New chickens have tapeworms. Guidance please.

[Patoot]

Hi there. I just got three pullets today to add to my flock of three adult Rhode Island Reds. The pullets are about 5 months old. They have their own coop and are separated from my existing chickens. I planned to keep them apart to make sure they were healthy and also wait until they were bigger and similar in size before trying to put them all together.

When I got them home, I examined the poop in the box and was relieved not to see any worms...until I saw a tiny egg looking thing which I now know is a tapeworm segment as it looks EXACTLY like one of the "nubs" in the poop picture I have seen dawg post.

So, do I go straight for Zimectrin Gold? Pea size amount on a piece of bread? Do I do Wazine first to get rid of potential roundworms?

Also, my girls were wormed when I first got them 3 yrs ago after I saw a wiggly roundworm in their poop. I never repeated it. I have not seen evidence of worms since that time, but have always been concerned that they are thin. I also worry that their poop is not always solid. It is some of the time, but not all of the time. No foam, but just not solid enough. So I'm wondering if maybe they have worms or some sort of intestinal thing. They seem happy and healthy and are still laying. It has slowed down, but they are older now so I expected that a bit.

Since they are all in the same yard, the new girls definitely have tapeworm, and my girls potentially have worms, should I treat them all? I know Wazine is often recommended as a first dose because it's easier on them, but I know the new girls have tapeworm and Wazine will do nothing for them unless they also have roundworms. On the other hand, my girls may have worms which could be roundworms since those are the more common ones. I suppose I could go inspect their poop again. I haven't done that in awhile, at least not super close up.

Could you please tell me what is the best course of action? The new girls can't give my girls tapeworm unless they shared the same space and my current ones ate something with the new girls' poop on it, right?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Patoot]

Just to be clear, this is what I saw in the poop:



I saw ONE single round nub egg looking thing that looked like one of these things. There weren't any flat tapeworm looking things. I thought it was a worm egg or something, but it looked like one of the above white sac looking things. I examined three poops and only saw one sac thing total. I'll look again tomorrow.

I tried to see other poops and a couple of them looked like this one:



They weren't foamy at all, but definite segmenty looking bits like this.

Just thought I'd add more info.

 

[dawg53]

Green poop can be a sign of worms among other things. Use valbazen to take care of all your worm problems. Here's a link, post #13...follow the directions that I provided:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/810587/help-dewormed-chickens-still-have-worms/10

 

[Patoot]

Thank you!

Is there a reason I shouldn't use Zimercetin Gold instead of Valbazen? I can get it to the house in 2 days and it's cheaper. I'm sure my girls can go a few more days without treatment, but I'd really like to start treating the new girls ASAP. I can call around to the local feed stores and see if they have the Valbazen though.

 

[dutchbunny83]

I say use Zimecterin.
It's for horses, but you can use it.
I don't use Valbazen and a lot of people think it isn't as strong, but you could use it. But the goal is to treat ASAP.
I usually put a small amount on a piece of bread and ball it up.
Just make sure you dose each one individually because the first time I did this one really liked it and kept trying to steal the bread out of the other chicken's mouths.
You should do this once a year (some say twice a year) automatically.
Does once then dose again in 10 days.
DO NOT EAT THE EGGS UNTIL 2 WEEKS AFTER THE 2ND DOSE!

 

[dutchbunny83]

Also there is Wazine which is made for chickens.
Your feed store might try to sell you this since it's for chickens.
Don't waste your time!!!

 

[casportpony]

• Wazine is good for just roundworms.
• Zimecterin works on biting bugs like mites, but *not* feather lice*or* worms in chickens.
• Zimecterin Gold is for tapeworms, biting bugs, but no other worms.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Thank you!

Is there a reason I shouldn't use Zimercetin Gold instead of Valbazen? I can get it to the house in 2 days and it's cheaper. I'm sure my girls can go a few more days without treatment, but I'd really like to start treating the new girls ASAP. I can call around to the local feed stores and see if they have the Valbazen though.

If you want to treat tapes you need Zimecterin Gold or Valbazen, but the Zimecterin will *only* get tapes and biting mites according to a study that was done.

There was a study that showed Safeguard as an effective wormer for tapes, but you have to give it 3 days in a row for it to be effective. The effective dose was listed at .2ml per 2.2 pounds (20mg/kg).

The effective Valbazen dose is 20mg/kg (~.2ml per 2.2 pounds)
Don't know about the gold, haven't done the math on that one yet.

-Kathy

 

[Patoot]

Well, I went to the feed store and they had Zermectrin Gold and not Valbazen. They had Equimax too, but that looked to be similar in ingredient to Z-Gold and I didn't want something so potent. I got some of the Gold. So now what? I think the dosing is different for that compared to Valbazen. Talk to me like I'm an idiot...tell me exactly what I have to do. Also, I'm thinking I don't need to withhold food for the big girls because they don't have tapeworms. I actually don't even think they have other worms, but they could. I want to make it as easy on them as possible and since they don't have obvious symptoms, I was thinking of treating, but not holding back the food. I will withhold the food for the new girls since I did see stuff in the poop. Okay, so what do I do?

Thanks!!

Oh, and unrelated, but I figured I'd just ask here anyway...the new girls' legs are yellow in color. My girls' legs are white/pale yellow/pink. Is this is a baby/big girl thing?

 

[dawg53]

Thank you!

Is there a reason I shouldn't use Zimercetin Gold instead of Valbazen?  I can get it to the house in 2 days and it's cheaper.  I'm sure my girls can go a few more days without treatment, but I'd really like to start treating the new girls ASAP.  I can call around to the local feed stores and see if they have the Valbazen though.

Zimectrin Gold contains ivermectin and praziquantel. You mentioned that your bird(s) also have large roundworms. It's also possible that they might have other types of worms such as capillary and cecal worms...besides the large roundworms and tapeworms they now have. Ivermectin is ineffective in treating capillary, cecal, and tapeworms...it is also showing resistance to large roundworms.
Praziquantel only kills tapeworms. Using z-gold, you would only eliminate the tapeworms, but not the other types of worms. Keep in mind that z-gold may be effective in killing other types of worms in horses/cattle (ivermectin) ...the ivermectin is ineffective in chickens due to its overuse as a miteacide in chickens and worms have built resistance to it..
Then there's always the possibility of dead or dieing tapeworms causing a blockage in the digestive tract if there's an infestation of roundworms. Then you're looking at toxic dead worm overload which will kill a chicken. On the otherhand, valbazen slowly kills worms over a period of several days, no need to worry about blockages nor toxic dead worm overload. This is why I recommended the valbazen instead of the zimectrin gold.
The choice is yours.