I have never dewormed my chickens 🐓

[Taylorgirl15]

Hello- I have had chickens for going on 3 years. I haven’t dewormed any of them I asked my vet if they would see chickens of course I got a no answer I could take poop in but that would be on a bird that I’m unaware of. So my question is how do I safely just deworm them all with water they free range. They will be yelling at me. I will have to keep them locked up and would like to do it in the water. I change water daily. I just bought some dewormer, but it has one percent of ivermectin. As I eat the eggs and give them away I don’t want to use ivermectin. I’m getting unclear answers of what the egg withdrawal would be. So my next question is if I use the goat dewormer that is FDA approved what would be the dose and duration I would give this to my chickens

I have 38 chickens
7 babies 2 hens 5 unknown
1 roster
30 laying hens
I love them all so much and just wanna make sure I do all I can for them some of them not all have poop on their butts. I have looked for mites and lice as I had that last year and have been better and keeping control of that. Thank you in advance!

I would like to use the picture I have attached but getting a lot more questions in my head and don’t want to hurt any of them.

 

[nuthatched]

What questions do you have about the goat wormer?
You can't mix into their water as it separates, you have to dose by pound.
Ivermectin doesn't really work for chicken parasites anymore but it won't hurt you or anyone else if you eat the eggs.

 

[Squawkers]

Why are you deworming them? Unless you see signs of worms I wouldn’t do it.

 

[Taylorgirl15]

What questions do you have about the goat wormer?
You can't mix into their water as it separates, you have to dose by pound.
Ivermectin doesn't really work for chicken parasites anymore but it won't hurt you or anyone else if you eat the eggs.

Thank you I worry it will other that eat the eggs. I’m just wondering about the does I should give and for how long. Also, is it safe to just treat as I have never done so?

 

[Taylorgirl15]

Why are you deworming them? Unless you see signs of worms I wouldn’t do it.

Really? I don’t and I look at poop all the time I haven’t seen any. So I shouldn’t ever do it till I see the worms?

 

[Squawkers]

Really? I don’t and I look at poop all the time I haven’t seen any. So I shouldn’t ever do it till I see the worms?

Unless you have reason to believe they have worms it isn’t necessary. Some people do do periodical worming and while I don’t necessarily think it is a bad idea, it’s just unnecessary and there is a chance it could cause harm (get the dosage wrong or one of them has a reaction to it) though generally worming is safe. You seemed very worried about worming them, so it might be better for you to skip the hassle and not worry about it.


But about the deworming, I have used safeguard fenbendazole with good results. It is generally a safe product though it is toxic if you overdose. As far as the withdrawal period, I think I did 21 days. The quick Google search I just did said there is no withdrawal period, but I am hesitant to believe that. I know I got my number from somewhere and I didn’t just make it up, but not sure where I got it from.

 

[Squawkers]

Really? I don’t and I look at poop all the time I haven’t seen any. So I shouldn’t ever do it till I see the worms?

I wasn’t quite sure what you meant about asking the vet, but typically most vets will look at a fecal sample of chickens. If you can do this, I would. It doesn’t matter which chicken you get it from because if one has it they all will. I would try to get a little bit from multiple poops though. This is good because it will tell you if they even have worms and if they do, what they have. You might find that fenbendazole is not the right product for you (it doesn’t treat everything). You might find albendazole would work better.

 

[BDutch]

Why deworm?

I have chickens for 11 years and never dewormed. My oldest chicken is 11 yo.

Only if your chickens are sick from too many worms, you need to deworm. A few /some worms are no problem to coop with. Deworming kills much more than worms. It affects the health system of your chickens.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Roundworms (long skinny things) and tapeworms (small square white segments about the size of a grain of rice) are about the only worms that are visible to the human eye. There are other worms that are microscopic. That's why it can be a good idea to take poop samples from several of your chickens in a plastic bag to your vet. He will combine them, prepare them, and take a small mixed sample to look at under the microscope and can tell you if there are worms in your flock. Of course there will be some but unless there is a very high level, you probably do not need to treat.

 

[nuthatched]

Thank you I worry it will other that eat the eggs. I’m just wondering about the does I should give and for how long. Also, is it safe to just treat as I have never done so?

It's perfectly safe.
If you live somewhere that is fairly damp, I'd reccomended it.
Most vets will run a fecal test if any poops for a minimal cost, it's the best way to be certain.
You only see worms in the poop if there's no more room inside the chicken for worms to be, it's a sign of heavy infestation.
They'll literally suck the life out of your birds.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/safeguard-mash-zero-day-egg-withdrawal.1254653/