Wormwood is a legitimate remedy for treating internal parasites. ACV is not. I'm not saying that ACV doesn't have health benefits, but the OP is asking specifically about worming and if it is necessary.
Is worming necessary?
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chkva
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That's something I'll have to remember. Thanks for the infoI use food grade diatomaceous earth for my chickens every few months. It works great, don’t have to worry about the side effects of medications, and I just mix it in with their food
chkva
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I'll have to remember that... Learn something new every day
chickentrunks
Songster
I was surprised when it was mentioned that it did. Time for some independent research!
Especially on this forum! I learn at least one new thing every day here — pretty great!
Yes, my dog is tested for heartworms yearly as well and he tests negative each time. He takes a monthly chewable, Heartgard Plus. He takes Nexgard monthly also to prevent fleas and ticks. Heartgard Plus is ivermectin and pyrantal pamoate which prevents a host of nasty roundworms that can seriously harm our beloved dogs.
My point is that chickens are more susceptible to picking up worms than dogs. Why? Nematode eggs are everywhere in the soil no matter where they live. Chickens continually peck the soil all the time. In doing so, they pick up nematode eggs and swallow them, excrete the eggs and they become infective. The chickens pick them up again, and are infected in this manner.
Once the worms mature, they lay thousands and thousands of eggs which are excreted in feces onto the soil where they inhabit and pick and peck the same soil over and over, becoming reinfected again even after worming.
This is is true for dogs when they lick their paws, they swallow worm eggs like chickens.
This is why dogs are wormed monthly. The same is true for chickens.
Worming monthly, rotating pasture, keeping grass cut short are the only ways to prevent chickens from getting worms, and effectively ending the worms lifecycle.
Raising chickens on wire is the only other way to prevent worms because their feet dont touch the ground.
ACV, VermX, DE, pumpkin seeds, garlic etc are ineffective in preventing and treating worms simply by the sheer numbers of nematode eggs in the soil...not to mention the many types of worms that dogs and chickens that infect our pets/livestock.
Mosquitos carry all kinds of diseases as you know. Here where we live, we have "Sentry" chickens that are caged in certain areas around the city. Blood is drawn from the chickens and tested for the presence of deadly human diseases. Sometimes they test positive. Chickens survive the diseases because their blood temperature is high enough to protect them from infection. Testers collect eggs and eat them since the diseases arnt transmittable through eggs. When chickens get fowl pox, mainly from mosquitos, eggs are safe to eat.
https://enviropolitics.com/2019/04/...el-against-mosquito-borne-disease-in-florida/
No please don't.
Forget you read that...seriously.
DE is a joke.
It is impossible for it to kill a worm in a wet intestine.
This is also just false.I use food grade diatomaceous earth for my chickens every few months. It works great, don’t have to worry about the side effects of medications, and I just mix it in with their food
It can not work in a damp or wet environment.
A really good question and something I've been meaning to bring up here. Here is my perspective as a parasitologist: I am not a big fan of throwing dewormer at animals as a matter of course. It's fallen out of favor with horse owners, who have been conditioned to deworm on a schedule. Now the standard is to get fecal egg counts and treat only animals that have a heavy worm burden, recognizing that it's nearly impossible to rid them of worms completely. It's a big paradigm shift that a lot of horse owners have yet to adopt.
If my chickens have trouble laying or gaining weight or are otherwise sick, I will check for worms and act accordingly. (I usually check periodically anyway, just to be sure I understand what's going on in there). Even then, a positive fecal sample doesn't mean they need to be treated. There are a few things to consider. Knowing what kind of parasites they have is first and foremost.
Cecal worms (Heterakis gallinae) are not pathogenic in chickens unless they are so numerous that they block the ceca. That's a pretty unusual worm load, and would only happen rarely even in a debilitated chicken. They are an issue for turkeys because the worms themselves carry another parasite that kills turkeys, but in chickens, I would not treat based on the presence of cecal worm eggs in the feces. These are what I'd consider "normal" for a chicken to have.
Roundworms (Ascaridia) can cause illness and I will think about treating for them, but a few don't cause any harm. Same for tapeworms. If I had kids that did a lot of cuddling with chickens, I'd be more mindful of tapeworms, but otherwise, they're not much of an issue.
For ectoparasites (lice, fleas and mites), I would almost automatically treat.
If I find threadworms (Capillaria) or gapeworm (Syngamus trachea), I'd automatically treat, as they are quite pathogenic in chickens.
My own chickens have had a heavy tapeworm burden and were shedding large quantities of segments, and I dewormed them (because, ewww, moving feces), but generally, I don't worry about it unless somebody gets sick.
In an adult chicken, the presence of coccicia oocysts in the stool is basically inconsequential unless there are huge numbers of them, and in this case, there are likely to be other contributing factors. I always expect to find some, and they are basically part of the normal flora in an adult. In little ones, coccidiosis can be highly pathogenic and can easily wipe out chicks. For this reason, I'd want to put baby chicks on a coccidiostat/medicated starter.
It can be hard to reconcile since with other pets, we tend to want them totally parasite-free. They will often become reinfected quickly since they eat everything. If they are healthy and happy, there's no need, IMO, to evacuate the worms most of the time. In fact, I wonder sometimes if this causes more harm than good.
The bottom line: I don't worry too much about the worms my adult chickens have unless they are sick or have ectoparasites, threadworms or gapeworms. If I were breeding or had young chickens, I'd pay closer attention and would probably treat any worm burden for a time.
If my chickens have trouble laying or gaining weight or are otherwise sick, I will check for worms and act accordingly. (I usually check periodically anyway, just to be sure I understand what's going on in there). Even then, a positive fecal sample doesn't mean they need to be treated. There are a few things to consider. Knowing what kind of parasites they have is first and foremost.
Cecal worms (Heterakis gallinae) are not pathogenic in chickens unless they are so numerous that they block the ceca. That's a pretty unusual worm load, and would only happen rarely even in a debilitated chicken. They are an issue for turkeys because the worms themselves carry another parasite that kills turkeys, but in chickens, I would not treat based on the presence of cecal worm eggs in the feces. These are what I'd consider "normal" for a chicken to have.
Roundworms (Ascaridia) can cause illness and I will think about treating for them, but a few don't cause any harm. Same for tapeworms. If I had kids that did a lot of cuddling with chickens, I'd be more mindful of tapeworms, but otherwise, they're not much of an issue.
For ectoparasites (lice, fleas and mites), I would almost automatically treat.
If I find threadworms (Capillaria) or gapeworm (Syngamus trachea), I'd automatically treat, as they are quite pathogenic in chickens.
My own chickens have had a heavy tapeworm burden and were shedding large quantities of segments, and I dewormed them (because, ewww, moving feces), but generally, I don't worry about it unless somebody gets sick.
In an adult chicken, the presence of coccicia oocysts in the stool is basically inconsequential unless there are huge numbers of them, and in this case, there are likely to be other contributing factors. I always expect to find some, and they are basically part of the normal flora in an adult. In little ones, coccidiosis can be highly pathogenic and can easily wipe out chicks. For this reason, I'd want to put baby chicks on a coccidiostat/medicated starter.
It can be hard to reconcile since with other pets, we tend to want them totally parasite-free. They will often become reinfected quickly since they eat everything. If they are healthy and happy, there's no need, IMO, to evacuate the worms most of the time. In fact, I wonder sometimes if this causes more harm than good.
The bottom line: I don't worry too much about the worms my adult chickens have unless they are sick or have ectoparasites, threadworms or gapeworms. If I were breeding or had young chickens, I'd pay closer attention and would probably treat any worm burden for a time.
Also, I don't have a lot to say about ACV and coconut oil and diatomaceous earth, etc, other than these things should not be used as a substitute for coccidiostat, dewormer or ectoparasiticide. I don't think they will hurt unless the chickens are denied effective therapy for the above parasitic infections.
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