Treating chickens for worms

[BrickCoop15]

I need advice on treating my chickens for worms. I found a roundworm in one of their droppings so I took a stool sample to my local veterinarian (does not treat chickens) to have a fecal smear performed. Roundworms were the only worms she found. They also tested positive for coccidia. What is the safest wormer to give them. They have never been wormed before and I am concerned about toxic worm overload. I also don't know if I actually need to treat them for coccidia. They are all adult hens and show no symptoms. Would all chickens raised on the ground test positive for coccidia? I am new at this and would appreciate any advice. Thanks.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Wazine would be easiest

 

[centrarchid]

All birds in contact with ground will likely test positive for coccidia and most of time will have no noticeable ill effects. I assume my birds always have low worm infection rates but do not treat unless ill effects are evident.

With respect to worms, you can reduce odds of heavy infection by keeping them over fresh ground where you periodically move them about making so grass they eat is fresh. Free-range birds seldom have serious issues with worms even though they can still pick them up.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There would be no value in treating them for coccidia. If you kill off what is in their body, they’ll just pick some more up from the ground. Low levels of coccidia does not hurt them. The problems develop when the levels of coccidia get out of hand. That’s usually when they are in wet conditions since the protozoa that causes cocci thrive in wet manure and they eat a lot of extra protozoa when they peck at the wet ground.

There are several different strains of coccidia. They develop immunity to strains they are exposed to. Immunity to one strain does not give immunity to all. It’s always possible a new strain will show up in your ground, introduced by wildlife, but that’s fairly unusual. And some strains are more potent than others. Keeping the brooder, coop, or run dry is usually enough to control cocci but those more potent strains may still cause a problem in dry conditions. Know the signs of cocci but don’t obsess about it.

I realize I’m running on. Don’t worry about the coccida. The worms I would treat since you saw them. It’s not that unusual for chickens and other animals, including wild animals, to carry a light worm load, but as long as it doesn’t get too heavy a worm load, it’s not a big problem. Since you saw it, it’s probably heavy enough to be worth treating. In my mind, that’s a reasonable precaution.