Help! Dewormed chickens STILL have worms!!

[Farmgirl Lily]

Hi everyone,

I've been checking around various threads about deworming, but I haven't come across any that have had problems with worms after all the deworming hassle. I discovered my chickens had worms, dewormed them with Wazine17, waited 10 days (threw out all the eggs

) dosed them with SafeGuard(equine) fenbendazole, waited 14 days (threw our more eggs!) and some of my hens still have worms! Has anyone else had this problem? What do I do now??? I've been throwing eggs out for over three weeks! Do I try some of the natural stuff now like Verm-X? Any suggestions are highly appreciated!

 

[meme69]

I am new to chickens but I asked the other day at a pet shop and they seemed to know what they were on about and they advised the verm-x. The women had raised chickens herself.

 

[dawg53]

Hi everyone,

I've been checking around various threads about deworming, but I haven't come across any that have had problems with worms after all the deworming hassle. I discovered my chickens had worms, dewormed them with Wazine17, waited 10 days (threw out all the eggs

) dosed them with SafeGuard(equine) fenbendazole, waited 14 days (threw our more eggs!) and some of my hens still have worms! Has anyone else had this problem? What do I do now??? I've been throwing eggs out for over three weeks! Do I try some of the natural stuff now like Verm-X? Any suggestions are highly appreciated!

I understand your frustration. I dont recommend VermX, it's not a wormer as claimed and it's a waste of money. Here's what may have happened. Wazine only gets rid of one type of worm...large roundworms. Wazine is mixed in water. The problem with wormers that are mixed in water is that you dont know if your chickens drank the treated water or not. If they did drink the treated water, you dont know if they drank enough of it to be effective. Also, chickens can carry many types of worms and like I mentioned, wazine only treats one kind of worm.
Safeguard equine paste wormer kills most types of worms except tapeworms. It would have been better using the safeguard paste as your initial wormer, and reworming them again 10 days later. Safeguard equine paste dosage is a "pea" size amount given orally to each chicken. The reason why chickens are wormed twice is because larva and adult worms are initially killed by the first dosing. The worms are either absorbed as protein or excreted. The second worming 10 days after the initial worming is to kill larva hatched from eggs that were in the chickens system. Wormers cannot kill eggs. Worming 10 days after the initial worming kills the larva hatched from those eggs. Worming after the 14th day would be useless because the larva would be adults and reproducing again, completing the worms lifecycle. Reworming at the tenth day effectively ends the worms lifecycle.
If you are seeing worms again, do you know what worms you're seeing? If they are tapeworms or tapeworm segments you will need to use a different wormer, zimectrin gold would be best for your circumstance because you're familiar with equine pastes...if in fact it's tapeworms. Otherwise I recommend that you immediately redose your birds with the safeguard one more time. You can give the eggs to your dogs if you have any.

 

[Farmgirl Lily]

First, thank you very much for your advice! I've never dealt with this problem before.
Next, I started out with the Wazine to prepare my chickens for a stronger dewormer, which I followed up with by using SafeGuard 10 days later. But it's been 14 days now since SafeGuard dosage, and some of my hens still have about 1/8" sized live worms in their manure. Looks like tiny round, moving speckles. So if I give them another round of SafeGuard, will that do the trick, or would you suggest dosing instead with the zimectrin gold dewormer? And if I used the zimectrin gold, would I have to use it this time and then dose again in another 10 days, or do you think once might be enough? This is so tough throwing away eggs!
Again, thanks for your advice! I'm kind of experimenting with my hens on this, but it helps to have some one tell you about their experiences.

 

[dawg53]

Is this what you're seeing?

 

[Farmgirl Lily]

Yes, that it exactly what I'm seeing.

 

[Farmgirl Lily]

After more research, it's looking like I'm dealing with tapeworms, because the worms I'm seeing look exactly like those in the picture you posted. So, I guess I buy Zimectrin-Gold, dose my hens, then do it again 10 days later. Do I withhold feed to make the dewormer more potent to the worms? And from your experience, what has been the withdrawal time on eggs? It looks like you've answered many similar questions on this subject, so thanks for helping me out, too!

 

[dawg53]

After more research, it's looking like I'm dealing with tapeworms, because the worms I'm seeing look exactly like those in the picture you posted. So, I guess I buy Zimectrin-Gold, dose my hens, then do it again 10 days later. Do I withhold feed to make the dewormer more potent to the worms? And from your experience, what has been the withdrawal time on eggs? It looks like you've answered many similar questions on this subject, so thanks for helping me out, too!

Now you know why wazine and safeguard (fenbendazole) didnt work. I kinda suspected it was tapeworms after I read your first post. I've dealt with them quite abit. Yes, go ahead and get some z-gold. It's the praziquantel in the paste that'll kill the tapes. You can withhold their feed for 24 hours if you wish. Dosage is a pea size amount given to each chicken, redose again in 10 days. Sorry to say that the withdrawal period is 24 days from start to finish like before. If you have dogs, give the eggs to them.
Keep an eye on their feces after using the z-gold, you might see tapes excreted in their feces. They vary in length and shapes, are flat and segmented. Take some pics if you see any and post them here for educational purposes.

 

[Farmgirl Lily]

Thanks. I will give the z-gold a try. How do you know when you've gotten ride of the worms? When you don't see them in the manure anymore?
Also, is there anything I should do to the soil, or do I need to pick up the wormy manure? I want to add some DE to my chicken yard as well as ash once we start burning our wood stove again, since I've read that those two things make the soil better for the chickens to live on.
Thanks again Dawg53 for all of your help! This worm thing is a dismal business, and it helps a bit to know other people have dealt with the same thing.

 

[Farmgirl Lily]

I feel completely beaten! I dewormed my hens with zimectrin-gold horse dewormer, then re-dosed ten days later. For two or three weeks I haven't noticed any worms in the droppings, but now they are back!!! What is a person to do to get rid of these things?????

If anyone can help me out here, I'd appreciate it. I'm at my wits end, and after trying three different dewormers that haven't worked, I'm at my wits end. How do you beat these things?