Newly adopted hens came with tapeworms!

[Darmer]

I appreciate your thoughts. I will get a fecal float test to be certain.

 

[Eggcessive]

There is at least one video on YouTube to view of tapeworms, if you Google "tapeworms in chickens." They can appear like dots, but if you look closely, they will be flat and moving. I have seen them on my cats or dogs on occasion, as well as in the videos people have posted of chicken droppings. Some vets will perform fecal floats on chickens, while some refuse if they do not see the chicken. Praziquantel which is in a few horse wormers, and in the tablets normally used on dogs, is very effective against tapes. I have never treated them in chickens, but many suggest to use the Valbazen several days in a row to get tapes. Valbazen is normally only given once and repeated in 10-14 days for other chicken worms, but tapes require several days.

 

[Sharwig]

Hey Darmer, I'm going to share my story in hopes it might help you and others fighting tapeworms.

First, a fecal float won't pick up tapeworms so don't waste your money. I've paid two different vets to do fecal floats and neither picked up the tapeworms. The 2nd vet told me a fecal float doesn't show tapes. But they have them and like you, I know this because of the small white ricelike organisms MOVING and the yuck on their backside! We tried treating with Valbazen earlier this summer to no avail. Egg production dropped to below 40%! We tried the treat-and-repeat-10-14-days-later schedule slowly increasing the dosage. We thought we had them gone, but shortly after stopping treatment we would see the moving rice again. We did this multiple times and spent most of the summer dumping eggs...and Valbazen isn't cheap! If you're using Valbazen, I would try the 3-5 day treatment as it may be more effective then what we did, but I'm surely no expert. I will tell you all that Valbazen we fed our chicks didn't seem to bother them in the least.

Anywho, we finally sacrificed an older hen to the 2nd vet because we wanted to have a necropsy done to find out what is going on with our flock (aside from the worms). Short of it is that tape was the only type of worms she had (I'm assuming the Valbazen did kill everything else as the first vet confirmed roundworms). The 2nd vet prescribed straight Praziquantel. He said its a "one and done" treatment and you don't need to repeat. We haven't treated them yet because knowing that the environment outside the coop is now infected, we decided to build a run with sand so they can't peck the dirt and the eggs won't survive and other critters can't ingest them. We'll then disinfect the coop and treat. I'm resigned to the fact that at best, all we can do is manage them at this point. But I'm hopeful that by next summer, after letting the ground dry-out, we can let them free-range again. I'll post an update to let you know if the Praziquantel was successful and what dosage we were told to use. Now if we can figure out how to rid the environment of them...a topic for another forum...

I know there is so much conflicting info on what to use and how much. And it's crazy that I've spent this much money on my $2 chickens, but I hate seeing them sick and don't want to lose the whole flock (I have 10 left). I hope the Valbazen works for you!

 

[Kiki]

I'm not sure that Valbazen is good to use for tapes..
Praziquantel will get rid of tapes though.