Talking about worms... I recently saw some tape worms in my chickens poop and after bringing a sample to the vet we decided that the load wasnt high enough to treat at the moment if.the birds are healthy. And my birds are visibly healthy and active so ive just been keeping a close eye on weight and well being.
Now my question is, is my worm load bad because I can see some segments? Am I making the right decision on watching body condition and not treating?
Also im a bit discouraged that worms showed up... how should I.change my management to prevent worms in the future? I use deep litter and rake up my run into a compost pile, my.goats had worms when they came to me but are clean now. Right now we have so much snow that they only have their deep litter and a path to the gate and goats hay manger. When the snow melts they are moving to a new pasture and run... any advice is appreciated!
I think I really like your vet...very unusual to be so inclined when they could make money by selling you meds. I think your birds are fine and the worm loads are fine if they are active, healthy and producing. You really can't prevent all worms and the goal is to prevent heavy loads and animals that succumb to them. I think that's why so many folks on here get sideways in their livestock paradigms because they've only ever been pet owners and when the pets have worms, we are advised to worm them...and keep worming them like worms are some kind of plague.
With livestock you are breeding and keeping stock for breeding, eating some each year that you cull and always improving on your stock through natural selection~if you are smart, that is~and that is so different from pet keeping. Pets are sort of just pets and there is no coming and going, eating and hatching more, etc. There really is no comparison to these two ways of keeping animals.
The very best tool for keeping animals that thrive with a low level but still existing worm load~or no worm load at all~is culling each year for production, health, feed thrift, and even social behaviors. It can leave you only the healthiest and most hardy birds on the land and those usually aren't the birds that are prone to parasite loads.
I think you are making an excellent decision by not treating. Look at your flock in terms of years instead of days, weeks or months and this will help you make decisions that will affect the whole flock and their general health and well being in a much more efficient manner. Everyone's first inclination is to panic when they see evidence of parasites and they want that gone..NOW. They don't care how much heavy hitting chemicals they put in their flock, they just want anything to do with worms to be gone. They somehow think worms are abnormal and a sign of dirty management practices. Sometimes that is true but if you know it isn't in your case, then you have to look at other causes and approach them in a more steady, long term way.
You can give them a gentle spring worm purge that can help them shed some worms and it still won't be drastic and upset the balance of their intestinal health..something like garlic, ginger root, pumpkin seeds, castor oil and even a gentle soap in the water can all help purge out a few worms. Start incorporating that into your methods in the spring and again at the end of summer while they are molting.
Then really take a good look at your flock in March and determine who is laying and who is not and take a hard line on culling out the nonlayers....usually this will throw a net over the animals most likely to be carrying most of the worm loads in your flock. Studies have shown that it's usually only 5% of any herd or flock that is carrying 90% of the herd/flock's entire worm load. If you can eliminate these animals it can stop the cycle...they are like one big parasite vector walking around in the flock.
Go low and slow on treatments for anything like this, particularly if your birds are healthy and producing. Don't upset their balance and just take a few mild steps to correct the direction of your flock...the most important being the power of the cull. We are the predator for our flock and any flock or herd is stronger and healthier if they have natural predators weeding out the sick and nonproducing animals that are competing for food and living in proximity with the healthier animals. Those weaker animals are potential parasite and disease vectors and it's a good thing to take them out of the flock.
The first time I've ever seen worms in one of my birds was last year when I got my old flock back from a place of poor management. I didn't cull for worms, I was culling for nonlaying, overeating, poor social behaviors, etc. In doing so I culled a hen with wry tail that wasn't laying, was a loner, was a heavy eater and fat and sassy, no visual signs of worms...but she had tape worms in her. There is no doubt she brought those worms along with her from the other place, but I also killed other birds that year that didn't have worms.
Why her? I'm not sure, but I've killed many birds since her now and haven't found a single tape worm...or any worm, though they had been exposed to her and presumably she was shedding eggs into the soils of the coop and land. Something about that particular chicken made her a vector...same diet, same living area, same management as the other birds but she alone had these worms. Could explain why she wasn't laying, was isolated from the flock, was overeating(anemia signals the body to take in more nutrients) and not as active in foraging as the other birds.
Whatever the reason, taking her out took out the tape worms in this flock and I'm glad she is gone. Many would argue that treating for worms would also take out the tape worms from the flock, but would it? Or would it simply create tape worms that survived the meds and continued to be hosted by certain members of the flock more prone to be vectors, there to keep reproducing and loading up the soils with eggs...eggs that could find their way to weaker animals like young chicks.
It's all in how you want to manage your flock...with immediate and short term solutions that may or may not be effective for the long term, which will mean you have to keep repeating them over and over. Or with a long term approach and more final solutions that can help you never have to worry about worms or illnesses in your flocks because you have the strongest flock possible.
Every post makes me think "Praise the Lord". Ahhhh....I love it here. 
