Possible Worm Infection: Need Advice

[Gresh]

Hey, BYCers

I think my chicken flock is infected with some type of worm. Awhile ago, when I was letting them out of the coop in the morning, I noticed a small clump of droppings that had what clearly looked like a tapeworm in it. I knew that I was way overdue on deworming my flock (I've never done it before), but before I could get the funds to get some dewormer we lost one of our hens. She lost a significant amount of weight, her wings started drooping, she had diarrhea, and she was very weak. We had a snap of warmer weather in which she seemed to improve, but when the colder weather returned, she got worse. The morning after she was worse than she had been before, I found her half dead on the bottom of the coop. She passed away that afternoon.

About a week later, I began to notice one of my other hens exhibit some of the same symptoms. I tried to isolate her as best I could from the rest of the flock and cleaned out the bedding of the coop (to prevent fecal-oral transmission to some extent). So far, this infected hen has not passed away and seems to be improving a little, but this I believe is mainly because I have been paying special attention to her and giving her more food than the others to try to combat the work of any parasites taking away her nutrition. Also, like the other hen, she seems to improve a little when warmer weather comes.

A couple days ago, I did a bit of a "health inspection" on my other chickens and noticed a bit of a weight loss in them as well. At least two of them are acting a little lethargic. I have not noticed the diarrhea symptoms of the other two chickens, but the weight loss is sounding alarm bells in my head.

Due to tough financial times, only recently did I finally acquire the funds to get some dewormer, but now I cannot find a dewormer specially formulated for poultry. Do any of you know of such a dewormer? Is it affordable? Are there any safe substitutions I can perform? (For instance, with pigeons, I have heard, a diluted amount of bleach in the drinking water takes care of a number of parasites and is harmless to the birds; and I have also heard of diluting livestock dewormer and putting it in poultry drinking water.) Are there any "home remedies" used by farmers that you know to be reliable?

Thanks for reading and God bless.

~Gresh~

 

[dawg53]

Are you sure you're dealing with tapeworms? Tapeworms appear as white uncooked rice in feces, aka tapeworm segments, see photo:

Here's a photo of roundworms in feces:

Valbazen will kill all types of worms, but administration and dosage is different when dealing with tapeworms. Let me know which (or both) types of worms you're seeing in feces.

 

[Gresh]

Thanks for uploading those photos. I see now that what I saw was a roundworm and not a tapeworm. Thanks also for the medicine reference. Can you get Valbazen from Tractor Supply Co. or do you have to get it from a vet? How much does it generally cost?

Thanks again.

 

[dawg53]

Thanks for uploading those photos. I see now that what I saw was a roundworm and not a tapeworm. Thanks also for the medicine reference. Can you get Valbazen from Tractor Supply Co. or do you have to get it from a vet? How much does it generally cost?

Thanks again.

Now that I know it's not tapeworms, instead of valbazen you can use safeguard liquid goat wormer. TSC should carry it and it's cheaper than valbazen. Use a syringe without a needle to administer orally undiluted to each chicken. Dosage is 1cc for giants, 3/4cc for large birds, 1/2cc for standards, 1/4cc for smaller birds. Repeat dosing again in 10 days. There's a 14 day withdrawal period after last dosing.
http://www.jefferspet.com/safe-guard-dewormer-for-goats/camid/LIV/cp/I6-SK/

 

[Scott H]

dawg, doesn't Safeguard do tapes also? I'm on the road so I can't look at the label but I thought it listed them.

 

[Eggcessive]

dawg, doesn't Safeguard do tapes also? I'm on the road so I can't look at the label but I thought it listed them.

No, tapes are the only chicken worm that SafeGuard (fenbendazole) doesn't get. Valbazen gets those, but it costs quite a bit more.

 

[dawg53]

Quote: x2

 

[casportpony]

dawg, doesn't Safeguard do tapes also? I'm on the road so I can't look at the label but I thought it listed them.

According to one study I read it will treat tapes when given three days in a row at 20mg/kg (.2ml per 2.2 pounds), but that's just one study... It supposed to get tapes in dogs and cats, too, but I can't remember how many days. Dose for cats and dogs is 50mg/kg (.5ml per 2.2 pounds).

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Here is that study:
Efficacy of fenbendazole against helminth parasites of poultry in Uganda.

Ssenyonga GS.
Abstract

Fenbendazole 4% (Panacur, Hoechst) administered in feed was used to treat chickens infected with Ascaridia galli, Heterakis gallinarum and Railletina spp. It was also used to treat Syngamus trachea in broiler birds. There was a marked drop in helminth egg counts in the faeces on the second day of treatment and the faeces became negative by the seventh day after the last treatment. Post-mortem examination 15 to 21 days later showed that the drug was 100% effective against Ascaridia galli and Heterakis gallinarum at 10 mg/kg. However, for complete removal of Railletina spp. 15 mg/kg was required. Similarly 20 mg/kg fenbendazole was effective against Syngamus trachea. It was concluded that fenbendazole is suitable for the treatment of the important intestinal and tracheal worms of poultry, a dose of 15 to 20 mg/kg for 3 consecutive days being recommended for use under field conditions.

The list of worms on the Safeguard products will list the worms it gets for the species it's labeled for. Safeguard is not labeled for chickens, so you won't find and chickens worms listed.

-Kathy

 

[Michael Apple]

According to one study I read it will treat tapes when given three days in a row at 20mg/kg (.2ml per 2.2 pounds), but that's just one study... It supposed to get tapes in dogs and cats, too, but I can't remember how many days. Dose for cats and dogs is 50mg/kg (.5ml per 2.2 pounds).

-Kathy

Dose is for each day, 3 days in a row.