Do you need to worm if no signs are present?

[SusieS]

A friend of mine puts cider vinegar in their drinking water and cayenne pepper in their food once a week to prevent any worms. Her hens are free range and very healthy. I'm doing the same for mine now as it won't cause any problems or distress. I may get some spicy eggs though!

 

[Iluvmallards]

SusieS I think I am going to try this also, my hens free range, no sign of worms yet, but I have a river in my back yard they might start drinking from that, they don't right now, they might if I put it in their water but going to try any way, I wonder if it would work for dogs, I have dashchunds and I hate giving all that stuff to them once a month, I use apple cider vinegar a small amount in a spray bottle for fleas bc i have 2 that are alergic to the flea meds, it works very well

 

[Iluvmallards]

SusieS I think I am going to try this also, my hens free range, no sign of worms yet, but I have a river in my back yard they might start drinking from that, they don't right now, they might if I put it in their water but going to try any way, I wonder if it would work for dogs, I have dashchunds and I hate giving all that stuff to them once a month, I use apple cider vinegar a small amount in a spray bottle for fleas bc i have 2 that are alergic to the flea meds, it works very well

 

[StephieSky]

For those concerned about residual meds in the egg, here is a list of common drugs used to treat for parasites in humans. Valbezan, Ivermectin and Zimectrin Gold are all covered i believe in the listing.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/216236-medications-to-treat-human-worms/

Just an FYI.

I would think that is all the more reason NOT to eat the eggs until after a withdrawal period is observed.The very last thing I would want is to become the host to a wormer resistant worm due to prolonged low dose exposure.
I won't even feed them to my cats. I did think about feeding them to the wild birds but I rethought that and came to the conclusion trace exposure wouldn't do them any good either. Personally, I'm tossing the eggs out.

 

[Afterburner]

I just give my birds a pumpkin during Halloween. It naturally worms them and provides cheap feed since the pumpkins are dirt cheap after October 31.

 

[foreverhome]

How do you know? Did you have a vet-tested fecal sample indicating worms, then change nothing but feeding pepper flakes, then have a vet-tested negative fecal? 

Organic and home remedies are great, but show me the science.

Exactly!

 

[chickendude9]

I wouldn't/don't. As I understand it worming is poisoning. Why would you want to take the chance?

I've always said that reading BYC can cause poultry keepers to become paranoid. Remember, there are over 200,000 members, and most only post when they have an unusual problem.

agreed.

 

[LDev]

After discovering that my new little rescue hens have Ascaridia galli ( a large roundworm which can measure up to about 12cm) i have just had them wormed at my vets, he advised a 2 week egg withdrawal period...and even if he hadn't I would have done this anyway. My hens appeared to have a particularly heavy wormload and although a herbal remedy may have helped it would not elimate the subsequent larvae and eggs and there is no way I would want them to have to put up with these worms if there is a way to eliminate them. I did use garlic to expel some of the adult worms, which enabled me to have them identified to establish the correct wormer to use

 

[foreverhome]

Eww... I'll bet that looked even better than pickled tapeworms. On a serious note, I was very interested to see your post on rescued ex-battery hens. Hard to find that in US.

 

[LDev]

It was a pretty impressive worm and looked really interesting under magnification but glad my wee hens are getting rid of them. If they were young birds they can be fatal due to the internal damage they can do which is why herbal repellants are great but in the interests of animal welfare I would not substitute them for correct wormer. It's a shame you don't have rescue services over there....maybe you should start one