Mistake Deworming: Next Steps?

[Anon112]

I done goofed.

My chickens have roundworms, and I was prescribed Albenzadole by my vet. Went out to the coop with my bucket, scale, dewormer, and syringe. The last time I had to deworm, things went really smoothly, and maybe that thought jinxed me.

I was taking the hens off the roost one at a time, weighing, deworming, then popping them back on the roost bar. All was going well until one dewormed hen randomly flew up and over her flockmates while I was in the process of weighing the next hen. She landed on top of another hen who looks identical and they were pushing and changing places and, long story short, my hens shell gamed me.

I genuinely could not tell which hen was the one I'd dewormed and which one I hadn't. (I only have 4 hens of that breed). I was able to deworm everyone else, but there is one hen who was not dewormed because I was scared that if I got it wrong, I'd be double-dosing someone.

Do I just hope that when I do the follow-up in 10 days that takes care of her? Maybe do the 10 day follow up dose and then a few weeks later take a poop sample down to my local lab for testing?

And for next time: does anyone have a system for marking/tracking who has been dewormed?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'd give both hens the dewormer, it won't hurt them, then repeat in 10days.

If I need to deworm, I go out early with my preloaded syringes. Take a hen off the roost, dose her, then put her in the floor or maybe in open the pop door and make her go out into the run.

Maybe you can coral/pen them up, then "release" each once after they get their dose?

 

[Eggcessive]

It probably will be okay if the hen only gets the one dose of wormer in 10 days. I know some will disagree with that. If you still want to try and get another dose in 10-14 days after that, you could reworm the 4 hens. Keep in mind that albendazole is very safe, but there is a 14 day egg withdrawal time after worming.