That is the question...
After much research and help (thank you casportpony!) I narrowed down a seemingly random list of symptoms to gapeworm. Immediately after the five day treatment I saw little improvement, but held off on re-treatment. It has now been 10 days since their last dosage, and the hen that had lost her voice is completely healed. Yippee!
e
We do, however, still have one hen ( or maybe two) who's poops are questionable. Mostly normal… But at least one per day that looks like this:
I have read that gapeworm is either rare in backyard flocks or extremely common (depending on the resource). Considering that they have had almost unlimited access to earthworms and other carriers, I'm confident that this was/is the problem. One thing that resources tend to agree on is that gapeworm is difficult to treat. So… Should I go ahead and give another five day dose to play it safe? Or less? Or none?
After much research and help (thank you casportpony!) I narrowed down a seemingly random list of symptoms to gapeworm. Immediately after the five day treatment I saw little improvement, but held off on re-treatment. It has now been 10 days since their last dosage, and the hen that had lost her voice is completely healed. Yippee!
eWe do, however, still have one hen ( or maybe two) who's poops are questionable. Mostly normal… But at least one per day that looks like this:
I have read that gapeworm is either rare in backyard flocks or extremely common (depending on the resource). Considering that they have had almost unlimited access to earthworms and other carriers, I'm confident that this was/is the problem. One thing that resources tend to agree on is that gapeworm is difficult to treat. So… Should I go ahead and give another five day dose to play it safe? Or less? Or none?
