Fecal Float Questions

[Sue Gremlin]

Just out of curiosity...
Chicken keepers here where I live will tell you most chickens carry some worms.
Problems arise when the worm load is at a certain level. Before this the chickens are healthy and the worm load is kept manageable through normal eating. These are free range chickens so this makes a difference. Before we (humans) started testing for worms and trying to eliminate them chickens seemed to have survived; I assume with some worms.
Again, chicken keepers here will tell you that free range chickens eat things that 'discourage' excessive worm loads. Nobody is quite sure what it is they eat that does this.
So, what is the critical worm load for a chicken for each particular worm?
To keep it topical, it seems to be a bit like Covid; lots may carry it while few are sick.

I did my thesis on this topic, more or less. Seriously! Animals and people have co-evolved right along with their worms. Removing worms has a price to the host. This is called the hygiene hypothesis, that people and animals who live in a super clean, infection-free world don't develop defenses and may develop problems later in life when exposed.
What the economic threshold for parasites in animals is is a very good question.

 

[aart]

Maybe, but if we here on BYC are posting links to FB, the same should happen there. Right?

Not necessarily.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Maybe I'd be thinner if I had a light worm load.

Should I eat some chicken poop?

 

[Folly's place]

I'd just eat even more...
Mary

 

[ChemicalchiCkns]

with a near pond, has lost both peafowl and chickens to Heterachis.

Surface water is the Devil's work.

 

[Folly's place]

After moving here, we had a one acre pond dug, thinking fondly of a swimming hole. Within a couple of weeks, zillions of wild Canada geese arrived, eating the cover plantings on the slopes, and using the pond. NO WAY is it usable for swimming!
Mary

 

[ChickenCanoe]

After moving here, we had a one acre pond dug, thinking fondly of a swimming hole. Within a couple of weeks, zillions of wild Canada geese arrived, eating the cover plantings on the slopes, and using the pond. NO WAY is it usable for swimming!
Mary

Maybe you could swim and get a light worm load.

 

[casportpony]

Not necessarily.

My concern/issue is posting links to FB is against BYC rules. I'm okay with it as long at the floaters club are okay with people posting links back to BYC.

 

[getaclue]

For the record, I DO post the link for here, on a few of my FB groups.

 

[jolenesdad]

Maybe, but if we here on BYC are posting links to FB, the same should happen there. Right?

Yes!

I admin a local Houston group and am constantly sending people here. I think I’ve tagged you in a couple of posts from people with sick birds.

I had no idea it was against the rules to postback to FB though!

Just out of curiosity...
Chicken keepers here where I live will tell you most chickens carry some worms.
Problems arise when the worm load is at a certain level. Before this the chickens are healthy and the worm load is kept manageable through normal eating. These are free range chickens so this makes a difference. Before we (humans) started testing for worms and trying to eliminate them chickens seemed to have survived; I assume with some worms.
Again, chicken keepers here will tell you that free range chickens eat things that 'discourage' excessive worm loads. Nobody is quite sure what it is they eat that does this.
So, what is the critical worm load for a chicken for each particular worm?
To keep it topical, it seems to be a bit like Covid; lots may carry it while few are sick.

Agreed. I did have a recent unexplained death that I didn’t necropsy and obviously have seen some rather high loads with some of these slides so in this case I think deworming was necessary for the entire flock. whatever that critical load is I think I hit it. I’ve never dewormed in the past, but also had a clear management issue with a wet are inside the coop/run.

With horses it’s something like 80% of the worms are shed by 20% of the horses. I could see this with the slides I did in my chickens too. The thought is that certain loads are acceptable and we are out there broad spectruming the entire herd for something we could manage far better. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to that point where I can provide that level of management for my horses .

I’ll also be able to update with anecdotal evidence of course, which loads tend to increase in my chickens with which hens and when symptoms appear in the future in an effort to establish where that threshold is for my flock. Worm count thresholds are probably environment and flock specific but it will be interesting, nonetheless.