Do I REALLY need to worm?

[AinaWGSD]

Just thought I'd throw in my $0.02 as a vet assistant. Inspecting the poop for worms on a regular basis is good, but ultimately useless since adult worms almost never pass in the feces. Doing a microscopic exam for parasite eggs is the best way to determine whether or not there is any evidence of worms in the poop. And, as someone else has already mentioned, one negative fecal does not necessarily mean that an animal doesn't have worms. Intestinal parasites shed eggs intermittently, so a single negative fecal could just mean that the worms weren't laying eggs that day. It is generally recommended to check three fecals several days to a week apart to rule out parasites. For those who are interested in doing their own (not a bad idea and save you some money at the vet) it is quite simple. You need a microscope (most fecals are read on 10x, although I do read most of mine on 20x because it's easier to spot coccidia on the higher power), fecal float solution, and microscope slides and cover slips. There are lots of websites out there with instructions. This one's pretty good: http://www.ableoaks.com/books/fecals.html

Ultimately, whether to worm or not is a personal choice. Personally, I don't see much benefit to doing it if there is no evidence of a problem, but I also don't think that there's any harm in prophalactically deworming either. My plan is to check fecals on my birds every so often and worm if there is a problem. But I do prophalactically worm my dogs each month when they get their heartworm prevention and it hasn't harmed their health in any way.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I've been reading about how fecal worm counts are done and the current science of parasitic worms and de-wormers. It's very rough and early now, but I'm writing about what I'm finding here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=56638-parasitic-worms

 

[Alabama ee]

Quote:
I think taking a fecal sample to the vet and have them check yearly for worms is best. That way you would know to deworm or not. The problem is that it is expensive. Here it is about 20.00 for each sample. For less than that, I can just deworm all of them. When they molt works out best for us. Usually at this time, their eggs stop or slow down. With my hens, they completely stopped. I dewormed them, then a month later they all started laying agian.

 

[Luvroos]

I just had a fecal done on my flock through our states lab avian vets. It were free and if you check into it in your state they most likely offer this task also due to chickens carrying the AI virus and anything else that stops them from shipping chicks into Virginia as most of all that spreads through human til death. They must have a state vet in your areas. It's state regulations, they need it. Why would hatchery's need certain vaccines and such before shipping chicks? I hope this is not just here in Va!!! Please tell me NO it's not. . . .

By the way, I would not worm them unless you know they have them and valbasen kills any worm that a chicken might have to save you the troubles of medicating them twice with such harsh poisons.