When other methods of worming don't work? What to do? Whip worms.

What's the next step to getting rid of worms when you've tried just about everything else?

I have a 4 year old sussex cross roo who has been very poorly lately. Other than scaly mites (that won't go away with regular smothering treatment of oil/bag balm massage once a week for over a year) I'm fairly certain he has worms (worms in the poo seems to be a dead give-a-way). I've treated the rest of the flock with the regular W--- wormer, and it helped them a lot, but not my roo.

We've tried everything I can think of from the long shot (planting mint next to the coop), to the semi-scientific (kimchi juice added to water), to folk remedy (apple cider vin), two the 3 standard worming meds they sell for use in chickens (which I suspect are just different dosages of Pepper-something), and even adding DE to the feed because some bloke at the feed shop said this would cure anything.

My Roo is not getting better. He mopes about the place all day long, and shows no interest in the hens. He's starting to get lice (which my chickens almost never get). It started almost a year ago and I think he's on his way out (maybe a week left), and I need to do something drastic as soon as I can. I really don't want to loose this guy, he's my first love.

The coop is cleaned regularly. For about 20 chickens, they have just under 1/4 an acre pasture that they share with sheep and goats.

There are both round worms (the 4" long ones) and a rare whip worm in other chickens we took to the vet this year, but we've run out of money for vet bills, so we would like to medicate this guy ourselves.

The other chickens that got ill this year responded really well to ivermec that the vet mixed up for them (1 dose orally, and another dose two weeks later). They also had persisting scaly leg mites and didn't respond to regular (and irregular) worming meds (including "panacur fenbendazole suspension" - that the vet prescribed and didn't do a darn bit of good).

So I would like to try this ivermec stuff for this roo.

Is it possible to use the same ivermec that is given to sheep and goats to treat chickens? What would be the dosage and best way to administer the med? If not, is there some form of ivermec that is specific for chickens that is sold in Canada?

Any other extreme measures you can think of (for both scaly leg mite and worms)? It's only one chicken in this whole flock who has these problems.

 

I've tried the scaly leg mite treatment you mention. It works on about 99% of chickens (I've had a lot of rescue chickens over the years, so there's been lots of problems to cure - I'm no stranger to worms and other ailments), but every now and again, I get a chicken where it just wont work.

I've done the W-- and Valbazen treatments, both single does and multi dose treatments. No result with this chicken. Neither of them are set to deal with the rare whip worm that we have in the flock. Apparently whip worms are very rare in general for chickens in our part of the country.

I've been treating this roo for over a year now with no luck. I'm confident it's an internal parasite problem, but finding the right treatment has been tricky. In cases like this the only thing I've found to work is Ivermec, but to get that from the vet ends up being about $400 in vet bills (because they won't hand it out like candy, they have to look, do tests, look again, bla bla give me money, bla bla).

Since I can get ivermec for other animals, I just need to know the dosage for the off label treatment of chickens.

 

Zimecterin Gold - that's the oral horse paste?