Parasite Experts please

[Dodgegal79]

I was out feeding the animals this morning and noticed a puddle on top of my hay tarp, I have one bale in a wheelbarrow. I went to empty it and noticed there was all these little worms in it, alive. They look like baby earth worms but there was no way they could have gotten up there. My ducks like to sit up there and crap on it, could the worms be from them? They are about 2 inchs long, very slim, and earth worm colour, more pale. They are pointy on both end. What could they be?? I'm sorry worried right now, I hate worms!!!!!!!!

 

[Dodgegal79]

Does anyone know ?? What do I use to kill roundworms?

 

[silkiechicken]

Sorry, no idea how to treat worms as I've never treated my birds for worms. Hopefully someone who worms their animals chimes in. All I can suggest is to go to your feed store and get a real medicine wormer, not pumpkin seeds and peppers, as they worm infestation is great enough that you can see it with your naked eye, and the meds will kill worms. I just don't know what meds in this case.

 

[Dodgegal79]

I think I found that I have to give them Piperazine. I will go to the Co-op tomorrow and see if they have it. I can't see these worms coming from anything else then from the ducks, they are the ones that perch on the tarp. They don't look sick, but i think I should treat them before it get bad. I know they eat the dead mice the cats catch, I've seen them running around with them in their mouths.

 

[chickbea]

All internal parasites are white. I don't worm until I know what I have - if I were you I would take a couple of the worms and a fecal sample from a chicken in for testing.
It's possible they were horsehair worms (although they sound a bit small for that), which are not harmful to chickens.
Can you post a picture?

 

[Dodgegal79]

Where do horsehair worms come from? These were pink. I will see if I can find more, I had to flush those they were grossing me out too much to have in the house. They did look like baby earthworm, I'm wondering if the ducks were in teh mud then transfered some to the water puddle in the black plastic and they hatched there?? I just had some ducks butchered and they didn't find any worms or parasites inside them so I figured my birds were ok.

 

[chickbea]

If they were pink then they weren't horsehair worms either. Horsehair worms infect grasshoppers, where they grow into adults and take over the entire inside. When the grasshopper gets wet, the worm explodes out of the grasshopper's body. The first time I saw one of these it was stuck in the filter of my goldfish pond. Oh! they are many inches long and I was just appalled. Now that my fish are big enough to eat the worms, I don't see them anymore, but that first summer I had my pond was gross! Every time I cleaned the filter there they were!
I'd take a poo sample in to be checked. Maybe you don't have any parasites at all!

 

[Dodgegal79]

OK, thank Chickbea, I have seen those horsehair worms when I was young. My mother pulled the fliter out of her washing machince for the water and there was one there. I was nasty, we were getting water from the creek on the farm and we were drinnking that water. I don't think my sister and I ever drank water right from the tap again.