My Chicken Has Worms - Please Help

[Swbertrand1]

We have them the de-wormer! All 13 chickens! And it went smoothly. Also cleaned out their coop. Thanks again for all your help!

Glad to hear that went well!

You can not go wrong listening to the advice of dawg53 and Eggcessive (among others) on this awesome forum.

Be sure to follow their advice, and don't forget the follow-up de-worming treatments in 10 days. PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDAR.

 

[Lemon-Drop]

Glad to hear that went well!

You can not go wrong listening to the advice of dawg53 and Eggcessive (among others) on this awesome forum.

Be sure to follow their advice, and don't forget the follow-up de-worming treatments in 10 days. PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDAR.

Thank you! I ended up remembering. I’ll make sure to put it on my calendar the next time I have to deworm them.

 

[Jrbd82]

Hey, everyone! I hope you all are doing well! So, as you might guess from the title, I believe my GLW, Minnie, has worms. Her poop has a greenish tinge, and I found a teeny tiny worm crawling around in it. It was very small with small fringe-like things along its side. Should I be concerned? And if so, any tips on the best treatment to do? Thank you!

Did you worm each one individually? I’m scared to try.

 

[Lemon-Drop]

Did you worm each one individually? I’m scared to try.

Yes, we did. It was pretty easy, I held the chicken while she put the medicine in.

We weighed each chicken and then gave them the appropriate amount of medicine.

Doing it individually makes sure that they each get the dose.

Also, it’s best to have two people. One holding the chicken, the other opening the beak and putting the medicine in.

For chickens with larger wattles you can just gently pull on the wattle to make them open up, though I have not used this method as the younger chickens didn’t have wattles (when I gave the dose some were 7 weeks old and didn’t have wattles yet) so you can just squeeze the sides of their beak and they should open up.

It took about 1.5 hours to do it start to finish, I think. (13 chickens) maybe a touch longer.

 

[Swbertrand1]

It's an easy process if you have two people, though one can do it. We entice ours over with mealworms, and do them one at a time from a list we've written down with their names, a spot for their weight, and their dosage. It looks something like this as we do them in no particular order (these will be in columns, though BYC doesn't show that):

DATE: xx/xx/xxxx
Name Weight Dosage Dose Received?
Cody 2.2lbs xx mg Y
Noel 2.5lbs xx mg Y
and so on.....
Next Dose Date: xx/xx/xxxx

 

[Jrbd82]

Yes, we did. It was pretty easy, I held the chicken while she put the medicine in.

We weighed each chicken and then gave them the appropriate amount of medicine.

Doing it individually makes sure that they each get the dose.

Also, it’s best to have two people. One holding the chicken, the other opening the beak and putting the medicine in.

For chickens with larger wattles you can just gently pull on the wattle to make them open up, though I have not used this method as the younger chickens didn’t have wattles (when I gave the dose some were 7 weeks old and didn’t have wattles yet) so you can just squeeze the sides of their beak and they should open up.

It took about 1.5 hours to do it start to finish, I think. (13 chickens) maybe a touch longer.

From Where and how much did you buy? I have 23 chickens- of various ages, a turkey and about 20 ducks. I wonder if they all should be done

 

[Swbertrand1]

From Where and how much did you buy? I have 23 chickens- of various ages, a turkey and about 20 ducks. I wonder if they all should be done

Safeguard seems to be pretty much the go-to de-wormer from experts on this forum and can be found at feed stores like Tractor Supply. Locally, we have a Farmers' Supply that carries it, with Tractor Supply a little further away.

Two 125ml (4.2 fl oz) bottles should give you enough to do two (2) doses ten days apart for 23 birds and 20 ducks, but you're likely going to need a dropper top with (ml) or (oz) graduations on the glass/plastic portion that draws the medicine up out of the bottle to dose them correctly per their body weight.

We have multiple droppers in our "chicken medicine kit", but a dropper from a Poly-Vi-Sol container (baby vitamins available at CVS pharmacy) works well. In a pinch, we will use the dropper from a Nutri-Drench bottle, but the graduations aren't quite as precise.

Last, I believe we dosed the Safeguard based on the dosing for goats as shown on the label: 2.3mg/lb of body weight for each chicken, but wait on better authority here to confirm that.

 

[Lemon-Drop]

From Where and how much did you buy? I have 23 chickens- of various ages, a turkey and about 20 ducks. I wonder if they all should be done

Just saw this.

I used Valbazen dewormer, it is very gentle which I like.

It is on the pricier side for my flock, but I can use it in a few years as well.

This is the one I bought, which is technically for goats but can also be used for poultry. There might be smaller bottles somewhere, but this was what they had at my local feedstore. I think it was about 60 dollars for the bottle. It has a LOT more than I needed to deworm my flock.

I purchased it from a local feedstore but I think you can get it online, too. It’s also at tractor supply, I think.

The dosage is 0.08 ml per pound of body weight, averaging about 1/2 ml for the average 5/6 pound chicken. I hope this helps!

 

[Jenessa_096]

I’ve heard diatomaceous earth works as a dewormer in their feed, but I’ve never tried it before.

 

[Lemon-Drop]

I’ve heard diatomaceous earth works as a dewormer in their feed, but I’ve never tried it before.

I wouldn’t use that. I know that diatomaceous earth is said to work for mites, but I think that’s a myth. I’m not totally sure about for worms, but diatomaceous earth is also a respiratory irritant for chickens.