Dewormer recommendations that can be used in drinking water?

[CozyDia]

Is there a dewormer that would work in drinking water that would treat a variety of worms? I know its more ideal to orally administer it, but I'm worried about choking them and they're not the most compliant when it comes to opening their beaks for stuff. Additionally, is there any preventative way to lessen the amount of possible worm eggs on the ground?

I have a small flock of 5 (soon 4) chickens that are all around 6 months old and one being a few years old. The oldest one is a White Leghorn and she has pretty badly frayed tail feathers and hasn't laid eggs for several months. She's also somewhat balding from the head near her comb. She has a proper diet and supplemental calcium. She laid eggs just fine the winter last year, but several months prior to this her eggs were either fragile or shell-less. Other than that she still acts like a normal healthy chicken. I attributed it to her being old since I don't know her exact age, but I feel it wouldn't hurt to treat for worms just in case.

 

[Liveove]

do you have pictures? You sure she’s not just molting? Egg issues and decreased egg production can come with molting birds. As for dewormer, I use orally administered dewormers myself, so no advice there. I will, however, say that mixing dewormer into water is often more like guesswork. You won’t know if they are getting the correct dosage. Best bet is to get a vet to do a fecal float to find out if they even have worms and what type of worms if they do. Then you can figure out which wormer to use. You have a small flock so there’s really no need to deworm as a preventative. Just my personal advice of course.

 

[NatJ]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-to-deworm-the-coop-run.1554040/
This thread discusses trying to remove worm eggs from the ground, and also talks about several different dewormers and how to administer them.

Other thoughts:

is there any preventative way to lessen the amount of possible worm eggs on the ground?

Time is usually effective: the worm eggs only live for a certain amount of time without a host.

So if you are able, you could rotate where your chickens spend time, so each area stays bare for several weeks or months before they come back to it. Worm eggs typically die faster in hot, dry weather and live longer in cool, moist weather. Since I see you are in Texas, I would expect some of your summer weather to be really good for killing worm eggs.

Most worms are fussy about what animals they live in, so alternating what kinds of animals live there can work just as well as leaving it bare (example: people often rotate cows and sheep through a pasture for exactly that reason, that the cow worms die inside sheep and vice versa.)

All of this would apply to parasitic worms in general, not specific to one or another kind of worm, and not specific to whether they are in chickens or some other animal.

The oldest one is a White Leghorn and she has pretty badly frayed tail feathers and hasn't laid eggs for several months... I feel it wouldn't hurt to treat for worms just in case.

You could try having a vet check a sample of her droppings. I have read that many vets are willing to do this, even if they do not otherwise treat chickens. They call it a "Fecal Float Test," and it is done the same way for any kind of animal.

You could also try administering wormer orally, just to her, and see if it makes a difference, since you are really only worried about her. With just one, putting the wormer on a treat for her to eat might work if you are not comfortable doing it directly in her beak (maybe a scrap of bread crust? And give it to her separately from the others, so no-one else gets to steal it.)

Is there a dewormer that would work in drinking water that would treat a variety of worms? I know its more ideal to orally administer it, but I'm worried about choking them and they're not the most compliant when it comes to opening their beaks for stuff.

I was recently reading of someone who wormed their chickens with ivermectin by dropping a little on their backs. The discussion of that was sprinkled through several pages of this long thread, starting about here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...glefowl-x-liege.1424023/page-42#post-26259025

The most specific details were in this post:

Yes, the same blue liquid ivermectin that is poured on the backs of cows. I dripped it onto the chickens’ backs in 1-6 drops depending on size.

That particular person had chickens that were skinny and not doing well, but they gained quite a bit of weight and looked much better after worming, so in their case it definitely did help. (Climate matters, so that person being in Florida may have a very different set of worms and rate of worm growth than you do. But I regularly see ivermectin recommended to treat a wide range of parasites, both internal and external, in many species. So it might be a good choice if you suspect worms but do not know what kind they may be.)

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I was recently reading of someone who wormed their chickens with ivermectin by dropping a little on their backs. The discussion of that was sprinkled through several pages of this long thread, starting about here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...glefowl-x-liege.1424023/page-42#post-26259025

The most specific details were in this post:


That particular person had chickens that were skinny and not doing well, but they gained quite a bit of weight and looked much better after worming, so in their case it definitely did help. (Climate matters, so that person being in Florida may have a very different set of worms and rate of worm growth than you do. But I regularly see ivermectin recommended to treat a wide range of parasites, both internal and external, in many species. So it might be a good choice if you suspect worms but do not know what kind they may be.)

I couldn’t say what sort of parasites my chickens were dealing with. I’m deep in undeveloped semi-wet woodlands and my flock has constant contact with wild birds and other animals. Whatever my chickens had also seemed to kill a an unwormed Jersey milk cow. After deploying the ivermectin, my birds began putting on weight dramatically. Even birds that I took to be healthy and skinny only because of the athletic lives they lived began putting on much better breast meat. I am now a believer in deworming.

I treated each chicken individually. I did not attempt putting it in their water. I wanted to know what the dosage was each bird was getting and know for sure each bird had received treatment.

Even if I knew what the parasite was, I doubt there would be any way to eradicate it from my environment. Its just a fact of life I’ll probably have to deal with as long as I keep chickens on my farm, unless my flock develops a natural immunity.