Garlic As Worm Treatment/Preventative

[45lk9p459gm-w]

I just read a piece that promotes garlic as a natural way to treat and prevent worms in chickens. Supposedly just by placing a few garlic cloves in the drinking water will release sulfur and something else that I can't remember now. This is supposed to take care of the worms and help to prevent them in the first place.

Has anyone had any experience with this method of worm treatment?

 

[Kiki]

Garlic does not prevent or rid worms and neither will pumpkin seeds or DE.
Do not believe everything you read on the internet guys.

Does your bird have worms?
Which type of worms are you trying to treat?

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Garlic does not prevent or rid worms and neither will pumpkin seeds or DE.
Do not believe everything you read on the internet guys.

Does your bird have worms?
Which type of worms are you trying to treat?

Agreed! Facts, facts, Kiki’s got facts.

 

[Folly's place]

Garlic is great stuff, and stays in my kitchen. pumpkin seeds are a nice treat, but NOT useful as a wormer unless fed in unreasonable amounts, so much that the birds won't eat them. And DE? No way!
Effective wormers are useful when targeted to specific known infestations, and the one that is approved for chickens in the USA is fenbendazole, when used as directed for the intestinal parasites it actually will kill.
Many of us have few issues with our birds, and either seeing specific things in the feces, or better yet, having fecals checked by the veterinarian, gives the information needed.
Mary

 

[ChookieG]

I will be doing a lot of reading on this subject. I don't have a worm problem with this flock yet but I know its only a matter of time before they show up. A good preventative would be an awesome start.

Just keep in mind that you won't be able to totally eliminate all the worms in your chooks. Worms are inherent in birds, it only gets problematic when the worm load is too high - usually because they are immunocompromised. When there are worms in their poo is usually a sign they'll need treatment. Best is to make sure your flock is always healthy by maintaining a proper lifestyle (involves usual stuff like a good diet, exercise, shelter, etc) and don't buy/select birds that are genetically weak/compromised.

 

[Folly's place]

Tobaco is a toxin, and at dosages needed to actually kill parasites, is very toxic. In those 'good old days' before safe and effective wormers were available, it was a useful product. sometimes. Now that we have safe and effective drugs available, in known dosages, trying those old chemical products makes no sense at all!
It's a matter of using something that's toxic to the targeted parasite, while not harming the host.
And 'natural' isn't the same as 'safe'!!!
Mary

 

[Painted Calls]

If all these natural foods are good for humans why wouldn't they be for our animals.

Short answer - because animals are not people and have different tolerances. Birds don't even have a stomach, therefore they process things completely different than we do.

Not saying natural stuff is bad at all. Just explaining why some may not give something that is toxic to a lot of animals, to their chickens. Or why that statement may not always work.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

So...

I'm not in a great mood, will try not to be deliberately insulting. There's an old adage, "the dosage is the poison", and for parasite control, parasite elimination, and even for control of bacteria etc that adage holds generally true.

In practical terms, it means that the compounds effective in wormwood, pumpkin seeds, mustard (another high sulphur compound family of plants), etc have to be present in sufficient quantity to do any good (together with the great mass of everything else that makes up the wormwood, garlic, etc that doesn't have the desired bug control properties). But in too high a dosage, they risk doing great harm to your animals. Or yourself.

Naturally grown plant materials have useful compounds, yes - but how much, and in what part of the plant, will vary with species, with planting location, with time of year, and even from year to year. Its what separates herbalism from pharmacy - known compounds in known concentrations offered in known dosages with a generally well known (or at least broadly accepted theory) of HOW, chemically, it does what it is purported to do.

Whenever I am deliberately adding something to the diet with the idea of killing, controlling, or otherwise managing a "problem", I prefer to be deliberate in the dosage. That may not matter to you - but understand that one of us is managing risk with the benefit of hundreds of years of human experience, and the other is little better that sitting in a cave by the fireside telling stories and crushing plants while invoking the Spirit world.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I use DE for millipedes and it works great as long as it is dry. The package information says not to breath it in as it will cause respiratory issues and do not use it in wet or damp places because it doesn't work when wet.

From this I have assumed that if its bad for me to breath it's probably bad for the chicken to breath also. If it doesn't work when wet, then feeding it to the chickens for worms probably won't work either since their insides are wet and damp. I don't know this for sure but I don't personally use DE on or around my chickens based on the package cautions.

On the other hand, some folks swear by it ......

^ that's the highlights.

I use it on horizontal surfaces in my (very dry, not disturbed) barn to control creepy crawlies, by placing it where they are likely to form paths and causeways. I can lay a broad path of the stuff at full concentration, and ensure broad exposure. Helps keep ants, roaches, beetles, etc to a rare few.

Its also effective* against mice.

* How??? I see their feet prints, and know to set out new glue traps!

 

[LaFleche]

What I'm wondering is if there might be something else that might help in preventing parasites in chickens.

There is no way to prevent parasites, as chicken can get infested by just ingesting a single insect or worm that was a carrier.

But you can do quite a lot by avoiding overcrowding, cleaning the poop board every morning, keeping the coop clean and dry and providing more than enough run/pen space and if possible at least one, better two additional runs, so you can rotate and not have the chickens on their own feces.

Biosecurity is also important: Always wear especially designated chicken boots (that will never be used elsewhere) when entering their space. Never enter their space with street boots/shoes.