Is This Poop Okay? (**Pics!**)

[Eggcessive]

Yes, you can worm the 6 week olds now. You can worm and treat with Corid at the same time.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, you can worm the 6 week olds now. You can worm and treat with Corid at the same time.

Thank you!

 

[arazla]

My 15 lavender EE chicks* are 6 weeks old. Is that old enough to worm? I spotted a bloody stool in their pen today, so I need to treat for coccidiosis as well, I think. Can I treat concurrently? And if not, should I do the Corid first? Thanks.

*yeah, this info was not strictly necessary, I'm bragging!

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Beautiful young chickens! I let my broody hen have 4 eggs, 3 of which hatched and I believe at least 2 are EE mixes with one being a lavender orpinton-EE mix. What color were they in the early stages? Mine look pretty interesting so far and hope they'll turn out this pretty!

Just saw a round worm on the poop board, so looking at all the related threads to get some sense of direction. Since we're overwhelmed with various special needs stations at the moment, I'm letting nature take its course and just letting mama hen raise these 3 chicks on her own. Mama has already integrated them into this flock. They are 2 weeks old. @Eggcessive @dawg53 If I do a dewormer in the general waterers (that seemed to be the most effective method for us in the past), could the chicks potentially drink TOO much?

Also any idea on the actual likelihood of roundworms showing up in eggs? We have a small egg stand and I'm now terrified one may end up in a customer's carton.

I'm pretty sure I know which hen this worm came from and its our alpha hen that has signs of malnutrition (hair feathers) and over mating. She can be cruel to the other hens and sometimes shuffle dances like a rooster, so was thinking that could be why the roosters target her, but now I'm thinking her being sick could also explain a few things. How common is it that just a few in the flock have roundworm? So appreciate everyone's experience and expertise.

 

[Eggcessive]

@arazla , Valbazen or SafeGuard 10% fenbendazole goat wormer are supposed to be given directly into the beak, not put in water. They will settle out and the chickens won’t get the right dosage. It is easy to grab one off the roost just before daylight, dose them, and set them down on the floor. If you have a few chickens you can put wormer in a small amount of wet feed or egg, but they have to eat it all. The only wormers that can go into water are Aquasol cattle wormer for 5 days, about $270 for a liter, and Wormout Gel for 2 days. The Aquasol is a weaker solution of fenbendazole, and will only treat roundworms. You can find those online.

 

[arazla]

@arazla , Valbazen or SafeGuard 10% fenbendazole goat wormer are supposed to be given directly into the beak, not put in water. They will settle out and the chickens won’t get the right dosage. It is easy to grab one off the roost just before daylight, dose them, and set them down on the floor. If you have a few chickens you can put wormer in a small amount of wet feed or egg, but they have to eat it all. The only wormers that can go into water are Aquasol cattle wormer for 5 days, about $270 for a liter, and Wormout Gel for 2 days. The Aquasol is a weaker solution of fenbendazole, and will only treat roundworms. You can find those online.

Thank you. The vet prescribed a version that was in their water for 7 days, or maybe it was 10. I can't remember. I had tried the Safeguard paste 10% on my own. It may have worked for most, but we got two lavender orpingtons in the fall that never laid an egg until we did what the vet prescribed in the water. I never expected them to lay and just figured they must be much older than the breeder told me.
But after the water treatment in late winter, they started laying. So I guess I'm thinking to go that route again if we have such a heavy parasite load that I'm seeing it on the poop board. But now I'm confused because you're saying it's a weaker version and doesn't cover everything so wondering why the vet would prescribe that unless it was the longevity that made the difference. It was after a farm call, but I've noticed most of these vets, who are an hour away, specialize in goats and such.

I have about 30 chickens plus a turkey and 4 chicks now. Of the 30 adult chickens, we raised 8. Half the newer birds are skittish depending on who we got them from. We could do the roost thing, but honestly I've found that can be quite a bit of work as well.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I expected it to be a major hassle to worm by syringe in the beak, but honestly it wasn't that hard. DH and I did it together. We had 9 syringes and got them all loaded. Went out after sunset (this gal is NOT a morning person!) and plucked them off the roost. He held, I dosed,* then we swapped: I held while he banded the chicken, then I put her back on the roost. Grabbed the next chicken and repeated the process. Only a couple really objected, and only for a couple of seconds. We did have to go back in the house to reload the syringes. Tomorrow when we repeat the process, we'll remove the bands to keep track of who's been treated. Easy peasy!

Like you, @arazla, as you probably saw if you read this whole thread, I found a roundwork on the poop tray. Interestingly, though, after worming I did not find multiple poops laden with dead roundworms, as expected. In fact, I only found ONE huge pile of roundworms in approximately the same spot as I'd found the first evidence of worms. So ... was only one hen infested??? I don't know. Very puzzling.

*As for the dosing, it's not difficult. Your helper, if you have one, should hold the chicken like a football, with the wings pinned securely against his body with his arm over the outer wing. You grasp the wattles or the bottom flap under the beak and tug gently but with authority. Try not to let go, even though some hens will shake their head in an attempt to break free. The hen will open her beak when you pull down on the wattles. I found it helpful to stick a finger in the side of the beak, my pinky from the hand holding the wattles, to hold the beak open, as I inserted the tip of the syringe with the other hand and gave it a quick squirt. Occasionally a hen managed to shake her head and fling the Rx out, so it's a good idea to have an extra syringe or two ready.

 

[dawg53]

I expected it to be a major hassle to worm by syringe in the beak, but honestly it wasn't that hard. DH and I did it together. We had 9 syringes and got them all loaded. Went out after sunset (this gal is NOT a morning person!) and plucked them off the roost. He held, I dosed,* then we swapped: I held while he banded the chicken, then I put her back on the roost. Grabbed the next chicken and repeated the process. Only a couple really objected, and only for a couple of seconds. We did have to go back in the house to reload the syringes. Tomorrow when we repeat the process, we'll remove the bands to keep track of who's been treated. Easy peasy!

Like you, @arazla, as you probably saw if you read this whole thread, I found a roundwork on the poop tray. Interestingly, though, after worming I did not find multiple poops laden with dead roundworms, as expected. In fact, I only found ONE huge pile of roundworms in approximately the same spot as I'd found the first evidence of worms. So ... was only one hen infested??? I don't know. Very puzzling.

*As for the dosing, it's not difficult. Your helper, if you have one, should hold the chicken like a football, with the wings pinned securely against his body with his arm over the outer wing. You grasp the wattles or the bottom flap under the beak and tug gently but with authority. Try not to let go, even though some hens will shake their head in an attempt to break free. The hen will open her beak when you pull down on the wattles. I found it helpful to stick a finger in the side of the beak, my pinky from the hand holding the wattles, to hold the beak open, as I inserted the tip of the syringe with the other hand and gave it a quick squirt. Occasionally a hen managed to shake her head and fling the Rx out, so it's a good idea to have an extra syringe or two ready.

Great job! Now you know your birds got properly wormed without any guesswork.
Just for your info; if one bird has worms, most likely the others have them as well. You dont see them excreted in feces because they are absorbed as protein. Also, why would a parasite want to leave its host?
The bird that excreted the pile of roundworms was overloaded and the worms had nowhere else to go but out the rear end.
Additionally, you should reworm birds on a regular basis. Think of all the female worms that have laid tens of thousands of eggs onto your soil or inside your coop. The eggs will be picked up and swallowed by other birds, starting the worms lifecycle all over again.
A routine worming cycle will prevent your birds from getting worms and will keep them healthy for years to come.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@arazla, here are my chicks when they were little. They were not cold here, they just like to cuddle. Even now, at 8 weeks and nearly full size, with temps close to 90°F, they still all vie for the central spot in the cuddle puddle! There are 15 of them.

Oh - I wanted to say that when they were chicklets as in this pic, a lot of them had a lot of yellow on them. Only a few were completely lavender at this age, but they are all lavs now. Also, about 8 of them have faint barring, which I love, like their daddy. It is not a sex-linked characteristic. Either gender can be barred, apparently, according to the breeder. Here's the sire:

 

[arazla]

They are super cute! You can see a wide variety in their wing position and length as babies. I wonder how much truth there is in identifying their gender this way. Since they lean yellow, I'm less sure now about the chick I was thinking might be a lavender cross. It's more of a chipmunk chick with grey/blue and a stripe down its back. It does have a lot of brown which I was thinking might be from one of our roosters who were all brownish owl colors as babies until they developed new vibrant colors.

 

[arazla]

I expected it to be a major hassle to worm by syringe in the beak, but honestly it wasn't that hard. DH and I did it together. We had 9 syringes and got them all loaded. Went out after sunset (this gal is NOT a morning person!) and plucked them off the roost. He held, I dosed,* then we swapped: I held while he banded the chicken, then I put her back on the roost. Grabbed the next chicken and repeated the process. Only a couple really objected, and only for a couple of seconds. We did have to go back in the house to reload the syringes. Tomorrow when we repeat the process, we'll remove the bands to keep track of who's been treated. Easy peasy!

Like you, @arazla, as you probably saw if you read this whole thread, I found a roundwork on the poop tray. Interestingly, though, after worming I did not find multiple poops laden with dead roundworms, as expected. In fact, I only found ONE huge pile of roundworms in approximately the same spot as I'd found the first evidence of worms. So ... was only one hen infested??? I don't know. Very puzzling.

*As for the dosing, it's not difficult. Your helper, if you have one, should hold the chicken like a football, with the wings pinned securely against his body with his arm over the outer wing. You grasp the wattles or the bottom flap under the beak and tug gently but with authority. Try not to let go, even though some hens will shake their head in an attempt to break free. The hen will open her beak when you pull down on the wattles. I found it helpful to stick a finger in the side of the beak, my pinky from the hand holding the wattles, to hold the beak open, as I inserted the tip of the syringe with the other hand and gave it a quick squirt. Occasionally a hen managed to shake her head and fling the Rx out, so it's a good idea to have an extra syringe or two ready.

Interesting. I suspect we may find something similar.

We've got 30 chickens, a turkey, and 4 chicks, so the prospect of doing them all individually is a bit daunting to be honest. When we used Safeguard paste before, we served pea sized amounts on pieces of bread. It may not have been as effective as the water treatment the vet prescribed because we did the repeat-in-10-days recipe rather than 5-days-in-a-row thing. I also don't think I gave them enough. I was rather conservative in what I considered to be a pea sized amount. I was told later in the fb group "just the fowl facts," that anyone who recommended a "pea-sized" amount without weighing each individual chicken was an "untrustworthy source." I had gotten the pea-sized instructions from a former vet tech I don't know well, but who seems pretty solid on chickens stuff. Later I found the exact same instructions on The Chicken Chick's website. At any rate, seems a heck of a lot easier than weighing EVERY SINGLE chicken unless there are obvious discrepancies in size.

Which leads me to my next question in regards to clarifying dosing again. Somewhere on byc I think I read that it was .23 ml of Safeguard per 5 lb chicken, but now I can't find that. So I'm panicking thinking I got this wrong. Surely it's not .23 ml per pound? And do I skip the babies for now? The 3 older ones seem happy and healthy. (The newest one is alone and its mom is still in a stupor, but that's another story). I do have 1 Old English Bantam roo and several hens that are on the smaller size which I could theoretically weigh, although not sure they'll register on my scale since it's meant for humans.