To worm or not to worm that is the question.

[casportpony]

When I first started raising my chickens I had a silkie that had some worms.  I didn't know what was wrong with her so I took her to a vet.  He gave us some medicine for her and it worked but it was hard to give her.  I had read that feeding your chickens cucumbers will help prevent worms.  I tried it and I have had no worm problems with any of my chickens since.  They love them.  That was 8 years ago!

Welcome to BYC! You might want to talk with your vet about having routine fecals done.

 

[casportpony]

​I give my birds a good diet of 20% protein feed. Offer table scraps several times a week. Clean the coupe about 5 times a year and clear out old bedding frequently. And I add organic apple cider vinegar to their daily water (1tsp/gallon). I give them pumpkin in the fall/early winter months as well. I have never seen signs of worms. Is what I am doing sufficient? or should I be trying something else/more?

Welcome to BYC!
Signs of worms aren't always obvious, so if you really want to know whether or not your flock has worms, have routine fecals done. It's really very affordable.

 

[shortgrass]

Then doesn't it make sense to have a proper necropsy done to find out what the underlying problem is? Wouldn't one want to know? Many talk about culling the weak, or just letting them die, but no one seems interested in finding out what the cause of the illness was. Maybe I'm in the minority for wanting to know?

No you're not in the minority. I thought we were talking about worming, not the facts of life. Things die. Birds die, cows die, we die.


Most folks here are hobby chicken keepers, not vets in training. Some will lose one bird and not bat an eyelash, where someone else may spend hundreds of dollars in fecals and wormers and necropsies. For a chicken.


No, it does not make sense to have a necropsy done for every single dead thing on the farm. If there's an outbreak, more than one bird is going to show signs of it, and if only one bird dies, its kinda obvious that that specific bird had weakened immunity.

The first place I would actually look is not in a dead carcass, but the soil.

Oh, but this is just if we are in fact still talking about worms.

 

[shortgrass]

When I first started raising my chickens I had a silkie that had some worms.  I didn't know what was wrong with her so I took her to a vet.  He gave us some medicine for her and it worked but it was hard to give her.  I had read that feeding your chickens cucumbers will help prevent worms.  I tried it and I have had no worm problems with any of my chickens since.  They love them.  That was 8 years ago!

Cucumbers are related to pumpkins, so I would venture to guess that the entire curcubits family has anthelmintic properties in the seeds. Natural wormer

 

[casportpony]

Then doesn't it make sense to have a proper necropsy done to find out what the underlying problem is? Wouldn't one want to know? Many talk about culling the weak, or just letting them die, but no one seems interested in finding out what the cause of the illness was. Maybe I'm in the minority for wanting to know?

No you're not in the minority. I thought we were talking about worming, not the facts of life. Things die. Birds die, cows for, we die.


Most folks here are hobby chicken keepers, not vets in training. Some will lose one bird and not bat an eyelash, where someone else may spend hundreds of dollars in fecals and wormers and necropsies. For a chicken.


No, it does not make sense to have a necropsy done for every single dead thing on the farm. If there's an outbreak, more than one bird is going to show signs of it, and if only one bird dies, its kinda obvious that that specific bird had weakened immunity.

The first place I would actually look is not in a dead carcass, but the soil.

Oh, but this is just if we are in fact still talking about worms.

I would think that good management practices would include diagnostics, especially when people *are* suggesting that birds only get an overload of worms when they have an underlying problem.

As for hundreds of dollars, wormers and fecals are cheap, and many states offer low cost or free necropsies. Sure, some states do charge a lot, but even those that do charge will sometimes waive the fee if one explains their financial situation.

 

[casportpony]

When I first started raising my chickens I had a silkie that had some worms.  I didn't know what was wrong with her so I took her to a vet.  He gave us some medicine for her and it worked but it was hard to give her.  I had read that feeding your chickens cucumbers will help prevent worms.  I tried it and I have had no worm problems with any of my chickens since.  They love them.  That was 8 years ago!

Cucumbers are related to pumpkins, so I would venture to guess that the entire curcubits family has anthelmintic properties in the seeds. Natural wormer

Looking forward to seeing some data that supports that. Maybe when I get my scope and centrifuge set up I can do some experiments with the various food items that have been suggested.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Pretty much. A judicious culling program, annual or more often, can often target animals that would be prone to heavy worm loads and remove them from the flock BEFORE they get to that point. Age, nonlaying, repeated reproductive issues, failure to maintain good condition on the same feed other members of the flock do, etc. are all good culling criteria. That also goes for larger livestock, like cows, sheep and goats....low fertility, failure to maintain good conditioning, trouble lambing/calving/kidding on a repeat basis, etc.

Culling before the problem can arise can keep the meat viable for consumption.

If a chicken just up and dies off the roost one night, while apparently healthy the previous day, they always get popped open for a look see. That goes also for any birds brought here from the outside that die or are culled for illness shortly after they arrive. Always interesting and often informative to look inside to see what you can see.

 

[shortgrass]

Looking forward to seeing some data that supports that. Maybe when I get my scope and centrifuge set up I can do some experiments with the various food items that have been suggested.

You should do that! Get it published too so we can quit debating all the other science that's been put out there on that. We've only been going in circles on it for 2 years

 

[shortgrass]

I would think that good management practices would include diagnostics, especially when people *are* suggesting that birds only get an overload of worms when they have an underlying problem.

As for hundreds of dollars, wormers and fecals are cheap, and many states offer low cost or free necropsies. Sure, some states do charge a lot, but even those that do charge will sometimes waive the fee if one explains their financial situation.

That's what the look see at a little clump.of soil here and there can do.. I borrow the $15 microscope kit of the kids and look at the soil..since that's where most worms and eggs actually come from, poorly managed poo impacted soil

 

[casportpony]

Looking forward to seeing some data that supports that. Maybe when I get my scope and centrifuge set up I can do some experiments with the various food items that have been suggested.

You should do that! Get it published too so we can quit debating all the other science that's been put out there on that. We've only been going in circles on it for 2 years

Would be fun to do. Perhaps I could start by making a concoction of all of the items... Pumpkin, cucumber, ACV, garlic, onion, DE, grape seed extract, grass, xyfend, cayenne pepper.