Do you treat your flock with dewormer as a regular preventative practice or only if an issue arises??

[dawg53]

@Aunt Angus This is what you need:

 

[Aunt Angus]

Great idea Aunt Angus. I live in a valley up against a state park. I dont always see what they get into. How might one do their own fecal floats? Thank you for that Auntie

I can't find the websites I used to learn, it I did find this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/fecal-examination-in-backyard-chickens-101-part-1.75459/

This is pretty much the exact method I use. I've done lots of tests for my goats, and only a few on chickens. It's easier on goats mainly because I can recognize the worm eggs more easily. There is much, much more info out there to help people recognize goat parasites than chickens because goats always have worms so they need these tests done very frequently, they are more expensive livestock to replace so there's more demand to keep them healthy, there's a major problem with resustence to wormers because of wormer misuse. I find it harder to get pics of some poultry-specific parasites online. That's the hardest part for me.

The first few times I did it, I also got fecal floats done by my vet or those mail in ones you can buy online. I got better with practice and found that it's easier to count thr overall eggs first to see how many you're dealing with rather than look for specific types of worms. Then I go back and see which one I see most or see which of the ones

@Aunt Angus This is what you need:
View attachment 3185020

Yes, indeed. I have a pdf of a similar manual, but that looks great! I'll find it.