Tapeworm treatment questions

[Wyorp Rock]

One more question...during the egg withdrawal period, can I feed the eggs back to the chickens?

A withdrawal period is throwing away eggs because of drug residue, so feeding the eggs back to the chickens could possibly extend your withdrawal period.

 

[5crazies]

A withdrawal period is throwing away eggs because of drug residue, so feeding the eggs back to the chickens could possibly extend your withdrawal period.

Okay I understand. Thank you!
Molting/winter would have been much better timing for this! It's going to be torture throwing all these eggs out.

 

[5crazies]

UPDATE! Warning, poop/worm picture!

We treated all 33 chickens with Equimax yesterday. Today I went outside and saw this. This isn't a tapeworm, is it? Anyone know what type this is and if it would have crossed into eggs? Looks like we have another type of worm as well so I'm glad we treated all of them.

 

[coach723]

Those are roundworms, one of the most common worms they can pick up. The praziquantel won't treat those, you will need the Safeguard or Valbazen. I would finish treatment with the praziquantel to make sure you take care of the tapes, and then treat with one of those others to get the roundworm. Roundworm is one of the easiest to pick up in the environment. For tapes, they eat another host, like slugs, worms, cockroach, etc. that is carrying the tapeworm and get infected that way. For roundworm they pick it up scratching and digging and pecking at the ground. The eggs survive a long time in the environment (and every infected bird deposits 1000's of worm eggs back into the environment in every dropping), so reinfection is common. You will need to monitor your birds to see how often you need to treat to keep them healthy. Some can worm once or twice a year and that is enough, some may have to do more often. I have to worm every 3 or 4 months in my flock (Florida climate is very nice to parasites).
Safeguard dose is .25 ml per pound of body weight, orally, treat twice 10 days apart.
Valbazen dose is .5 ml, orally, treat twice 10 days apart, for a standard sized bird. Actual math for dosing Valbazen is "weight in lbs / 2.2 X 20mg / 113.6"

 

[5crazies]

Those are roundworms, one of the most common worms they can pick up. The praziquantel won't treat those, you will need the Safeguard or Valbazen. I would finish treatment with the praziquantel to make sure you take care of the tapes, and then treat with one of those others to get the roundworm. Roundworm is one of the easiest to pick up in the environment. For tapes, they eat another host, like slugs, worms, cockroach, etc. that is carrying the tapeworm and get infected that way. For roundworm they pick it up scratching and digging and pecking at the ground. The eggs survive a long time in the environment (and every infected bird deposits 1000's of worm eggs back into the environment in every dropping), so reinfection is common. You will need to monitor your birds to see how often you need to treat to keep them healthy. Some can worm once or twice a year and that is enough, some may have to do more often. I have to worm every 3 or 4 months in my flock (Florida climate is very nice to parasites).
Safeguard dose is .25 ml per pound of body weight, orally, treat twice 10 days apart.
Valbazen dose is .5 ml, orally, treat twice 10 days apart, for a standard sized bird. Actual math for dosing Valbazen is "weight in lbs / 2.2 X 20mg / 113.6"

Thank you so much for all of this information. This worm appeared to be dead but maybe it just moves slowly. Would the ivermectin that's also in the Equimax kill roundworms?

 

[coach723]

Ivermectin has lost it's effectiveness against many parasites. It would be better to use one of the others with known effectiveness. When roundworms are expelled they are usually dead or dying. Even without treatment, sometimes they are expelled. After you worm with one of the other wormers, you may or may not see any worms expelled, many times they are just digested.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

UPDATE! Warning, poop/worm picture!

We treated all 33 chickens with Equimax yesterday. Today I went outside and saw this. This isn't a tapeworm, is it? Anyone know what type this is and if it would have crossed into eggs? Looks like we have another type of worm as well so I'm glad we treated all of them.

No, it's a Roundworm as Coach described. Looks like she gave you the information for treating those.

 

[5crazies]

Ivermectin has lost it's effectiveness against many parasites. It would be better to use one of the others with known effectiveness. When roundworms are expelled they are usually dead or dying. Even without treatment, sometimes they are expelled. After you worm with one of the other wormers, you may or may not see any worms expelled, many times they are just digested.

Thank you again for the help. We will finish treating for the tapeworms then get the other meds for the roundworms and hopefully be parasite free for a while.