treating ground for worms

[Aurynsdream]

I hope this is the right section- I didnt know wether to put it here on in the pest section.

My birds have worms.
I gave them Eprinex on saturday. It seems to be working because today I found a glob of paralyzed worms in a glob of chicken poop.

Two questions

- can I retreat the birds again this saturday?? its been raining every day since I treated them and I'm afraid of the stuff having washed off- especially on my ducks.

- what can I use to treat the ground, coop, nest boxes etc. to help eliminate the worms even more??

Thanks for the help.

 

[chickenzoo]

I would not treat them again until at least another week has gone by. My Vet had said dose them 2 weeks after first dose then every month for a bad outbreak until it clears. The Ivomec absorbs into the skin pretty fast, so I don't think you'd have to worry. It is better to not over medicate, you could kill them. As far as the ground goes, for prevention before a bad outbreak some people use food grade DE. But this is only for lite cases of worms I'm told. If you have a bad out break the only thing to do to kill them(Ag dept & Vet said) is to burn the ground down to about 6" below surface. Any chemicals that would even touch these parisites would be toxic to the chickens as well. Cleaning nest boxes with bleach & water or special chemicals for use around fowl would help in that department. Hope this helps, hopefully someone will come up with something soon to kill them in the ground easier.-

 

[Davaroo]

I'll probably be the only one to say this:
The best cure for the worms in the ground is to move the chickens.

Here, again, is one of the old bits of wisdom we have lost. Back before we had pesticides, chemicals and concotions as we do now, it was known that chickens should not be held on the same ground season after season. You have now learned the hard why that is.

Chickens should be moved from place to place, allowing the earth the rest at least a year - two if it isn't to be cultivated in the absence of the birds. This breaks the life cycle of the parasites and organisms that infest chickens.

Ideally, when yarding as you are, you rotate the chickens between 4 yards every three months, and cultivate in between rotations. After the year is up and all 4 rotations have occurred, you move the entire operation to another paddock and do it again.
You won't come back to the first paddock before at least a full year has passed... longer is better. I've read some that say as long as 4 years.