Consolidated Kansas

[KsKingBee]

Well our turkey still has the yellow squirts.

We took a stool sample to the vet today when we went to get a large syringe for tube feeding, so they did a fecal exam for us. Vet said she has tape worms, I think that may be better than the alternative. The vet gave us praziquantel, one cc to inject in the turkey. Wouldn't you know it, the **** needle came off while I was squeezing the plunger and squirted out.

Guess we will go back to town and get another shot tomorrow.

 

[Trish44]

Well our turkey still has the yellow squirts.

We took a stool sample to the vet today when we went to get a large syringe for tube feeding, so they did a fecal exam for us. Vet said she has tape worms, I think that may be better than the alternative. The vet gave us praziquantel, one cc to inject in the turkey. Wouldn't you know it, the **** needle came off while I was squeezing the plunger and squirted out.

Guess we will go back to town and get another shot tomorrow.

Why don't you just get some safegard, you can get that at about anywhere, I know TSC has it I saw it today & Orshelyn's I think has it too.

 

[KsKingBee]

Why don't you just get some safegard, you can get that at about anywhere, I know TSC has it I saw it today & Orshelyn's I think has it too.

Well, because according to this; http://www.drugs.com/vet/safe-guard-dewormer-20-type-a-medicated-article.html it is not listed for tapeworms, however it does list Blackhead. We do have the goat version on hand but I can find no evidence that it would work.

 

[chicken danz]

You made me look. You are right. I guess I should add some prazinquantel to my drug cabinet. I haven't ever found a tape worm in any of my birds or cysts in their poop but there could be some out there. I was looking at the drug. The injectable would be easiest to use is super expensive. So are the pills. Holy crap. Maybe I'd better inspect some poo before I invest. I was reading that tape worms are carried in fleas and infect the host by eating the fleas.
Before I choke out that money though I think I'll see if I can find any cysts. It never ends does it?
I got up about 4:00 am cause I couldn't sleep. I hate it when that happens. I'm going to have to get up early tomorrow because I have to take some birds down to Yates Center that I sold.
We are supposed to get freezing rain and then a bunch of freezing rain and ice tomorrow night and Sunday. Will this stupid winter ever be over?

 

[HEChicken]

Why don't you just get some safegard, you can get that at about anywhere, I know TSC has it I saw it today & Orshelyn's I think has it too.

Safeguard doesn't protect against tapeworms. About the only one that does on the market without a prescription is Valbazen sheep wormer and it has to be administered orally, two doses 7 days apart. I think I like the idea of the injection better. If it were just one bird, I wouldn't mind the Valbazen, but you're supposed to do the whole flock at the same time with that, and when you have a large number of birds, it makes it rather problematic, especially having to dose it twice. t hope the second dose goes more smoothly KKB.

Danz, they can have tapeworm and not be eliminating the little white oocytes in the poop. They only produce the oocytes at a certain stage of their existence and the rest of the time they are there without any signs, other than perhaps bringing down the health of the bird. In that pic of the poop that KKB showed, I didn't see any oocytes so without doing the fecal, I guess there was no way to tell.

Actually, KKB, I'm curious what they WERE able to find in the fecal to positively identify the tapeworms. The oocytes are highly visible to the naked eye and those are sacs full of thousands of eggs. So there must be something else they can only see microscopically?

 

[chicken danz]

From what I was reading the cysts come out in the poop but not in every poop. They are released once a day, often it is just the evening and you can actually see them wiggling. I even watched a video. There are several different types of tapeworm so that may be where we are getting different information.
What I am referring to on my own birds is that I always inspect them when I butcher or if one dies and have never found a tape worm. Nor have I seen the segments in the poop. And yes I have inspected poop with a magnifying glass. But that doesn't mean I haven't missed them.
You can actually buy Praziquantal now over the counter in a brand called Tradewinds. It is still expensive and you sure would spend a lot treating every bird. I did read further and see that beetles and flies can also carry the eggs. Good grief!!!
Sure makes you wonder how birds have been able to survive all these years. That must be why hens lay as many eggs as they do. There are just too many things out there that kill them.
It is really cold out this morning. I sure dread going out.
I have a hen with ascites. She is a valuable bird so I am thinking I am going to try to drain her abdomen. That's pretty scary stuff to me. I'm afraid of poking a hole in something vital and accidentally killing her. She has some trouble breathing and walking so I guess if I'm going to make her healthy I'd better try what I can. I sure don't want to loose her. I'm going to need a second pair of hands to help me though and DH won't be available for a couple of days. I feel like I need to do something now cause she is getting worse and having trouble breathing. Poor girl. She is really sweet as well.

 

[KsKingBee]

From what I have been told is that all free range birds are exposed to tape worms and yearly worming is recommended for the entire freeranging flock. The vet did say that the type of drug for dog use was a lot more expensive and there is an alternative. I will ask about that again today when we stop back in for another shot. She also said that we may need to give another in ten days. I will also ask what it was for sure that she showed is in the microscope, I think it was eggs? Not sure but she said that you would not normally see them unless it was a severe case. That normally the large segments are seen first. Well time to feed and gather up the cockerels for the auction this afternoon.

Oh, had a bit of a scare yesterday. One of our peahens, 2013 hatch, had just gotten welled up from a respiratory infection when we noticed blood all over her chest.

Turned out she broke a claw, that bled a lot! She is ok but I guess we will need to file it a bit as it looks pretty rough like it split lengthways. Poor girl. Danz, the three little ones we got from you are stuck together like glue. You never see them separated, they act more like house birds, they like being inside of the coop and don't come out much.

 

[HEChicken]

From what I was reading the cysts come out in the poop but not in every poop. They are released once a day, often it is just the evening and you can actually see them wiggling. I even watched a video. There are several different types of tapeworm so that may be where we are getting different information.
What I am referring to on my own birds is that I always inspect them when I butcher or if one dies and have never found a tape worm. Nor have I seen the segments in the poop. And yes I have inspected poop with a magnifying glass. But that doesn't mean I haven't missed them.

I'm not sure about the different info - that seems about the same as what I was saying! You sure don't need a magnifying glass to see the oocytes though (they are called "oocytes" which means "egg sac") and yes, they do wiggle around. You can see them wiggling for about 5 minutes after the poop is "laid" and their goal is to get down into the ground where they will break open and thousands of eggs will be released into the environment. Nasty stuff. I had a couple of birds with them last year and treated the whole flock with Valbazen since there is no way to know which bird has them and which doesn't, since they can poop out poops with no oocytes and still have them. Any time I saw a poop with active oocytes, I always picked it up and removed it though, figuring every one I removed reduced the possibility of them being spread. Of course, there were probably many more that I totally missed though.

I was surprised to learn that an adult tapeworm is only about 1.5" long so it would be easy to miss on necropsy. In mammals, tapeworms can often be many feet long and live in a large section of the intestine so I was picturing that it would be the same in birds. Fortunately tapeworm are non-zoonotic so having them in the flock doesn't meant they will be transferred to dogs, cats or people.

I think birds survive better in the wild because they are able to traverse much greater areas. It is keeping them in confinement that makes all of these problems so much worse. In the wild, if a bird has tapeworm and poops out the oocytes, odds are another bird won't be in that exact area and the majority of the eggs will die without infecting another bird. But in the confines of a coop and run, odds are much greater that other birds will ingest the eggs since they are pecking at the same patches of ground over and over.

 

[Trish44]

I have never seen tapeworms here but that doesn't mean I didn't miss them. I guess I need to get some Valbazen too & add it to my growing medicine chest. I guess if you use the Rooster Booster wormer & the Valbezen you would have it covered since the Rooster Booster covers, round worms, capillary worms, & cecal worms. HEChicken what is the dose for the Valbezen?

It's raining here right now, but supposed to dry up by this afternoon & the high is supposed to be 52. This is the last day for a few that it's going to be decent. I'm not looking forward to this weekend, I sure hope it's our last blast this winter, but you never know. We have had some nasty weather in March as well in the past. Let's all think postive!

 

[HEChicken]

HEChicken what is the dose for the Valbezen?

I'd have to look it up. From memory, it was 1cc for the standard fowl, 2cc for turkeys and ½ cc for bantams, but don't quote me on that.