Parasites! If you can easily get an upset tummy don't click this!

[cherrynberry]

My comet has recently been pooing very abnormal poos. They are diarrhea and have little worms in them. Please help...
Can we eat their eggs?
How do we help her?
Our food has DE which is the odd part...

 

[aart]

Our food has DE which is the odd part...

Not odd at all.
DE doesn't kill parasites, inside or out.

 

[dawg53]

That was a live large roundworm swimming the the feces. @aart is correct, DE is useless and a waste of money. Purchase Valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer and dose ALL your birds orally using a syringe without a needle to administer the wormer. Dosage is 1/2ml given to each bird. Repeat again in 10 days. The Valbazen will kill all types of roundworms, seen and unseen.
Here's a link where you buy the Valbazen 500ml bottle:
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30E07949-7B6A-11D5-A192-00B0D0204AE5

 

[dawg53]

I found this research on DE. While it is not a perfect cure all. To say it doesnt work is misleading. It obviously is very beneficial to hen health and egg production and DOES reduce the worm load in chickens significantly per the study. So by the papers own findings...which are limited...the more time on DE...the better off your flock will be.

It's usually new chicken owners that give praise to DE. As time goes by, they learn that it's not what it is claimed to be. DE wont even treat external parasites, much less internal parasites. Dont believe me? You'll learn eventually just like everyone else.
I have told you just about everything there is about worming, why should I not tell you the truth about DE? Take it from me, DE is a waste of money, save it for a bottle of Safeguard liquid goat wormer.
If you'd like to experiment and live where there are fire ants, dump some DE on a fire ant mound, then go dump some Sevin dust on a different fire ant mound, stir them up if you wish. Then go out the next day and stir both mounds up real well. Then you'll see which ant mound is fire ant free. Then come back and tell us about it.

 

[dawg53]

What good is DE then and why is it so widely used

People look for natural ways to treat chickens and they believe the hype and salesman when it comes to DE. Fake News. Been there, done that with DE long long ago. It doesnt prevent nor treat worms.

Chickens are more susceptible getting worms than dogs and cats, and we worm dogs and cats with a monthly wormer preventatives. Chickens constantly peck the soil, in doing so, they pick up worm eggs from the soil and swallow them. They can also get worms from eating insects including earthworms etc... however, not all insects will be the host containing worm eggs.
Your soil conditions dictate how often you should worm your birds.
I worm my birds monthly due to our wet and warm soil most of the year.

We eat the eggs after worming, and after using Valbazen or Safeguard. They are benzimidazoles which arnt very well absorbed into the bloodstream and are mostly excreted. There is minute residue in the eggs. However if you believe that you or a family member might have a reaction to the residue, then discard the eggs in the garbage for 14 days after the last dosing.

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

I have told you just about everything there is about worming, why should I not tell you the truth about DE? Take it from me, DE is a waste of money,

I found this out the hard way like @dawg53 is talking about. My birds had lice, did everything "natural", baths, DE, oils. Nothing worked. I lost pet birds to them and was devastated. Finally decided to go buy the permethrin and the lice were gone in two weeks. Done and gone.

 

[aart]

So then what should I do?

They need a wormer.
@dawg53 can help.

 

[Asm610]

People look for natural ways to treat chickens and they believe the hype and salesman when it comes to DE. Fake News. Been there, done that with DE long long ago. It doesnt prevent nor treat worms.

Chickens are more susceptible getting worms than dogs and cats, and we worm dogs and cats with a monthly wormer preventatives. Chickens constantly peck the soil, in doing so, they pick up worm eggs from the soil and swallow them. They can also get worms from eating insects including earthworms etc... however, not all insects will be the host containing worm eggs.
Your soil conditions dictate how often you should worm your birds.
I worm my birds monthly due to our wet and warm soil most of the year.

We eat the eggs after worming, and after using Valbazen or Safeguard. They are benzimidazoles which arnt very well absorbed into the bloodstream and are mostly excreted. There is minute residue in the eggs. However if you believe that you or a family member might have a reaction to the residue, then discard the eggs in the garbage for 14 days after the last dosing.

Thanks for the info. Im new to raising chickens. So Im learning as I go and this site is one of many valuable resources Im relying on.

 

[aart]

What I saw before was worms, wiggling around in one of my birds poop. Since I started treatment I haven't seen any.

I see the occasional round worm in a poop, didn't treat for them, was months before I saw another.

Once the maggots were picked off I put most of them in a bleach/apple cider vinegar mix, which didn’t kill them very fast. I put a few in DE, which actually did kill them.

I had a pile of maggots on top of a poop bucket, covered them in DE, barely slowed them down.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

I found this research on DE. While it is not a perfect cure all. To say it doesnt work is misleading. It obviously is very beneficial to hen health and egg production and DOES reduce the worm load in chickens significantly per the study. So by the papers own findings...which are limited...the more time on DE...the better off your flock will be.

I've read this study before. Did you read it thoroughly?
Excerpt:
"We therefore conclude that the effect of DE on internal parasites was not robust. It did not improve resistance in birds that were genetically more resistant but may help birds that were less resistant to lower their parasite load."

Saying that it reduces the worm load significantly is misleading.