworms is if a fresh fecal sample was examined under a microscope for gapeworm eggs. Your vet shouldve done this.
Most likely you are dealing with something environmental or your birds have a respiratory disease. Gapeworms arnt common in chickens. If they were infected with gapeworms, your birds wouldnt be eating nor drinking, and would suffocate to death trying to breathe.

There arnt any worms in the photos. However there is sloughed intestinal lining which is normal on occasion.

 

[Sarahjean756]

You cannot see gapeworm larvae in the droppings, but your vet could do a fecal float to look for them under a microscope. What dosage of SafeGuard are you using? Are you shaking the bottle well since it is a suspension? I would treat for 5 straight days.

What are the other symptoms other than sneezing that your vet thinks is gapeworm? Have you seen bubbles/foam in an eye, swollen eyelid, gasping or gaping, rattly breathing or others? There are at least 8 respiratory diseases in chickens. Some are viruses, and they have to run their course over a month or so.

Hmm I thought maybe it could be dead ones, I know you can’t see the larvae as it’s too small. Sneezing, stretch the neck and open mouth wide gaping, and head shaking. We did treat with antibiotics first and it didn’t get rid of it. Eyes are completely fine. One of my chickens was a little gurgly for one day, after antibiotics she got a little better but it didn’t get rid of it completely. I saw another vet and she said all symptoms sound exactly like gapeworm and that it’s actually not as rare as people say. She said that antibiotics will help with the inflammation of it so it makes sense that she got a little better after the antibiotics. I also have noticed a lot of slugs at night in their run and I know they carry it. They are all still eating and drinking normally.

 

[Sarahjean756]

You cannot see gapeworm larvae in the droppings, but your vet could do a fecal float to look for them under a microscope. What dosage of SafeGuard are you using? Are you shaking the bottle well since it is a suspension? I would treat for 5 straight days.

What are the other symptoms other than sneezing that your vet thinks is gapeworm? Have you seen bubbles/foam in an eye, swollen eyelid, gasping or gaping, rattly breathing or others? There are at least 8 respiratory diseases in chickens. Some are viruses, and they have to run their course over a month or so.

I started off doing .25 ml in their mouth. Then I did 3ml to a gallon of water for 3 days, that’s when I realized I think it doesn’t work in water. So I started over with doing it orally, did 3 days so far so I figured I should finish out the 5. I was just hoping I could see the dead worms in the poop and that way I could know it was working.

 

[Eggcessive]

The dosage of SafeGuard is 0.25 ml or 1/4 ml per pound of weight given orally for 5 consecutive days. That would be 1.25 ml for a 5 pound chicken, or 2 ml for an 8 pound chicken. If the disease is viral, it would not respond to antibiotics. ILT is one that can cause gaping, but there can be bloody mucus from the beak. But if it is bacterial or mycoplasma, it could respond to the right antibiotic. Tylosin, oxytetracycline, Denagard, and even Baytril will treat MG. Sulfa antibiotics are better for coryza.

 

[Sarahjean756]

The dosage of SafeGuard is 0.25 ml or 1/4 ml per pound of weight given orally for 5 consecutive days. That would be 1.25 ml for a 5 pound chicken, or 2 ml for an 8 pound chicken. If the disease is viral, it would not respond to antibiotics. ILT is one that can cause gaping, but there can be bloody mucus from the beak. But if it is bacterial or mycoplasma, it could respond to the right antibiotic. Tylosin, oxytetracycline, Denagard, and even Baytril will treat MG. Sulfa antibiotics are better for coryza.

See this is what is so confusing, my vet said .25ml safeguard per 2.5 lb bird. Mine are about 2.2 lbs. I had them on tylosin in their water for about a week with no improvement.

 

[dawg53]

Since your birds are are eating and drinking normally, it's not gapeworm. Most likely you're dealing with a respiratory disease.
Even if it were gapeworms, it would be an ongoing recurring gapeworm infection due to gapeworm eggs contaminating your soil. Birds constantly peck the soil, in doing so, they pick up worm eggs and swallow them, starting the worms lifecycle over again. You would end up having to cull your birds.

 

[Sarahjean756]

Since your birds are are eating and drinking normally, it's not gapeworm. Most likely you're dealing with a respiratory disease.
Even if it were gapeworms, it would be an ongoing recurring gapeworm infection due to gapeworm eggs contaminating your soil. Birds constantly peck the soil, in doing so, they pick up worm eggs and swallow them, starting the worms lifecycle over again. You would end up having to cull your birds.

What do you think would have them sneezing, head shaking, and doing the neck gape thing? Do you think tylosin just wasn’t enough to kick a respiratory disease?

 

[Kiki]

What do you think would have them sneezing, head shaking, and doing the neck gape thing? Do you think tylosin just wasn’t enough to kick a respiratory disease?

If your birds didn't drink enough then yes it may not have been enough.

Also most respiratory diseases don't go away. They stick around for life.


The head shaking and the neck gaping thing is them having trouble breathing.