Do I REALLY need to worm?

[NYREDS]

Wormers that actually work are poisons. IMO there's nothing to be gained by giving birds a poison without knowing there's actually a worm problem. If your birds look healthy, act healthy & lay well I suspect they are healthy.

 

[TreeHugger]

I worm my chickens once a year in the fall. Their eggs are boiled and fed back to the them for a few weeks. I worm my cats, dogs and cattle and figured they probably needed it to.

 

[Luvroos]

While knowing that worming meds can really take a toll on chickens I had a fecal done through an avian vet that ended clean and clear, I'm lucky since they are pastured. I was preparing to worm them but, had decided to wait and sure enough I did the right thing. You can give them apple cider vinegar in their water for a few days and this could help to prevent worms but, I would not give them meds if you are not for sure that they have them. It'd be like you taking a strong medication when not necessary and you'd be putting them through hell for nothing.

 

[Beekissed]

Hear, hear! So funny about the double standard.....everyone claims they themselves don't have worms but swears that chickens have worms because the rest of the mammalian world in their yard has them. If yer gonna worm the chickens, by all means worm yourself while you are at it.

After all, unless you do a fecal to know for sure, you can just assume you have them whether you are healthy or not, or whether you actually see worms in your stool or not.

 

[GarlicEater]

I'm willing to bet a fecal exam is fairly easy to learn to do. Just off the top of my head, I'm guessing it's an examination of some fecal matter, lessee.... may dilute it and "spin it out" in a centrifuge, to concentrate any worms/eggs, then examination and it may only take a 20x scope. Maybe a "counting chamber" which is just a fancy slide - you can get all this stuff on Ebay or through a scientific supply. There are probably tutorials online, YouTube and stuff online that's for veterinary classes.

Our neighbor uses Ivermectin for his sheep, so I'm sure I could get a little from him if my gals need worming.

 

[Judy]

I wish I'd bookmarked the post I read on here about someone whose feed consumption dropped dramatically after worming, because the worms were getting so much of the nutrition that the chicken consumed. I don't believe it's possible for chickens not to get some number of worms from soil and bugs; how many and whether there is enough to cause them a problem is another question. In people, it is certainly possible to get a negative fecal for worms and still have worms present. Actually, 3 samples are routinely collected, not one, for this reason.

Worms are going to make the chicken less healthy, possibly less productive, and they do damage their intestinal tract. Evidently pumpkin seeds decrease the count a bit, but I've never seen any scientific evidence that cayenne or DE do. And worms CAN kill a chicken, at least according to some posts on here.

Ivermectin is a great drug that also kills biting lice and mites, but, unfortunately, does not kill tapeworms. For that you need Valbazen (albendazole) which also kills the major other types. One program is to alternate the two, giving one either every 6 months or every year.

I eat my eggs after Epinrex, too.

There are also a fair number of people who have kept chickens for years and never worm, and will tell you their chickens are healthy. In the end it is a personal choice.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
I've read on here of people who were planning to get the needed equipment and do just this. Don't see why not.

 

[featherz]

Eprinex kills worms too, right? I have a bottle of Eprinex and was planning to just use that for worms AND lice/mites. It seems to kill pretty much everything and no egg withdrawal time.. right? Or am I crazy.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
You're not crazy, what you stated is true. Eprinex wont kill tapeworms. Rotate with a different wormer the next time you worm after using eprinex to help avoid possible worm immunity in the long run. I use eprinex on occasion and rotate with valbazen or safeguard.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Yes, all the common worms except taperworms, as per the table linked above. It also kills some kinds of lice and mites, not all. It is a cattle wormer, and for cattle there is no withdrawal time for milk or meat. I have been unable to find this information for chickens. Ivermectin is a similar drug, not identical, and for it I have read 7 days for eggs and 28 days for meat. I would certainly not sell eggs or meat for a while after using it.

Eprinex is quite safe in cattle because of a mammalian mechanism in cattle intestines which inhibits absorption. I don't even know that this sort of research has been done in chickens; if it has, I have not found it.