to worm or not to worm?

[mama dixie]

my chickens have what looks like a white sticky stuff on there bums. I have been told this means it is time to worm when we see this.. I have also been told it means they need more grit. I do not want to worm if I do not need to, I had picked up some wormer that the farm store told me to use it is a liquid that you put in the water, today I read it and it said not to give to egg laying hens. oh crude used it once already about 6-7 mo ago so now I am paranoid. vet told me to use ivermectin yea spell that from memory.

so who worms and how often,

and do you put grit in the food or just leave it out for them

 

[ll]

I don't really know (I'm still learning) but give them crushed pumpkin seeds and plenty of access to poultry grit.
Good luck!

 

[CCourson05]

If you use fenbendazole, or another -zole wormer, you don't have a withdraw period for eggs. If you use -ectins like ivermectin, you have to discard the eggs. Wazine is another wormer that you have to withdraw eggs, but it is probably the most thorough wormer...

I worm at least twice a year at the time changes... Did it this past weekend.

 

[begbfg]

I've never wormed my chickens. However, I do mix food grade DE in with their feed; keeps them "cleaned out" and keeps the bugs out of their feed. Just a thought!

 

[galanie]

There's a post from a few weeks ago about someone who used DE and other stuff and then later had a chicken necropsy done on one and it was FULL of worms. None ever showed in the droppings. There have also been many threads about DE so I'll pass the rest of the comments on that one.

Ivermectin does have a withdrawl, but curiously, Eprinex doesn't. And they used exactly the same dosages, and kill exactly the same worms, as well as mites and lice. They don't kill tapeworm though. I worm about every 6 months using Eprinex one time and a -zole the next. If they have never been wormed and aren't chicks any more, I'd say use Wazine first, then follow with Ivermectin or Eprinex. Reason being, Wazine only kills roundworms but you'll want that roundworm load gone first. You'll have a long time w/out eggs but your birds will be better protected.

Don't confuse Ivermectin with Eprinex like I see happens often. They are different chemicals. I know this because I have both plus Wazine right now.

 

[CluckyJay]

I am not sure that the DE would work as a dewormer. I think it has to be dry to kill insects. It is still really awesome to use in their feed to keep it fresh though. And I think it may be good for their feather as well.

I use black walnut and some other natural stuff. I did do an autopsy on some of my ladies that got murdered throughout the year. No worms I could see! I have never used a synthetic dewormer and they are always freeranging.

 

[mama dixie]

hello ok so what are the natural things, when you say black walnuts do you mean the walnut meat or the shell? and what is DE I have so much to learn and thank you all for your help. I have noticed that my birds are moving slower and seem to be not laying as many eggs I suspect do to the change in weather and multing. I am ok with going without eggs I just want my birds to be healthy. one of my older hens a bared rock that is like 5 years old has a bunch of the past stuff on her bum I tried to catch her but slipped int he mud so the truth is I can not even catch a old hen

lol lol lol I think I am the old hen here.

ok so what would the schedule look like if I were to use the difrent wormers and should I try the natural stuff first them move on to the others. I know my birds have had really bad parasites before it makes me feel bad I don't get why they had them but they were actual y walking on there joints one died and it had parasites way up the doc said so I did ivermectin on the whole flock. where do they get worms and the guy at wilco said chickens eat worms so why worry.

I get so confused :O

I keep thinking of my friends who make fun of old farmers saying they are kinda slow oh yea well all I have to say is they have raised food animals for years and years and done well at it and here I am with my school and work smarts but cant keep all my animals healthy and lets not even talk about my house cant keep that clean or do the cooking canning and on and on..

green acres over here folks.

 

[CluckyJay]

I take the green fleshy hull off the walnut and boil them in water. I think it is like six hulls to a pint of water. I boil that down to concentrate sometimes. I also fill a bucket with water and toss lots of walnut hulls in the water. It steeps forever and my animals just drink it as they please. I think when dosing, I give a tablespoon or so to each animal. Except the goats, I made a really concentrated dose and fed a tablespoon two or three times a day. I really cannot think of the extract dosage I use as it pretty much varies. They also all have access to mugwort and all the wild garlic they could ever want.

 

[CluckyJay]

I trick my roosters into a cage to catch them. I made a wire cage and toss food into it. The roosters go in and I quickly close the door. This is also how I caught wild birds as a kid.

It should work for hens as they are piggier than rooster, LOL.

 

[lcammack]

From what I have learned recently the best wormer is Valbazen, it kills all kinds of worms and the widest variety. 1/2cc for standard size birds, and 1/4cc for smaller. After first dose, redose in 10 days. Most say to toss eggs for 14 days after final worming, so 24 days total of tossing eggs. Now I did some research and this active ingredient is actually used in humans for worms. So it is up to you if you eat the eggs or not, some do, some don't. Personally we do, but give fare warning to anyone wanting the eggs. The question is how much of 1/2cc actually gets all the way into the eggs. It is such a small amount. Do a worming search on here, there are some very informative threads. I hope this helps.