Tapeworms ~ Worming!

[tacosta1009]

Good morning, all!

I ran a fecal and found out I have tapeworm. I've just ordered Valbazen to treat.

My main question is surrounding worming in general. My flock and I live in North Georgia in a wooded area. Lots of rain, mud and plenty of heat in the summer. I read so often about people worming their flock once or twice a year. HOW is that managed? I feel like I need to worm my flock every 3 months. Is that normal? I do everything I know how to do to decrease parasites in the coop, etc., but I hate losing a month of eggs every time!

Help! What's normal? What am I missing?

 

[coach723]

Every environment is different, every worm load is different. I'm in North Florida and I worm every 3 months for roundworm, that's what's needed in my flock. Some environments that are low in parasite loads may require much less frequent worming. Normal is whatever is needed to keep your flock healthy.
Valbazen will treat some types of tapeworm, but not all. Usually praziquantel is the med of choice for tapes, you can get that in either Zimectrin Gold or Equimax horse paste. Dosing for those is in post #6 in this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/tapeworms-that-wont-go-away.1130035/
Tapeworm is gotten from eating a secondary host, like earthworms, cockroaches, etc, so if you are able to decrease the numbers of that host, it may help. Roundworm eggs are more easily picked up directly from the soil. If you use the Valbazen I would run another fecal after treating, to make sure you got them. Or save the Valbazen for another time and use the meds above, if you are sure it's tapeworm.