do my chickens have worms?

[jstinsmommy]

I have been reading a few different threads on this but i am confused.I walked outside today and there was one of my chickens droppins that has little white sprouts on it. It didnt look like the long worms that most threads are talking about. I am worried it might be worms. Also, last night i did notice later at night my chickens were picking at something. i went outside and it was an egg that one of them layed that the shell did not harden. Then my next question is, if these are worms, is it safe to treat my other girls at the same time? and while you treat them, are the eggs safe to eat? Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

 

[dawg53]

Here's what large roundworms look like in feces, is this what you saw?

 

[jstinsmommy]

no, it didnt look like that. this just looked like little white sprouts. nothing big or anything

 

[dawg53]

Can you post a pic when you get a chance?

 

[dawg53]

Did they look like this?

 

[jstinsmommy]

sorry its so big, i just copied and pasted an image that i saw on line. it looks more like the portion on the right.

 

[dawg53]

Yup, that's what I figured...those are tapeworm segments. Each one of those segments carries a couple hundred tapeworm oocysts (eggs.)
The segments work there way into the soil where the eggs are eaten by earthworms, beetles, ants, flies and other insects. Then a chicken eats the infected insect. Then the chicken eventually becomes infected. Tapeworms are flat and segmented, vary in length and can stretch, some are stringy as well. I've dealt with them and they are tough to get rid of.
Purchase Zimectrin Gold equine paste wormer. Before you administer the wormer, I recommend that you withhold your chickens feed for 24 hours...dont withhold their water. Withholding feed from your chickens will weaken the tapeworms. After 24 hours dose each of your chickens one by one orally with a "pea" size amount of the zimectrin gold. You can put the pea size amount on a small piece of bread and give the piece of bread to each chicken individually if you wish. You have to be careful because they will try to steal the bread from each other, then you wont know which ones got properly dosed and you'll risk overdosing. It's best to seperate them somehow and give a treated piece of bread individually. Once they are dosed orally, the chickens will most likely wipe their beak on the ground, this is normal. Then wait a couple of hours after dosing them before you give them their feed. Only give them a little feed at a time in their feeders, they will try gorging themselves and might become crop impacted from not being fed the last 24 hours if you dont do it in this manner.
Then wait 10 days and repeat this procedure.
There's a 14 day withdrawal period after the last dosing. Toss the eggs in the garbage or give them to your dogs during treatment and after treatment if you wish.
You may or may not see the tapeworms excreted after dosing them. Good luck.

 

[dawg53]

I also highly recommend that within the next 6 months you purchase Valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer and dose your birds with it at least every 6 months. Dosage for standard size birds is 1/2cc given orally undiluted, 1/4cc for smaller birds. Then repeat dosing again in 10 days.

 

[jstinsmommy]

thank you so very much. should i do anything to treat the ground? we use DE, about every weekend when we clean the coop. are the eggs that we have gotten in the last few days ok to eat? or is it just while you are treating them you dont want to eat them. And just to clarify, the eggs that you get after treatment are safe to give dogs? if it isnt safe for people to eat them how is it good for dogs?

 

[jstinsmommy]

dawg53, i was unable to locate the medication you mentioned. All our farm suppliers in town have a product called wazine. However i am curious if you know anything about this product. I only have 8 hens, and the instructions only talk about treating 100 chickens. Im not sure about the measurements. also the bottle says not to give this stuff to hens that provide eggs for human consumption. but lots of people i talk to say the eggs are fine after about 2 weeks. any thoughts from anyone?