Deworming with fenbendazole

[Shadrach]

@Sue Gremlin
What microscope do you have?
A detailed explanation of how you went about the tests would be really helpful if you could fine the time.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Great posting. Could you tell us a little about your microscope? Brand, power, etc.?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Tapeworms are tough to get rid of, I know you've seen a few of my posts regarding treatments. Attempting to control insect population, especially here in the south is a challenge.
Albendazole used to work well but I believe tapes are becoming resistant to the product and requiring higher doses and withholding feed for a period of time. Withholding feed is very effective controlling nematodes.
I've ended up using praziquantel for tapes and eaten eggs afterwards. The last time I dealt with them was back in 2010-2011...I'm still here lol.
I think @casportpony posted a withdrawal period for praziquantel once before. Hopefully she'll chime in.

You illustrate why it is so important to change anthelmintics regularly. Especially in warm moist climates.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Great posting. Could you tell us a little about your microscope? Brand, power, etc.?

I have a few scopes, but
actually the one I used for these photos is a cheapie, and I've loved it. I highly recommend this scope for anyone with curiosity. It doesn't have super duper tooled, fancy optics, but I'll be darned if this one hasn't been just as good for me as my high quality Nikon compound scope. In fact, I mainly only use that one for the 100x lens. It has better optics for that, but the cheap one is much easier to use.

Edited to add: You don't need a camera, either. I take pics by holding my iPhone up to the eyepiece. They have great cameras.

the lenses on a standard compound microscope have 10x eyepieces, and four objectives, 4x, 10x, 40x and 100x (oil). So each of these, the magnification is multiplied by 10. For instance, an object looked at with the 4x lens with 10x eyepieces is magnified 40 times. Using the 100x lens with the 10x eyepieces is 1000x. At this magnification, you can see bacteria.

You can get this one online.
https://www.amscope.com/40x-2500x-led-lab-binocular-compound-microscope-with-3d-stage.html?medium=tsa&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIw-KYlIKZ4QIVBdvACh0ONwaZEAQYASABEgKuD_D_BwE


The squash prep is pretty easy to do, and gives you so much information. Throw a worm on a slide in a drop of water or saline and cover with a cover slip. Bob's your uncle.

I also have a dissecting scope for larger objects. This was a stroke of luck that this one came my way, my company folded and threw out a lot of their lab equipment (yes, really), and so this was a gift. These can be very pricey, but if you look around, they can be found for not too painful a price. This one has 10x eyepieces and a single lens that zooms.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

I've ended up using praziquantel for tapes and eaten eggs afterwards. The last time I dealt with them was back in 2010-2011...I'm still here lol.

*eye twitch*

Good to know. I am a little jumpy about stuff like that since we give 90% of our eggs away.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have a few scopes, but
actually the one I used for these photos is a cheapie, and I've loved it. I highly recommend this scope for anyone with curiosity. It doesn't have super duper tooled, fancy optics, but I'll be darned if this one hasn't been just as good for me as my high quality Nikon compound scope. In fact, I mainly only use that one for the 100x lens. It has better optics for that, but the cheap one is much easier to use.

the lenses on a standard compound microscope have 10x eyepieces, and four objectives, 4x, 10x, 40x and 100x (oil). So each of these, the magnification is multiplied by 10. For instance, an object looked at with the 4x lens with 10x eyepieces is magnified 40 times. Using the 100x lens with the 10x eyepieces is 1000x. At this magnification, you can see bacteria.

You can get this one online.
https://www.amscope.com/40x-2500x-led-lab-binocular-compound-microscope-with-3d-stage.html?medium=tsa&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIw-KYlIKZ4QIVBdvACh0ONwaZEAQYASABEgKuD_D_BwEView attachment 1711708


The squash prep is pretty easy to do, and gives you so much information. Throw a worm on a slide in a drop of water or saline and cover with a cover slip. Bob's your uncle.

I also have a dissecting scope for larger objects. This was a stroke of luck that this one came my way, my company folded and threw out a lot of their lab equipment (yes, really), and so this was a gift. These can be very pricey, but if you look around, they can be found for not too painful a price. This one has 10x eyepieces and a single lens that zooms. View attachment 1711686

Thank you very much for the reply.
I have a used model 108 National Optical I need to send back for refurbishing.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

After doing some reading, based on the egg shape, the shape of the hooklets inside the eggs and the proglottid form (stacked), I'm going to say this is a Hymenolepis infection, not Railletina. These are something that people CAN get if you eat infected insects, but it's not common. They are shared by rodents and bugs, which makes sense.

 

[dawg53]

Resistant strains are becoming a problem mainly due to routine worming of chickens.
I don't worm routinely because of this.

You would worm often if you lived where I live.

 

[dawg53]

You illustrate why it is so important to change anthelmintics regularly. Especially in warm moist climates.

You're right. There's plenty of wormers available to rotate IF treating for nematodes. Cestodes and trematodes not so much. I only know of a few wormers available to treat tapeworms, and two for trematodes.
The good thing is that you dont have to treat every bird in your flock, most wont have tapeworms. You only have to treat the ones that excrete segments in feces and I isolate infected birds in cages to treat them away from the flock.
For nematodes, it's best to treat all birds.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Exactly Dawg. Classes of dewormers that are active against tapeworms and other cestodes are very few and far between. Pyrazinoisoquinolines (like praziquantel) and benzamidazoles (like fenbendazole) are pretty much it.

Admittedly fenbendazole isn't that great for tapeworms and has to be given at high doses to even scratch the surface, but it is the only one of the list above that's approved in the US for use in food animals.