Sick Chicken, Please Help, Nothing is Working

[Eggcessive]

There are a lot of threads on worming where you can read information about different wormers. Casportpony has a couple of good threads if you do a search for "worming" at the search box top of this page. When 1/2 ml of fenbendazole is used, and repeated in 10days for a 4 pound or 2kg bird, it will usually treat roundworms fine. But to treat other hard to treat worms such as gapeworms and capillary worms it takes a higher dose for up to 5 days. SafeGuard and Panacur are brand names and considered pretty safe.

 

[PD-Riverman]

There are a lot of threads on worming where you can read information about different wormers. Casportpony has a couple of good threads if you do a search for "worming" at the search box top of this page. When 1/2 ml of fenbendazole is used, and repeated in 10days for a 4 pound or 2kg bird, it will usually treat roundworms fine. But to treat other hard to treat worms such as gapeworms and capillary worms it takes a higher dose for up to 5 days. SafeGuard and Panacur are brand names and considered pretty safe.

So what do you feel would be the best way to worm for tape worms, if you were having problems and took several chickens--Dead and alive-----for a necropsy, results stated a severe tape worm problem and you only had about 1000 chickens to worm?

 

[Eggcessive]

Praziquantal is probably the best thing for tapes. It has to be used orally, not diluted, so difficult to give to a huge flock. Some have had luck using Valbazen for a few days for tapes. Someone just recently posted about having successfully treated their birds with Valbazen used diluted in water, although most use it orally given directly. I will try to find that thread for you. The thing about tapeworms, is that they are not that common in chickens, but I don't think they are that dangerous, more of a pest. They can be seen as white specks or tiny flat moving worms in the poop. Worms in chickens are opportunistic, preying on birds that may have an underlying immunity problem. For instance, if tapes were found in a necropsy, that may not be the reason the bird died. I will admit I am not an expert on worming--Casportpony is the worm expert. She has done a lot of researching, posting, and has experience in use with followup lab work. I have read that one can only control tapeworms, but they are hard to completely get rid of in your environment once there. Cleaning up droppings, which would be rather impossible with that many chickens, and free ranging can help in control. I do not do a lot of worming with my own flock. I do it occasionally, but probably not as much as some. Worming doesn't prevent them from going right back outside and getting more, but it helps to prevent a heavy infestation. Some people never worm. I think the best thing anyone can do is to get some fresh droppings tested for worms--then you know what worms to treat for and if it is even necessary.

 

[casportpony]

I did give it to her orally, 1ml/day for 5 days.

According to my bottle 1ml is for a 45+ lb animal---where did you get this dosage info from? I am no Vet but that seems like enough to poison the chicken??

Goats, cows, horses, sheep get that dose, which works out to 5 mg/kg, but chickens, dogs, cats, and possibly reptiles get *much* more. I'm not a vet either, but all of this information is readily available in veterinary text books, which I can post pictures of if you are interested.

 

[casportpony]

 
There are a lot of threads on worming where you can read information about different wormers. Casportpony has a couple of good threads if you do a search for "worming" at the search box top of this page. When  1/2 ml of fenbendazole is used, and repeated in 10days for a 4 pound or 2kg bird, it will usually treat roundworms fine. But to treat other hard to treat worms such as gapeworms and capillary worms it takes a higher dose for up to 5 days. SafeGuard and Panacur are brand names and considered pretty safe.

So what do you feel would be the best way to worm for tape worms, if you were having problems and took several chickens--Dead and alive-----for a necropsy, results stated a severe tape worm problem and you only had about 1000 chickens to worm?

You would want to get your hands on some praziquantel powder, or something with praziquantel in it and add it to their water. Do you have 1000 chickens to treat?

 

[casportpony]

Her eye seems to be going back downhill and the stumbling seems worse. She hardly has any balance. I don't know what else to do for this chicken.

Do you want to learn how to tube feed? Can you post a picture of her eye?

 

[PD-Riverman]

Do you have 1000 chickens to treat?

I did or it was suggested I worm the whole flock because of the problem I was having and the DVM for my State where I got the necropsy/test done told/gave me to instructions how to Mix fenbendazole in my chicken waterer/s and do it for 3 days--mixing fresh every morning and do a hundred or so at a time. I did and my chickens started gaining weight and I had no more sickness/dying chickens from that problem. I lost 27 before I got the results and started treatment starting on the ones that appeared to need it the worse---doing 100 or so at a time. These were in 67 different pens. The test results stated it was the worse tape worm problem the tester had seen. I moved chickens and cleaned and bleached all pens as I was worming. I have many times since used fenbendazole mixed in their water for wormy looking chickens. I am very pleased with the results and have/had very healthy looking chickens with very good weight.

Eggcessive has stated fenbendazole is suppose to be given Oral only----not mixed in their drinking water so I was asking him what he would do/use if he had that many to worm with probably tape worms??

 

[casportpony]

Quote: Sorry you lost so many birds, and I'm happy Safegurd in the water worked for you, but many people have tried it in the water and it has failed to treat roundworms, which are the easiest ones to kill, and even the MSDS (material safety data sheet says it's not water soluble. Additionally, I did an experiment where I put some in water and it settled very quickly.

You keep saying that the dose is this or that, but the dose the "state vet" gave you was for treating the species of tapeworms that your flock had, it was not a dose targeted to treat cecal worms, gapeworms, or capillary worms, right?

I would love it if you could post the results of your fecal flotations so we could all see exactly how well it worked.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Sorry you lost so many birds,


You keep saying that the dose is this or that, but the dose the "state vet" gave you was for treating the species of tapeworms that your flock had, it was not a dose targeted to treat cecal worms, gapeworms, or capillary worms, right?

I would love it if you could post the results of your fecal flotations so we could all see exactly how well it worked.

27 birds our of 30 is a big loss, 27 out of a 1000 is a small loss which it could have been alot more and I am for sure glad it was no more.

Yes the vet said the tape worms required a double amount over most of the other worms.

I was not driving 5 hours round trip plus the time to have a fecal exam done. The proof was in how my chicken done. No more falling dead, major weight gain, nice healthy chickens. I kept about 200 of those for close 2 years after and never had to re-worm them again. I did worm hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of grow out chicks the same way as they showed signs of needing to be wormed.

I am like this, if a person has never tried mixing it in water and wormed 1000's of chickens----How or why would they say it will not work??? If they did try it and it did not work then either they did not have it mixed right or they did not have a worm problem to start with----is my thoughts?? Sure some settles to the bottom, but if it is stirred good not as much as some think---some film but not a lot----is that the reason this DVM said to double the dosage???. Then when you give this to your chickens and they perk up and gain a lot of weight are healthy---that's all it takes for me to know its Working and working good. No I am no vet nor a highly educated person---just a old Country boy and a Happy chicken raiser that is Glad the DVM prescribed something that cured my problem almost 3 years ago. I was So Worried at that time, and did not know what to do-----so now that I have been through all that and was very happy with the out come-----when I see some one in person or on a forum that is going through what "appears" the same I try to offer help. I have had a lot of friends/people come back to me and tell me thanks----said it sure cured what they felt was a worm problem. The DVM said that if some of my chickens did not even have worms---worming them with this mix would not cause a problem which is why I wormed them all.

 

[slm118]

I tried to upload a pic of her eye. Not sure if it worked or not. If it did...that's the best pic I could get. My phone cover has glitter in it and she kept trying to peck it.

Its still looking better today...not totally crusted over, I can actually see her eyeball. She's just so off balance. I'm wondering if that can be attributed to weakness and will get better as she gains weight? She eats like a horse.