Piperazine-17 Dosage : Was told good for gapeworms, true?

[thegoodlion]

Hello everyone. Yesterday afternoon I got 4 baby chicks. Two Ameraucanas and two Orpingtons. They should all be females, but only time will tell. They seem to be about a week old.

One of the Ameraucanas is sneezing, stretching it's neck while opening and closing it's mouth very frequently, and yawning. I didn't think anything of it until I saw a post asking about yawning and stretching of the neck. Could it be gapeworms? She/He also sleeps ALOT. Everytime I come to check on them, the little chick has it's eyes closed as if resting. The other 3 are more active and sleep at the same time usually. Maybe the little one gets tired easily

?

Now for my question: If it's gapeworms, how do I get rid of them? I read on here Valbezen, Fenbendazole, and Ivomec work. When I went to a local feed store and told them I needed something that could get rid of gapeworms, they told me to use Piperazine-17. I'm not sure how much to put in the water and if it'll work since the label says it works on roundworms.


Oh and I don't know if this will help but as I was cleaning out their box I noticed a dropping had a red/pink stringy thing on it. Looked like a worm. I was going to take a picture of it but it got lost with the other dirty litter paper

 

[LauraSBale]

um not sure on dosage,
but could it blood, do you have them on a Medicaid feed?
if not i would start them on it, and get some electrolyte powder that has Pro-botic in it. to help with there digestive track

 

[speckledhen]

Piperazine/Wazine will ONLY work on roundworms. Gaping can be that they have food/straw stuck in their throat and gapeworm is relatively unusual to find, really. Medicated feed only has amprolium for coccidiosis and has no effect on worms. The red pink thing could be blood in the poop, which is most likely cocci, but medicated feed doesn't necessarily prevent that. If they have cocci, they need Corid and if you can't find that, Sulmet. Cocci looks almost like raw hamburger in mucous (lovely visual, huh?)

 

[thegoodlion]

I'm looking up info on cocci, thank you for the advice!

The little one keeps sneezing and is now starting to shake it's head, plus hitting it's beak against the bottom of the box.

Seems to always be cold.

 

[TheNewMrsEvans]

sound like upper respiratory infection...you can try teremycin in the water first.

 

[thegoodlion]

Looked up Terramycin and also found VetRx Poultry Remedy. I think our feed store might carry VetRx. Can I use that?

 

[speckledhen]

Vet Rx is like Vicks VapoRub.It may help with breathing but won't cure anything. The acting cold part can also be a symptom of cocci-they are rufffled up and hunch their necks in. The sneezing may not be related. If it's dry sneezing, could be environmental, like too much ammonia or dusty bedding.

I personally think Terramycin is useless. It's way too weak for many bad infections and may build antibiotic resistance if they have a virus, which an antibiotic wont fix.

 

[Judy]

First, here is a good website to help you evaluate the poo:

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

I looked up VetRX. It is a combination of herbs. Here is the label info on VetRX:

http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/assets/label_info/16803.htm

I don't know what to make of that. This is evidently an old-time remedy. It is supposed to be for colds and "roup." Chickens do not get colds, though they do get viral respiratory infections, and I have no idea what "roup" is. But who knows, maybe it would help. At least you would not be giving an antibiotic, which will treat neither a viral infection nor worms, and of course, Terramycin is an antibiotic.

One more website, about respiratory infection in chickens:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=9241

 

[thegoodlion]

ddawn - Those links were great, thank you!

From the pictures of the droppings, it seems like what I saw was intestinal lining and that's normal.

speckledhen- Thank you for the info. By dry sneezing, I believe you're saying there is no discharge? There isn't any at the moment.


I've been watching the chick for longer periods of time when it's with the others (I've been taking it out because it gets bumped and is always going to the others for warmth even though we changed the bulb for more heat. I am now it's human heater

I really hope it's not bad that I'm taking it out, away from the others) and so far I've written down:

Shaking, as if cold
Looking for warmth much of the time
ALWAYS sleeping/resting; Has eyes closed
Inactive
Does not ruffle feathers, or clean them; Wings limp
Shakes head and hits beak against, well, anything
Sneezes
Opens and closes mouth very quickly as if eating food
Yawns and stretches neck
Does not eat much or drink a lot
Balance is a bit off
Even when bumped frequently and pecked at, it doesn't move right away

In fact it just doesn't move. I'm staring at it now and it was just bumped by the other three trying to settle down. It was pushed farther away from the heat of the lamp and is shaking (shivering?) If it doesn't move closer soon, I'll scoot it closer to the others/the heat of the lamp.

 

[Judy]

Hopefully, you are just seeing shipping or relocation stress. Nothing needed but TLC and some attention, and you are obviously giving attention. Maybe a bit too much!

My advice: go to bed, give them some time to adjust to life outside the shell, and see what you have in the morning. They will exhibit a lot of symptoms of disease when brand new. Let them adjust to life outside the shell before you start listing symptoms. Remember they can live for 3 days on absorbed yolk, which they got before they hatched.