Prevention / Cures for Tapeworm or any worms really

Your soil conditions dictate how often you should worm. Warm moist or wet soil may require frequent wormings. Dry desertlike or cold mountainous or rocky soils may require less.

I have warm, dry soil. I am on the coast and it is pretty sandy here. I have never had standing water in my yard or mud. What would you suggest as a wormer for preventative measures?
 
Today I checked the poop and there are lots of white translucent scale looking things in their turds, would that be worm pieces or what? There are lots!

Sorry, I wish I could answer your question on the worming for you soil! Maybe one day I'll be of more service!! Right now I feel like an information leech!

Thank you for your patience Dawg and I'm SO thankful I may not see any worm in their poo...would that be because there wasn't any to start with or just that it wasn't so bad?
 
Segments to me mean tape worms, they shed segments that wriggle and squirm on their own.

I am not sure the best de-wormer to use in chickens, but what works on other worms doesn't work on tapeworms in dogs, cats and horses.

You need something specific for tapes.

If the Zimecterin Gold that is used in horses, is safe with chickens, it will take out tape worms. It has an ivermectin base, but the "gold" is added specifically as an anti tape worm medication (praziquantel). I know ivermectin can be given to chickens, but I don't know about the praziquantel. Maybe someone here can help with that?

I also know in horses, Strongid (pyrantyl) can be given triple dosed to control tapes in horses, but I don't know in chickens. It also controls other parasites, like roundworms in the standard dose.

As you can see, I have more experience with horses. I hope this helps, maybe someone with more chicken savvy can help clarify this. I hope I didn't confuse things.
 
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Segments to me mean tape worms, they shed segments that wriggle and squirm on their own.

I am not sure the best de-wormer to use in chickens, but what works on other worms doesn't work on tapeworms in dogs, cats and horses.

You need something specific for tapes.

If the Zimecterin Gold that is used in horses, is safe with chickens, it will take out tape worms. It has an ivermectin base, but the "gold" is added specifically as an anti tape worm medication (praziquantel). I know ivermectin can be given to chickens, but I don't know about the praziquantel. Maybe someone here can help with that?

I also know in horses, Strongid (pyrantyl) can be given triple dosed to control tapes in horses, but I don't know in chickens. It also controls other parasites, like roundworms in the standard dose.

As you can see, I have more experience with horses. I hope this helps, maybe someone with more chicken savvy can help clarify this. I hope I didn't confuse things.
You're correct about the zimectrin gold, it will kill tapeworms in chickens. Withhold your chickens feed for 24 hours (pen them up and remove their feed, but not water,) then give your chickens a "pea" size amount of the paste orally. They will wipe their beaks on the ground after giving it to them which is normal. Wait a few hours before feeding them. Repeat this procedure again in 10 days.
Ivermectin is useless as a wormer in chickens, it's the praziquantel that'll kill the tapes.
Pyrantel pamoate can be given to chickens, but it's only effective on several types of worms. A better broad spectrum wormer such as valbazen cattle/sheep wormer or safeguard liquid goat wormer or safeguard equine paste wormer would be better wormers to use.
 
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Good Morning!

I'm feeling just a little discouraged about keeping chickens...wondering if maybe south Florida is not the best place to keep chickens. Winter seemed fine, 1 hen, no problems! As soon as the puddles in our yard came, and we got 13 more(2 months ago), we've lost 1 chicken to immune depression after she had Foul Pox, Coccidiosis, Lice, and then started with the symptoms of Cocci again on top of never getting back up to weight. Then lost our Turkey to Bufo Marinus paralyzation.

Our new problem as of yesterday was a long thinker spaghetti like/color 7 in. long worm in a poop! I'm assuming it's tapeworm, but please correct me if I'm wrong! I'm looking to try a natural remedy as the meds we gave them for the Cocci and Lice just seemed to knock them down and I'm wondering if it damaged their immune systems a bit . Don't get me wrong, I'll try the drugs if that's what I need to do, I'd just really like to try natural as a preference. Yesterday after I found the little beasty, I crushed a head of garlic and put 2t. Cayenne powder and 1t. cinnamon in their food dish (with a little feed) and didn't feed them the rest of the day.

Q #1: What do I give them now? Natural or not, no fights please! Just your opinion!
Q #2: I've heard that Liming your yard can help, but a)Will this kill the grass?, b)How often does this need done? & c) Does this work??
Q #3: Can we catch the worms from the chickens? I'm pregnant and wondering if this is a great idea...
Q #4: Our chickens free range most of the day, should I not do this during rainy season?

Thank anyone for any help!!! I'm really at a loss for words...
First off anytime you get new birds you need to keep them away from yours for a long while just to make SURE they are healthy. I know this would be very hard to do but I do plan on doing it with mine if I ever get any new ones.
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And you may have done this not saying you didn't but just wanted to say it in case.
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I am so sorry about your sick ones!!
I'm not going to allow mine to free range if it is raining in the wintertime because I worry about them getting chilled and getting sick. I also don't let them outside until the dew dries off the ground. I give mine fresh garlic once a week as a preventative and don't use the jarred stuff, I use fresh stuff. They dearly love it. I cut it up for them and everything. I had a sick one with resp. the other day and I have been giving them the fresh garlic for 9 days so far I have one more day left. I also gave them some crushed up vit. c in their fermented food. plus I have some cayenne pepper that is fresh still growing in my garden and I been tossing them some of them to eat as well.
 
What you are describing is probably a round worm, which is one of the few chicken worms one can see with the naked eye. All chickens get and have worms. The problem arises when they get an overload and start looking sick. The garlic and cayenne may help, and pumpkin seed supposedly help. Pumpkin, zucchini and other squash contain curcurbita which is thought to be a natural wormer. My chickens won't eat the pumpkin seeds unless I grind them and put them in something else like wet feed. However they do like to eat zucchini that is split down the middle. Flockwatcher is correct that Valbazen gets all chicken worms, and that is what many people use. Safeguard liquid goat wormer is another favorite, but doesn't get the tapeworms which are tiny white specks.
I got something to tell you and you might not believe this but it IS true. I feed my 17 chickens fermented food and have read the worms can't survive in the gut of one fed this food. They are 6 months old. A month or so back I bought some layena laying crumbles to ferment and had been getting Wares Milling which is made in MS. The only reason I didn't get the kind I'd been using is I didn't want to drive 20 plus miles to get it. So I bought the layena locally. Well the layena would not ferment right but went to mush and was plum sticky on my scoop. So I thought ok I will just feed them that day in the morning since it wouldn't ferment right and feed the fermented food for the evening so I could use up the dry layena. Anyway I'd been feeding like this for a couple weeks when I noticed one of my hens color wasn't right anymore and her wattle and comb was dull in color so I got on our states Facebook page and asked some questions because I thought she may have worms. I didn't see any symptoms of anything but dull color and feathers wasn't laying down. Anyway I decided instead of worming her and losing all those eggs worming them all I would take a poop sample of hers to the vets office and let him check it for me. So I did and he checked it and she had no worms, no parasites and no corri sis SP? he checked her for that to. I have NEVER wormed these chickens and they free range most every day and for hours each day. So I am a believer now for sure in the fermented food. The reason her color changed was because of my crazy idea to keep from wasting the food to feed it dry and she wasn't getting as much of her fermented food. She's looking better but still looks a little ragged but she is my best layer. While she was under the weather she didn't lay for a couple days. But I stopped feeding the dry food and went to feeding them twice daily with the ff to get it back into their little bodies like it needed to be. So I have proof they don't always have worms since the vet checked it for me.
 
Thanks for the advice! Sorry I haven't been on for a while...I'm becoming a believer in the garlic myself, I've had a lot of sucess with it mixed with cayenne powder, and not so much with the herbal stuff. Just lost another chicken last week to gape worm, I cannot believe all the parasites! I need to run a stool sample down at some point to see if that helps. We just swtiched feeds recently for the same reason you did and they're going through it much faster (the previous stuff had pig by-product...considering the risks in that now!). Good luck with your chicken adventures!
 
Thanks for the advice! Sorry I haven't been on for a while...I'm becoming a believer in the garlic myself, I've had a lot of sucess with it mixed with cayenne powder, and not so much with the herbal stuff. Just lost another chicken last week to gape worm, I cannot believe all the parasites! I need to run a stool sample down at some point to see if that helps. We just swtiched feeds recently for the same reason you did and they're going through it much faster (the previous stuff had pig by-product...considering the risks in that now!). Good luck with your chicken adventures!

I believe you're having success with garlic and cayenne pepper. But not with your chickens.
 

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