Tapeworms?

[Khalgeesi Mother of Ducks]

Many people worm their flocks on a regular basis, while some do not worm unless they see worms or get a fecal test. Worm eggs are not seen without a microscope, though. There are some online worm tests at Amazon that you collect yourself and send in. I don’t know how accurate they are. Twice a year is an average time to worm, and if you live in a very warm wet environment you might need to worm more often. A dry cool environment might only require worming once a year. You will see a lot of different opinions on worming. Some never worm. You can do a lot to prevent worms and reinfestation once you do treat. Many worms have an intermediate host. Tapeworm eggs can be eaten by snails, slugs, earthworms, beetles, and flies. When your chicken eats one of those, they can get reinfected. So cleaning up droppings, keeping bedding dry and clean, avoiding deep litter, and getting rid of those intermediate hosts can help. With tapeworms, you see moving segments in the droppings:

I have a question. I'm seeing something like these white segments in my chicken's droppings, but it's not moving. Does this indicate tapeworms? I have 6 bantams and am only noticing it in one or two droppings a day (this is the second day). Chickens have two coops, a 100 sq ft enclosed run, and a 100 sq foot area to free range. I clean the chicken yard quite often. I do a modified deep litter where I clean out visible poop every day and add litter when it gets low. Ugh! I feel like a chicken failure. Plus, I'm SUPER worried about my ducks getting tapeworms as well. Hoping that because they aren't moving, I'm seeing something benign. Can anyone chime in? Thank you!

 

[dawg53]

I have a question. I'm seeing something like these white segments in my chicken's droppings, but it's not moving. Does this indicate tapeworms? I have 6 bantams and am only noticing it in one or two droppings a day (this is the second day). Chickens have two coops, a 100 sq ft enclosed run, and a 100 sq foot area to free range. I clean the chicken yard quite often. I do a modified deep litter where I clean out visible poop every day and add litter when it gets low. Ugh! I feel like a chicken failure. Plus, I'm SUPER worried about my ducks getting tapeworms as well. Hoping that because they aren't moving, I'm seeing something benign. Can anyone chime in? Thank you!

A photo of the feces would help, then we can ID whether they're tapeworm segments or not.

 

[Khalgeesi Mother of Ducks]

Definitely a tapeworm segment where the arrow is pointing, tough to tell in the second pic, but it doesnt matter. Dose any chicken that excretes the segments. It's not necessary to treat all your chickens, just the ones with the segments.
If it were roundworms, you would want to dose all your chickens, but not necessary with tapeworms.

Thank you. I read another of your posts where you talked about isolating chickens for treatment. I guess I'll be spending a few hours on poop patrol. I had thought about treating all chickens since I have never wormed prior. Is there great harm? I know some people worm as a regular maintenance. I think I'd like to worm and then holistic preventative.

Add: Also, what is the egg withdrawal time?