My hens have worms! What do I do?!

[lahlik02]

I read the post that is similar to mine, but the worms described don't match the worms I'm seeing. The worms I'm seeing are lil' grey worms, the size of rice. They aren't white as described. What are those?

I also don't know what more to do than just the treatment? Should I clean out and sterilize the coop? Should I clean it out and re-lay the ground (not sterilize)? We have been doing the DLM (Deep Layer Method). Could that be why they are laying worms in their poop? If there are worms in their poop should I throw out the eggs they have laid?

HELP! I'm so "green" at this.

 

[terryg]

This is one reason why I'm not a fan of the deep litter system. It's easy for it to go off-balance. In order for worms to get so bad that you see them in the poop, there has to be a heavy load in the environment. Worms need to go through an intermediary host to propagate. Those hosts - beetles, earthworms, fly larvae, require damp, dark soft conditions - exactly what you have in deep litter. Deep litter works great for some situations, but like maintaining a hot compost pile, not easy to do. (Proponents of deep litter are welcome to jump in and tell me I'm wrong For example, my elderly hens in one coop barely scratch the ground these days. There's no way they'd do a good job turning over the deep litter. My young cochin would also not be capable of maintaining a deep litter pen. Anyway, you can worm your hens, but you also have to clean up the environment or you'll have a continual problem. Someone else can tell you what wormer to use - I've never had a worm problem in almost two decades. (I periodically run fecals so I know this.) Partly, this is because I've never brought a bird onto the property that had worms, my pens were on chicken-virgin ground when I started, and mostly, I am fastidious about manure management. You can read what I do here:
http://hencam.com/faq/chicken-manure-management/
BTW, the worms should not be getting into the eggs, as the reproductive tract is separate.

 

[lahlik02]

Terry,
Thank you very much. I appreciate the feedback. I will look deeper into the DLM (no pun intended) and determine if has the appropriate amount of turn over you suggest. Thank you for providing the link. I checked it out and it is a huge help! For as much research as I did before getting chickens, it is still a very long learning process.

 

[RedStarLady1207]

If it was me I'd take a sample of the poop to my vet to see what type of worm and get a recommendation for an over the counter treatment (if there is one) or a prescription (if no OTC) for the proper wormer. Rice shaped pieces are generally tapeworms but without the testing it is hard to say. Roundworms are the most common IMO. One of my hens got roundworms so I treated all with Wazine 17 for one day and I have not found any shed worms, but I will treat again as I need to kill all non-adult worms that survived the first treatment and wait long enough for them to mature so the Wazine 17 can kill them off (as adults). Wazine 17 works only on adult roundworms.

I know for cats they use Drontal for tapeworms (also roundworms and hookworms) but not sure if they use it for chickens. (but please get that poop sample to your vet). Most vets will look at poop for a reasonable lab fee (and no office visit fee).