Protecting chicks when deworming horses

[meltond3]

Hi all! I am new to BYC as well as to having chicks. I've had 8 chickens for about 6 months...they were all 8-12 weeks when I got them. However, I just got 6 more...and these are babies

I was worried about getting day olds as I've always been told they die easily. But, 2 weeks in and all 6 are growing and doing great!!

They are inside, so I'm not really worried about them, but the "big girls" are outside and tend to go over their fence to forage around our horses. This is good for the horses as the chicks eat excessive feed the girls drop, so there's less tendency for the horses to ingest dirt as they pick up dropped feed. However, it's getting warmer (I'm in north Texas and we've already hit 86' twice

) and it's time to deworm the horses. My concern is the chicks peck through the manure and I'm worried they will ingest the horse dewormer...or rather I'm worried they'll ingest TOO MUCH of the dewormer. I'm deworming with SafeGuard (probably). Is this a valid worry? And if so, any helpful ideas? As the chicks let themselves in and out of their coop/run area nowadays, I'm not sure how to prevent ingestion.....

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, meltond3, and

! Great to have you in our community! You pose a great question but I have no clue. You might try posting in the forum below - perhaps a horse owner will have an idea for you:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/22/other-pets-livestock
Best wishes!

 

[drumstick diva]

If necessary your flock could be locked in the run (they will survive) until the worming period is over and the "road apples," have been carted away.

 

[Kiki]

Some people give their chickens the exact same medicine for worms that is in horse wormers.

I too live in Texas and have both horses and chickens and have never thought about this exact question and also never had any problems...
not saying that my way is right or the best, but I have never thought twice about it and my "girls" are just fine....(although they don't eat so much horse poo) but do share the land.

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC - hope some more horse experts chime in.

All the best
CT

 

[Teila]

G’Day from down under meltond3

Welcome!

I am definitely going to have to defer to the experts on this one.

You might want to also pop in and say hello on your local thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/26/where-am-i-where-are-you ‘Find your State’s thread.

I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun.

If you would like to share pictures and stories of your flock, you have come to the right place. BYC’ers never tire of these and do not back away slowly or commence eye rolling when the photo album or home videos come out

 

[N F C]

It's nice to have you here!

 

[meltond3]

I'll try that. Thank you!