TAPEWORM PROBLEM: Need Advice on Treatment

[dawg53]

I seem to have hit a hot button here; didn't mean to offend. Since my flock hasn't been afflicted with tapeworms (yet) it hasn't been a concern for me. Mary

No offense taken Mary. Just thought you were concerned about the safety of the horse paste. No worries.

 

[gracienthegirls]

Thank you SO MUCH for this advice dawg53!! This is exactly what i was looking for; an actual physical amount of Equimax to give to my girls. (Praziquantel 14.03%...what does that mean?? You know??!!) Get out the calculator...!!
So I'll be worming this weekend!

For anyone concerned about this treatment; a young enthusiastic veterinarian, new to this area, did extensive research for me on this very issue. He came up with many different options for treating these worms, but in the end he felt that using Equimax was probably the best option. Yes, it was made for horses. The research for chickens just hasn't been done. One reason it hasn't been done is that, unfortunately, the majority of chickens in the world are NOT backyard chickens. Sad. Instead they are raised in factory farms where they simply do not have access to dirt or worms or sunlight or...anything natural. So worms are not an issue. (So why should the FDA care?) To my (limited) knowledge, there isn't any medication out there specifically for treating tapeworms in chickens; hence, we end up using horse medicine. But it's the same medicine, it's just packaged for horses.

A few things I learned with this issue; it may be a good idea to clear out the roundworms first. I did this a few weeks ago with Wazine. This was readily available at our local farm store. Its also inexpensive. Unfortunately, I had to do some complex algebra then as well, to figure out how much to give! lol. The bottle treats like 800 or 1600 chickens; I can't remember. I only have 10! So there's always the math issue... lol.

Another thing this vet told me; it could be pretty difficult to actually overdose on this medication, simply because the type of organism that this medication attacks, the worm, is so very different from the organism that is ingesting it...the chickens. What is harmful to a tapeworm, may have minimal effect on a chicken, as far as negative health effects. Far less harmful, anyway, than the negative health effects of the tapeworms!! At least that's how I feel about it.

But anyway...I'll curb my tendency to ramble on. Plus i need to upload a profile picture here. I'm thinking of using Sunshine, my Bantam chicken, who enjoys coming indoors and hanging out with my cats!
Yep, even the kitties love chickens around here...

Thanks again dawg53!!!

P.S. I just have one question...if I worm now, when do you think I should worm again? 6 months? A year?

 

[dawg53]

Thank you SO MUCH for this advice dawg53!! This is exactly what i was looking for; an actual physical amount of Equimax to give to my girls. (Praziquantel 14.03%...what does that mean?? You know??!!) Get out the calculator...!!
So I'll be worming this weekend!

For anyone concerned about this treatment; a young enthusiastic veterinarian, new to this area, did extensive research for me on this very issue. He came up with many different options for treating these worms, but in the end he felt that using Equimax was probably the best option. Yes, it was made for horses. The research for chickens just hasn't been done. One reason it hasn't been done is that, unfortunately, the majority of chickens in the world are NOT backyard chickens. Sad. Instead they are raised in factory farms where they simply do not have access to dirt or worms or sunlight or...anything natural. So worms are not an issue. (So why should the FDA care?) To my (limited) knowledge, there isn't any medication out there specifically for treating tapeworms in chickens; hence, we end up using horse medicine. But it's the same medicine, it's just packaged for horses.

A few things I learned with this issue; it may be a good idea to clear out the roundworms first. I did this a few weeks ago with Wazine. This was readily available at our local farm store. Its also inexpensive. Unfortunately, I had to do some complex algebra then as well, to figure out how much to give! lol. The bottle treats like 800 or 1600 chickens; I can't remember. I only have 10! So there's always the math issue... lol.

Another thing this vet told me; it could be pretty difficult to actually overdose on this medication, simply because the type of organism that this medication attacks, the worm, is so very different from the organism that is ingesting it...the chickens. What is harmful to a tapeworm, may have minimal effect on a chicken, as far as negative health effects. Far less harmful, anyway, than the negative health effects of the tapeworms!! At least that's how I feel about it.

But anyway...I'll curb my tendency to ramble on. Plus i need to upload a profile picture here. I'm thinking of using Sunshine, my Bantam chicken, who enjoys coming indoors and hanging out with my cats!
Yep, even the kitties love chickens around here...

Thanks again dawg53!!!

P.S. I just have one question...if I worm now, when do you think I should worm again? 6 months? A year?

Wazine dosage is simple; one ounce per one gallon of water for 24 hours only....whether it be 1 bird or 100 birds. The problem with mixing wazine in water is that you dont know if your birds drank any, or if they drank enough of it to be effective. Also sick birds wont drink, and birds drink less water in cooler/colder temperatures. For a first time wormer, you'd be better off using valbazen. Valbazen slowly kills worms over several days preventing blockage and toxic dead worm overload. Wazine can cause a blockage if there's an infestation of large roundworms, possibly causing death due to toxic dead worm overload.
Dosage for equimax is a regular "pea" sized amount given orally to each chicken, a "small pea" size amount for smaller chickens. Redose again in 10 days. I only recommend equimax or zimectrin gold for use against tapeworms and no other types of worms since there are more effective wormers for the other types of worms...such as valbazen and safeguard.

 

[gracienthegirls]

Hi dawg53, thanks for the info! Just a couple more questions. I can tell you are much more experienced at this than I am!!

I did notice some girls drinking more of the Wazine water than others, but everyone did drink it. Hopefully they all drank enough. And except for the few that are now moulting, everyone looks a bit better! (Brighter combs, etc)

As for the Equimax:

1. When you say "redose again in 10 days" you mean ALL sizes of chickens, correct? Or did you mean just the little ones who only got the smaller amount?

2. When you personally treat with Equimax, do you mix it in a favorite food treat that they can't resist? I went for the canned cat food trick, but only some of the girls gobbled that down. A few of them were shaking their heads like they could taste the medication more than the cat food. Hmmm... should've used tuna maybe LOL
So do you have a treat that you use? Or do you just squirt it in their beaks? That sounds nearly impossible to me.

3. If they didn't get enough, am I just making them medication-resistant? Should I redose TWO more times, 10 days apart, for the ones I noticed didn't go for it as much?

THANKS!!