Praziquantel in water for tapeworm treatment

[coach723]

If you can't figure out which bird or birds are having the issue, then I would worm them all. Most adult birds will roost in the same spot, or nearly same spot every night, unless there has been a recent change in the flock. You can sometimes figure it out base on where the poop lies, under the roosts. If I suspect something going one with one of my birds I will often check with a flashlight where they are roosting, they tend to not move once it's dark. Then when I see the droppings in the morning I have a pretty good idea whose they probably are.

 

[SarahGfa]

If you can't figure out which bird or birds are having the issue, then I would worm them all. Most adult birds will roost in the same spot, or nearly same spot every night, unless there has been a recent change in the flock. You can sometimes figure it out base on where the poop lies, under the roosts. If I suspect something going one with one of my birds I will often check with a flashlight where they are roosting, they tend to not move once it's dark. Then when I see the droppings in the morning I have a pretty good idea whose they probably are.

OK I will do that! Do the droppings need to be fresh to see tapeworm segments, or can they be a couple hours old? Is it possible to ID tapeworms by looking at the segments under a basic microscope? I found a chart of poultry tapeworm species + intermediate hosts but I don't know if I can post it because of copyright.

 

[coach723]

Most of the time the segments will resemble grains of rice, and if fresh enough they will be moving. If not so fresh they die and start to dry out. Sometime you don't see anything in droppings, it just depends on where they are in the life cycle.
This is a video of the segments fresh:

More rarely a section of tape worm with many segments still attached together will be expelled, that is much less common.
This site has some good pictures of the various parasites, it's a New Zealand site, so the products they use are different than what is available in the US.
https://chooks.co.nz/blogs/news/should-i-be-worming-my-chickens

 

[Kiki]

OK I will do that! Do the droppings need to be fresh to see tapeworm segments, or can they be a couple hours old? Is it possible to ID tapeworms by looking at the segments under a basic microscope? I found a chart of poultry tapeworm species + intermediate hosts but I don't know if I can post it because of copyright.

You usually will never see tapeworms in droppings until you actual deworm the bird.

When you do actually see tapeworms in poop, it means the bird has no more room to keep the worms happy inside.

 

[SarahGfa]

You usually will never see tapeworms in droppings until you actual deworm the bird.

When you do actually see tapeworms in poop, it means the bird has no more room to keep the worms happy inside.

I've seen tapeworm segments just like the video above, so I'm sure at least one turkey has tapeworms. I will deworm all the turkeys. I'm not sure about the chickens. Haven't seen anything, but maybe the chickens still have room to keep the worms happy inside.

@coach723 I want to ID the actual tapeworm species so I know which intermediate host to kill

 

[Kiki]

I've seen tapeworm segments just like the video above, so I'm sure at least one turkey has tapeworms. I will deworm all the turkeys. I'm not sure about the chickens. Haven't seen anything, but maybe the chickens still have room to keep the worms happy inside.

@coach723 I want to ID the actual tapeworm species so I know which intermediate host to kill

I'd kill them all.
lol

 

[coach723]

I don't do my own fecals, not sure I would be able to ID different kinds. That's not in my current skill set. If you can find a vet that will do a fecal for you, that is what I would do. Even your vet, if you have one for other animals, may be willing. Just explain that you want to ID the actual type so you can work on reducing the possible hosts. You can also just look a the general lists of hosts and see which of those you seem to have a lot of, and go from there. You probably can't get rid of them all (hosts), but can try to reduce numbers to much less. Just depends on too many variables. If that's not doable, then you may just need to worm on a regular schedule to keep the birds healthy. Without fecal testing, that will be by trial and observation. Keep a log of when you worm (it is very easy to forget when you actually did it) and whom, when you see signs of reinfestation, log that and worm again, over time you will figure out how often you should be doing it to keep them healthy. I worm every 3 months for roundworm in my flock, and occasionally I have to worm someone in between that. And I log it every single time, because I can never remember exactly when I did it.

 

[Kiki]

Your state lab would most likely be able to identify the exact type.
What state are you in?

 

[Morrigan]

Tapeworms will shed the it's segments -- those little rice like things -- only once or maybe twice a day. For some reason the shed rarely happens at night. That makes it harder to gauge whether a bird has tapeworms, just by looking at poop boards.

Maybe it's different with turkeys, but when my chickens had tapeworms, I only saw the segments in droppings shed between late morning and mid-afternoon. And, yes, they have to be relatively fresh for you to see them, as those little segments will quickly wiggle away.

So you may want to spend some time outside towards the middle of the day to try to get a sense of who has the worms so you can individually dose.

 

[SarahGfa]

Your state lab would most likely be able to identify the exact type.
What state are you in?

California. i don't mind killing slugs, flies, and snails but i don't want to kill earthworms. I don't know how I would kill all the ants even if I tried, lol.

I started doing my own fecals because I am always worried about blackhead disease. tapeworms and cocci are the only things that keep coming back