Garlic As Worm Treatment/Preventative

[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]

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

 

[45lk9p459gm-w]

Most of the information I received today, more or less, said that it is best to put your efforts into prevention so the birds don't get the parasites and diseases in the first place. Like you said, diet, exercise, shelter and so on. One thing that did surprise me in regards to bio security was that free ranging and deep litter bedding were major no-no's.

I'm starting with the bio security end of things first I think.

 

[45lk9p459gm-w]

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

I have to admit, I did not find any information on “Pasta Sauce” having any proven effect on preventing worms in chickens. Lots of anecdotal evidence for and against garlic but that is just someones opinion with nothing to back it up.

In your post, you stated “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”. Is it possible that given its usefulness as a wormer if fed in unreasonable amounts that maybe if fed in smaller amounts, like treats, it might be a worm preventative? Anecdotal evidence says pumpkin seeds are better at preventing worms in chickens than garlic. But …. then … it also says that pumpkin seeds don’t do a thing for worms. Opinions, everybody has them.

I agree that for large worm loads the chemical medications are the way to go. This thread was simply asking if there were any alternative for the prevention and or treatment of worms in chickens.

Since all we have to go on are opinions I guess we will just have to go by trial and error and see what does and doesn’t work as a preventive. The heavy hitters up in College Station gave me some good ideas on bio security and, that I might work some of the herbal lore into it just to see if I could get some desired effects. You have to work your bio security from the perimeter in …. not from the center out.

 

[Fuchsia]

I know someone that uses garlic to deworm her chickens and also gives it to them to prevent worms. I don't know if it actually works, it might help keep them healthier though
Garlic does help with worms in goats but I don't know about chickens.

 

[45lk9p459gm-w]

I know someone that uses garlic to deworm her chickens and also gives it to them to prevent worms. I don't know if it actually works, it might help keep them healthier though
Garlic does help with worms in goats but I don't know about chickens.

Can you get some more information from your friend on exactly how they use the garlic? I would like to incorporate something like this into my prevention activities to experiment with the validity of the claim.

 

[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.

 

[Weeg]

I know someone that uses garlic to deworm her chickens and also gives it to them to prevent worms. I don't know if it actually works, it might help keep them healthier though
Garlic does help with worms in goats but I don't know about chickens.

Dogs to, its also an immune booster, and anything like that is always helpful to help the animal expel worms, and keep them from getting them. I think its helpful at least for that.

 

[Weeg]

Can you get some more information from your friend on exactly how they use the garlic? I would like to incorporate something like this into my prevention activities to experiment with the validity of the claim.

Heres a clip from the article I read, (for dogs, but I'de guess you'd prepare it the same way).

 

[Tonyroo]

I feel like whatever people use as a natural prevention seems like a waste of time and effort. Chickens will be Chickens, they eat soo many random things, they don't know it will hurt them down the road.

So monitoring there behavior and checking there poop daily is the best measure to help them recover.