Deworming on a Regular Basis?

[Anastasia23]

I did not know until recently that you are suppose to deworm your chickens regularly, and I recently loss one of my hens to worms. I would like to deworm the rest of the chickens right now, but having never done so before, I would like some advice. I have Wazine, Valbazen and Rooster Booster at my house right now. What is best to begin with, how much should I give them, and how regularly?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have been keeping chickens for over 20 years and don't worm my chickens. So it's not a requirement.

 

[cafarmgirl]

True, it's not a requirement, but if a person has experienced problems with worms and wants to avoid that in the future then it's probably a good idea. I deworm my birds 2-3 times a year and I regularly have birds living 7 to 10 years of age. When I first started with chickens back in '95 I knew nothing of deworming them until we started seeing some health issues and consulted an avian vet who did fecal tests and showed us what kind of worm loads our birds were carrying around. Since then I've been deworming a couple times a year and we don't see worm overloads anymore. There have been no worm overloads in the birds I've had necropsied. So for me, that is something we will continue to do. Worms are very damaging and I'd rather deworm then deal with health issues.

Valbazen is a very good wormer, give 1/2 cc to standard size birds, 1/4 cc to bantams. Repeat the dose in 10 days since wormers do not get rid of worm eggs.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My chickens live that long too, as in every species that is wormed regularly the worms will build up a resistance to the wormers and they will eventually not work.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Rotating dewormer's and deworming minimally is a good way to help prevent resistance. Personally I will deworm a couple times a year with different dewormers in order to keep worm loads from getting out of hand. I have seen the effects of worm overload and I prefer not to go there again.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It has a lot to do with climate. I'm sure if I lived in a constantly warm moist climate, I'd worm on a schedule.
However, after thousands of chickens, I've only wormed 5 and never on a regular schedule.

 

[DreamsInPink]

I'm sure chickens aren't any different than any other animal that gets worms... horses, goats, dogs, cats.. etc. If they GET worms, in my opinion, they need to be treated. The worms will take over a body making it difficult for the animal to absorb nutrients.

I know nothing of worming chickens.... but I'm learning....