My Hen Has Worms

[Beautiful Hens]

My hen laid a pile of poop with long, thin, angel hair pasta-looking worms. From my research they appear like Round Worm. I am learning that Round Worm is quite common. I just treated my entire flock with Ivermectin orally. Here are a few questions I hope someone can answer:
- How long do I need to throw out the eggs?
- Should I see my hens pooping lots of worms?
- How do I kill any eggs that may be out in the runs in their old poop?
- How do I keep my hens from re-infecting themselves?
This seems like a very challenging health issue to resolve
I was using DE year round in their food but that obviously did not work. Thanks for any insight you have!

 

[Homestead Hamp]

yuck. im interested to see what people have to say about this...
i thought DE was pretty good for this type of thing... i wonder if this came on because you stopped using DE ???

 

[dawg53]

There eventually WILL be health issues if you do not worm your birds on a regular basis. Your post is more proof that DE is ineffective as a worm preventative and as a worm treatment. Maybe DE lovers will learn from your experience and worm their birds with a real wormer.
Worms weaken a chickens immune system opening the door for diseases to invade their bodies. There are many types of worms that can infest a chicken. The large roundworms you saw are the most common seen in chickens and they can infest birds at an early age causing the most internal damage from about 8 weeks to 5-6 months old. They are the largest type of worm that can parasitize a chicken, except for a large type of poultry tapeworm. There are other types of worms that chickens get that cannot be seen in feces. It's not funny how people wait to see worms in feces before they panic and then decide to worm their chickens. All the while the worms are causing damage internally and causing suffering on the chickens part.
Ivermectin has lost its effectiveness in killing many types of POULTRY worms due to the fact it has been overused more as a miteacide rather than a wormer, Ivermectin's primary purpose. Worms have built resistance to the product over time. I have used ivermectin and eprinex before, and they were basically ineffective in killing worms. I found myself having to reworm my chickens about 5 weeks later when I saw large roundworms in feces. Ivermectin will not kill other types of worms in poultry such as tapeworms, cecal and capillary worms, and has lost or is losing its effectiveness against large roundworms.
If a chicken is infested with large roundworms, they can also cause a blockage in the digestive tract when given a wormer. The dead worms then cause toxic dead worm overload which can kill a chicken. You are fortunate this didnt happen to your chicken.
There are worm eggs in your soil. Treating the soil is ineffective and a waste of time, worm eggs will always be there and you cant see them. Most likely your other birds have worms as well. It would be best to purchase Valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer for initial wormings. Valbazen slowly kills ALL types of worms over a period of several days eliminating toxic dead worm overload. Administer Valbazen using a syringe without a needle. Dosage is 1/2cc given orally undiluted to standard size chickens, 1/4cc given orally undiluted to smaller chickens. Repeat dosing in 10 days to kill larva hatched from eggs in the chickens system. You'll have to set up a regular worming schedule to keep your chickens healthy. The schedule you set up depends on your soil conditions. Warm moist or wet soil will require frequent wormings, perhaps worming every 3 months. I worm my birds every 3 months, sometimes sooner due to our warm wet soil we've have had this year.
Once you've wormed with Valbazen, consider rotating wormers later down the road at your discretion to prevent wormer resistance to one particular product. I rotate between Valbazen, Safeguard liquid goat wormer, liquid pyrantal pamoate and use Zimectrin Gold equine paste wormer (strictly for tapeworms.)
When worming, 14 days after the last dosing is usually the normal withdrawal period, including Ivermectin. Some people use Ivermectin for mites, they dont realize there's a withdrawal period. Dont give the eggs back to your chickens to eat because the residue in the eggs can help build worm resistance in future wormings, including extending the withdrawal period.

 

[Michael Apple]

My hen laid a pile of poop with long, thin, angel hair pasta-looking worms. From my research they appear like Round Worm. I am learning that Round Worm is quite common. I just treated my entire flock with Ivermectin orally. Here are a few questions I hope someone can answer:
- How long do I need to throw out the eggs?
- Should I see my hens pooping lots of worms?
- How do I kill any eggs that may be out in the runs in their old poop?
- How do I keep my hens from re-infecting themselves?
This seems like a very challenging health issue to resolve
I was using DE year round in their food but that obviously did not work. Thanks for any insight you have!

Listen to dawg53. I can attest that DE does not, in any way, prevent or treat intestinal worms. You mentioning a "year round" addition of DE in the diet caught my attention. About 10 years ago, I decided to try this "natural" approach to deworming, and did so for a year with a DE feed additive product labeled "Worm Guard". Towards the end of that year, weight loss became apparent and roundworms were seen. Don't be taken in by the snake-oil hype about DE. Benzamidazole anthelmintics are the way to go.