Free range chickens and horses being dewormed

[Turkey Trot]

Hi all,
I've looked through the forums and can't find any information on whether or not it's harmful to chickens to pick around/through the manure in the paddocks when the ponies have just been dewormed. Any experience with this? I haven't had these chickens long and it's time to deworm the gang. The ponies are up for ivermectin this time but sure don't want to poison my flock of five. I was planing on confining them and picking it up and hauling it away down field out of range but am afraid I may miss a pile. Thanks!

 

[HEChicken]

I wish I'd seen this post before I saw your more recent one, but glad for the update. Since Ivermectin is also used for worming chickens, I wouldn't think there would be any issue with exposure, unless the dosage was too high - but after having passed through the horse, I wouldn't even be worried about that.

I was interested to hear your experience with the spreading. If seeds from the manure germinate, is that an issue where you are, or would it actually improve the pasture to have a few seeds missed by the chickens left to germinate? (I ask this because I gathered my horse manure and used it to fill a raised bed without aging it properly first, and spent the year pulling the unwanted seedlings that resulted).

 

[centrarchid]

We had a good number of chickens around horses (quarter and some pacer breed) that were wormed periodically and birds of all ages had access to feces. No losses or even poor health resulted to my recollection.