Sick chicken, gape worm symptoms

[PLodge]

Hi,
We've had a few of our flock over the years get gape worm symptoms every so often, but usually after treatment with ivermectin for 5 days it all clears up fine.
One of the girls has been going on now for weeks with no improvement. She's been into the vet and no signs of respiratory issues, heart and lung sound good. No foamy eye or nasal discharge either.
She's been treated with the following for worms over the last while with some improvement from time to time, but seems to keep relapsing. Ivermectin, flubendazole, fenbendazole and doramectin. We've had her in with vet multiple times with no improvement.
Her symptoms are the typical gape worm ones, stretching neck out to breath, coughing/sneezing/screeching noise as she tries to dislodge the worms.
It's very strange.
Any ideas would be great.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Is her crop emptying overnight?

If not, then begin addressing that symptom according to the article linked below:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

If you have video of her actions that would be welcomed.

UPLOAD video to YouTube and provide us a link.

 

[aliris]

Hi @PLodge - I am wondering whether I have the same thing going on. But she doesn't really have gapeworm symptoms though a couple weeks back she was doing some gasping; I don't see that now. But she does do ear itching a lot... I hadn't realized that was gapeworm stuff but makes sense. I will hunt for treatment ideas on gapeworm in this online tome here...

 

[PLodge]

Hi,
Sorry we never came back on this. Vet reckoned she may have had a parasite, but she was treated with various wormers and antibiotics to clear this issue up. It still persists to an extent but the thinking is she may have scaring and this is causing intermittent coughing, etc. She has good days and bad. But she's not gotten any worse and she boss around with evergreen else fine.

 

[ChickConcierge]

Hi,
We've had a few of our flock over the years get gape worm symptoms every so often, but usually after treatment with ivermectin for 5 days it all clears up fine.
One of the girls has been going on now for weeks with no improvement. She's been into the vet and no signs of respiratory issues, heart and lung sound good. No foamy eye or nasal discharge either.
She's been treated with the following for worms over the last while with some improvement from time to time, but seems to keep relapsing. Ivermectin, flubendazole, fenbendazole and doramectin. We've had her in with vet multiple times with no improvement.
Her symptoms are the typical gape worm ones, stretching neck out to breath, coughing/sneezing/screeching noise as she tries to dislodge the worms.
It's very strange.
Any ideas would be great.

How much ivermectin did you dose your birds with? I have one hen who I’m pretty sure has gape worm but one pea-size dose of ivermectin hasn’t seem to help much.

 

[aliris]

I'm no expert whatsoever. But my experience with two horse pastes and the goat formulation which is liquid, sets me a strong partisan for the liquid. You can measure it way more accurately than "pea size". A syringe-worth is easy to squirt in the mouth. Local chain-vets are happy to pass along a small syringe (they have heaps).

A vet-friend-of-a-vet-friend swears by one high dose (100mg/kg), and I found more luck with 5x 50mg/kg daily (which winds up being 2.5x more than the single high dose).

I think the high dose wallop is useful? But it could be that stretching it over several days is more effective in walloping the worm, then letting them grow back a bit and walloping again, and again and again. That can be a more efficacious gameplan than a single, higher-still dose.

I am guessing if there's some resistant worms this might be a better paradigm? I am guessing only. There are so many on here who have great practical knowledge.

In my experience there can be long-term effects from the treatment. I think the antihelminthics themselves may be short-lived but it can seemingly set a chicken's well-being back for a while. At least I think I've observed long-term diarrhea in some of the lighter-weight ones. Not positive (by any means) of this connection though.

I'm in SoCal. I bet where you and your flock are matters too.

TL;DR: For persistent try 1x for 5 days @50 mg/kg, then a periodic prophylactic dose of up to 1x @100 mg/kg if necessary. For one-off, a single high-dose of 1x @100 mg/kg might work (so says farm vet with lots of experience treating worms in chickens; I haven't done this myself, but would upon re-presentation at this point). Disclaimer: this is just info I've gleaned from here and elsewhere. IANAV - I am not a veterinarian, or a veteran-chicken-keeper.

 

[ChickConcierge]

I'm no expert whatsoever. But my experience with two horse pastes and the goat formulation which is liquid, sets me a strong partisan for the liquid. You can measure it way more accurately than "pea size". A syringe-worth is easy to squirt in the mouth. Local chain-vets are happy to pass along a small syringe (they have heaps).

A vet-friend-of-a-vet-friend swears by one high dose (100mg/kg), and I found more luck with 5x 50mg/kg daily (which winds up being 2.5x more than the single high dose).

I think the high dose wallop is useful? But it could be that stretching it over several days is more effective in walloping the worm, then letting them grow back a bit and walloping again, and again and again. That can be a more efficacious gameplan than a single, higher-still dose.

I am guessing if there's some resistant worms this might be a better paradigm? I am guessing only. There are so many on here who have great practical knowledge.

In my experience there can be long-term effects from the treatment. I think the antihelminthics themselves may be short-lived but it can seemingly set a chicken's well-being back for a while. At least I think I've observed long-term diarrhea in some of the lighter-weight ones. Not positive (by any means) of this connection though.

I'm in SoCal. I bet where you and your flock are matters too.

TL;DR: For persistent try 1x for 5 days @50 mg/kg, then a periodic prophylactic dose of up to 1x @100 mg/kg if necessary. For one-off, a single high-dose of 1x @100 mg/kg might work (so says farm vet with lots of experience treating worms in chickens; I haven't done this myself, but would upon re-presentation at this point). Disclaimer: this is just info I've gleaned from here and elsewhere. IANAV - I am not a veterinarian, or a veteran-chicken-keeper.

Thank you for the advice. The liquid sounds like a much better way to go. I’m going to try the lower dose for 5 days. Thanks again.

 

[aliris]

Thank you for the advice. The liquid sounds like a much better way to go. I’m going to try the lower dose for 5 days. Thanks again.

How'd it go?

 

[ChickConcierge]

How much ivermectin did you dose your birds with? I have one hen who I’m pretty sure has gape worm but one pea-size dose of ivermectin hasn’t seem to help much.

 

[ChickConcierge]

How'd it go?

My hen seems better. It’s been a couple weeks but she’s still gaping when she eats, although less than it was. I think they’re tough little parasites to get rid of. I’m going to wait and see if it continues to improve for a few more weeks. Then we’re off to the veterinarian if it doesn’t improve more.