397026. You're right about the FDA not doing enough research on wormers for chickens, I guess they think chickens dont make it that far in life and could care less. I had a tapeworm in one of my nests 2 months ago. It was about 4 inches long,flat and dull white in color. It looked like a flat piece of macaroni. I knew praziquantel could take care of it but wanted something less dangerous/toxic to use. Another BYC' er told me about valbazen and how she successfully treated her chickens that had tapeworms. I tried it and it worked. As far as dosage goes for praziquantel, it has been recommended by several BTC'ers on here to use a BB size amount to give to chickens. Personally, I have it as a backup in case the valbazen didnt work. I have not used the praziquantel yet. When I used safeguard (fenbendazole) this last time, I combined it with the valbazen to give to the chickens. Since it's almost impossible to overdose on safeguard, I thought it'd be a great combo for the chickens. After the 2 week wait time on the wazine, I got small pieces of bread, used my syringe to put one half cc (one half ml) of the valbazen liquid on the piece of bread,then a small pea sized dose of safeguard on the bread and gave it to each chicken. For my smaller hens... hamburgs,leghorn...I used one quarter cc(one quarter ml) of valbazen on the bread,same dosage of safeguard. It was time consuming but I know it worked. Egg production has been great! I have 17 hens and have been getting anywhere from 12-17 eggs a day. One day I had 18 eggs, my little EE hen layed 2 blue/green eggs in one day.I couldnt believe it! The only other time that happened was when my white leghorn first started laying over a year ago, she gave me 2 eggs back then. Whew! I do not reworm chickens after using safeguard,valbazen or ivermectin. Twice is enough,wazine and one of the others, anymore than that could weaken them and possibly kill the chickens. Even after the worming first and second times they are weak and I give them probiotics and protein to build up their immune systems. It's necessary to worm my chickens twice a year here due to the weather.Here in southeast Georgia it's usually damp,raining every 3 days and very high humidity and very hot during the summer...super condusive for worms. My next worming session will be around fall time; it'll be wazine,then ivermectin. Thanks for posting!
matthewschickens, I dont know what that could be.I guess it's possible that an egg could have broken inside her and the clear part of the egg squirted out. I've never dealt with that problem before. I wouldnt think it'd happen to 2 of your hens in a row(Blue Andalusian and Sweetheart) the odds arnt there. So, if it's not worms,I'm at a loss. Have you inspected Sweetheart for lice/mites in and around the vent area? Also, if eggs are breaking inside them,you might want to increase their calcium intake and provide the crushed oyster shell.
matthewschickens, I dont know what that could be.I guess it's possible that an egg could have broken inside her and the clear part of the egg squirted out. I've never dealt with that problem before. I wouldnt think it'd happen to 2 of your hens in a row(Blue Andalusian and Sweetheart) the odds arnt there. So, if it's not worms,I'm at a loss. Have you inspected Sweetheart for lice/mites in and around the vent area? Also, if eggs are breaking inside them,you might want to increase their calcium intake and provide the crushed oyster shell.
