Gapeworm or respiratory Illness?

[Eggcessive]

Safeguard 10% is not water soluble. It has to be given orally for 5 straight days to treat gapeworm and capillary worms. Dosage is 0.25 ml per pound of weight.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I ask additional questions on here because my vet does not enjoy chickens as patients & I’d like to know what else to do to rid of the worms & eggs & help Gabbys issue of diarrhea stop.

So for gapeworm treatment:
The safeguard 10% that I have for goats states it is 100 mg/ml.
?Is the dosing you stated for that strength? (I don’t want to overdose).
?Do I put the dose amount in 1 gallon of water & change it out daily?
?can I use a metal waterer for the mixed solution?

OK, I see.

Your vet texted you and said they have Gapeworm and to use Safeguard Liquid Goat Dewormer at a rate of 60mg/kg for 3 days.

Go to TSC or your feed store and pick up a bottle of Safeguard Liquid Goat Dewormer like in the photo he sent you.

This is given by direct oral dose and does not go in the water. You'll treat each individual bird.

He says to use a dose of 60mg/kg of the goat dewormer so that will translate to 0.2727ml per pound of weight. (1÷2.2x60÷100=0.2727) I'd try to get as close to 0.27ml as possible.

Get a good weight on your hens. Draw up the correct dose for the hen(s) from the bottle of goat dewormer and give her the medication orally once daily for 3 days in a row.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

Hope that helps.

 

[azygous]

Gape worm eggs are in the soil, and they will be especially heavy where the chickens spend all their time. The best practice when worms are a chronic issue is to rotate pasturing so the life cycle can be interrupted. That's the general scoop.

Tell us what your run has for a substrate. For example, my runs are construction sand, and this enables me to keep poop scooped several times a day so it greatly reduces the opportunity for chickens to ingest poop. That's how worms are passed among chickens.

If your run is deep litter, on the other hand, poop is not picked up, but stirred and turned. I have no experience with this type of substrate, but I expect it might increase the chances of worms becoming a problem.

As far as I know, removing the substrate as your vet advised is the only way to interrupt the life cycle of these parasites. To repeat, unless poop is picked up, the cycle will likely continue despite the Safguard treatment, and it should probably be done a second time after a couple weeks to get any worm eggs that developed into adults since the first treatment.

 

[azygous]

The diarrhea could be associated with the worms. Or it may be a separate issue. We don't have any way of knowing ahead of worming the chickens. If the diarrhea doe not stop after worming, then there may be a secondary issue. We'll have to wait and see what the worming does.

Meanwhile, if the diarrhea is a big problem, try giving boiled rice with buttermilk or keifer mixed in. Applesauce can also help firm up diarrhea, although these won't cure it if it has a pathological cause. Also, giving probiotics can help with minor diarrhea.

 

[Luckyt21]

Gape worm eggs are in the soil, and they will be especially heavy where the chickens spend all their time. The best practice when worms are a chronic issue is to rotate pasturing so the life cycle can be interrupted. That's the general scoop.

Tell us what your run has for a substrate. For example, my runs are construction sand, and this enables me to keep poop scooped several times a day so it greatly reduces the opportunity for chickens to ingest poop. That's how worms are passed among chickens.

If your run is deep litter, on the other hand, poop is not picked up, but stirred and turned. I have no experience with this type of substrate, but I expect it might increase the chances of worms becoming a problem.

As far as I know, removing the substrate as your vet advised is the only way to interrupt the life cycle of these parasites. To repeat, unless poop is picked up, the cycle will likely continue despite the Safguard treatment, and it should probably be done a second time after a couple weeks to get any worm eggs that developed into adults since the first treatment.

Thank you for answering.
Our run & coop are less than a year old.

•The run has our natural ground sandy soil with 2 straw bales & straw on the ground for them to scratch around in & keep their feet warmer.

•The coop has pine shavings on an untreated plywood floor. We also have a poop shelf under the roost bars with sweet PDZ on it. I scrape the 3 roosts (2x4’s) every day at noon & the scoop all the poop from the shelf with a litter box scoop & pick up whatever droppings I find on the floor shavings into a metal bucket & take it to the woods behind the barn/coop & dump it.

• On Saturday (warmer temps) I plan to deep clean the coop, run, drinkers, feeders & anything else I can remove & clean with bleach. Before I replace the substrates I am thinking about pump spraying the coop with permethrin or chlorhexadine (any suggestions on what to use to kill everything but my chickens is welcome). From what I’ve read those 2 are safe around chickens (let me know if I am wrong.

•Our chickens free ranged for approx 6 hrs a day all summer & fall when we had warmer north Central Minnesota weather. Our 10 acres is heavily wooded & we live on a larger chain of lakes with lakeshore & all sorts of wildlife including many wild birds!

•I am considering not letting them free range this year because of the unknowns out there in the woods.

•I have read your article on your sand floors & homemade fork scoop. We are planning on changing to sand in both the coop & run when spring arrives.

 

[Luckyt21]

OK, I see.

Your vet texted you and said they have Gapeworm and to use Safeguard Liquid Goat Dewormer at a rate of 60mg/kg for 3 days.

Go to TSC or your feed store and pick up a bottle of Safeguard Liquid Goat Dewormer like in the photo he sent you.

This is given by direct oral dose and does not go in the water. You'll treat each individual bird.

He says to use a dose of 60mg/kg of the goat dewormer so that will translate to 0.2727ml per pound of weight. (1÷2.2x60÷100=0.2727) I'd try to get as close to 0.27ml as possible.

Get a good weight on your hens. Draw up the correct dose for the hen(s) from the bottle of goat dewormer and give her the medication orally once daily for 3 days in a row.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

Hope that helps.

AWESOME!!! That helps me tons & I feel more confident in dosing them & avoiding overdosing anyone!!

 

[Luckyt21]

OK, I see.

Your vet texted you and said they have Gapeworm and to use Safeguard Liquid Goat Dewormer at a rate of 60mg/kg for 3 days.

Go to TSC or your feed store and pick up a bottle of Safeguard Liquid Goat Dewormer like in the photo he sent you.

This is given by direct oral dose and does not go in the water. You'll treat each individual bird.

He says to use a dose of 60mg/kg of the goat dewormer so that will translate to 0.2727ml per pound of weight. (1÷2.2x60÷100=0.2727) I'd try to get as close to 0.27ml as possible.

Get a good weight on your hens. Draw up the correct dose for the hen(s) from the bottle of goat dewormer and give her the medication orally once daily for 3 days in a row.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

Hope that helps.

Wow Meds are hard to give 15 chickens!! That was pretty much a disaster & not sure that each one swallowed the whole dose. I only got half of them done. I weighed each one. Here’s what we have for chicken weights:
3 @ 3 lbs
3 @ 4 lbs
8 @ 5 lbs
1 @ 7 lbs

Is there a better way of getting the wormer into them orally each day or a different easier med that I can give each one? Paste maybe?

Please LMK as soon as you can so if I need to go to TSC I can go before they close.

Thank you in advance

 

[Eggcessive]

Practice makes perfect. It gets easier the more you do it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

 

[dawg53]

@Luckyt21
Here's a link that might help you regarding worming chickens, see posts #2 & #4:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/worming-questions.1515680/#post-25504826

 

[azygous]

It's good you're planning to give coop and run a good cleaning. However, disinfectants only work on bacteria, not parasites. There is no way you are going to eradicate all the worm eggs. When coping with worms, it's the goal to do as well as you can, and in doing that, you are greatly reducing the local load.

When it comes to parasites, especially the worm kind, small numbers are not a problem for healthy chickens. It's when the load becomes heavy that the chickens become overwhelmed. You will probably want to institute a regular twice yearly worming schedule, alternating types of worm meds to avoid resistance, and make it a regular thing to also do a once or twice yearly deep cleaning. With that plan, worms should not be a health issue going forward.