I have a stupid question--please don't laugh (too hard)

[newchickmomma4]

The other day I posted a question about worming my adult hens and when I should worm my (now one week old) chicks. One of the responses that I got said that if they don't have worms don't worm them. My problem is, I don't know if they have worms or not. If they do have worms and I don't worm them will it harm us through eating their eggs? (See, I told you it was stupid.....but I do t know). And if they don't have worms and I worm them am I hurting them?

 

[newchickmomma4]

.

 

[donrae]

Okay, I don't worm chickens at all, so take what I say with a grain of salt....

If you give them wormer, I don't believe you can eat the eggs for a specific period of time, if the hens had worms or not.

If they do have worms, the worms don't get into the eggs, so eating the eggs won't harm you. Okay, there are extreme cases of worm infestation when the worms can cross into the reproductive tract, but I'm thinking you'd notice something wrong with your bird long before that.

An easy way to check for worms is to take a stool spec to the vet for a count. I think even non-avian vets do it, and it's a fairly cheap test.

 

[newchickmomma4]

Thank you Donrae! None of the vets in my area that are not "farm vets" treat chickens but I will call and see if anyone can test the poo for me . I really don't want to worm them unnecessarily, but I also don't want to harm my family (one of our children as an auto-immune disease and is immuno-suppressed and I take food safety VERY seriously because of that)

 

[aart]

There's only one stupid question...and that was not it ;-)

Always ask if you don't know! ...and keep asking until you get a consensus that you are comfortable with.

Donrae has lots of experience and is very pragmatic...I've learned lots from her!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Thank you Donrae! None of the vets in my area that are not "farm vets" treat chickens but I will call and see if anyone can test the poo for me

. I really don't want to worm them unnecessarily, but I also don't want to harm my family (one of our children as an auto-immune disease and is immuno-suppressed and I take food safety VERY seriously because of that)

Any vet can do a FEC (Fecal Egg Count) or examine the stool for parasites, doesn't matter what species the sample is from, stool is stool when it comes to looking for parasites. I am big on doing guided parasite control (FEC to identify the parasite load and then treating appropriately) vs. the old standard "routine" approach (treat every x # of months just because) - on all of our pets - because of the issue of the development of treatment resistant parasites with overuse of certain treatments