When to worm??

[beinginspired]

I just love this site! I have learned so much ~ so much more to learn though! I have a hand-me-down group of 5 girls who are all pretty good layers. (3-4 eggs/day) One white Leghorn, one black Leghorn, 2 Rhode Island reds, and 1 Barnevelder. They were about 1 year old when I got them about a year and a half ago. (So aprox 3 years old now!) I clean out their small roost area daily. They are in an enclosed run all day, then after I get off work, I let them out into their small open fenced area. They all seem to be healthy and happy. But I have never wormed them. Do I need to do that now? Wait til the temps warm up a little? (I didn't know to do this and now feel like a bad keeper!)

 

[cafarmgirl]

You are not a bad keeper! After all, you are here on BYC looking for info.! That's how I see it anyway. We were all new to chickens at some point.

You are going to get a lot of widely varying opinions on worming. The fact is that chickens spend their lives scratching and pecking at the ground and foraging and that is where worm eggs are found. WIld birds carry and spread worms and other parasites as well. Chickens, like any other animal, will get worms eventually. Internal parasites do a lot of damage so in my opinion it's best to keep them under control rather then try to save a bird who starts showing health problems due to a heavy parasite load.

I deworm my birds twice a year. In the fall after the first frost and again in late spring. I alternate between Valbazen and the liquid Safeguard goat dewormer. 1/2 cc for standard birds, 1/4 cc for bantams. Repeat in 10 days. And you do need to discard eggs until 10 days after the last treatment. That part is a hassle to some people, I consider it worth it to keep my hens healthy. Also, if you deworm in the winter they often aren't laying as much then anyway so less eggs lost.

How often you need to worm depends a lot on your climate. Hot and/or dry = worming less often, a warmer, wetter climate means more worms in the environment and may require treating more often.

 

[beinginspired]

I am in MS we are wet/dry hot/cold - any weather you can name! Ha!. I will go to the farm supply store this week and get some meds. Will the meds make them feel bad at all, or anything I need to be looking out for? The black Leghorn - Emma has no feathers on her booty right now, but I think she feels fine. Molting seems to bring a slight weight loss. I am just a little nervous because they seem fine and I don't want to cause them any problems (love my girls!), and they are so small compared to the only other animals I have wormed, which are my much bigger dogs.

Also ~ I use Ivamec for cattle on my two (50 lb) dogs for years. I have just used the last of it. (That made me nervous at first too ~ I mean it's for cattle, not dogs!) Do you know offhand if the Safeguard goat dewormer can be used on dogs as well? Just thinking since I need to keep wormer on hand anyway, maybe there is one that can be used on both hens and dogs. Thanks so much for your reply!

 

[cafarmgirl]

I have never noticed my chickens not feeling well after worming, it doesn't seem to affect them at all. And it's a very small dose they get as well, just .5 cc for standard hens. Some people use a piece of bread to soak up the dose and give to each chicken, I just dose each bird orally with a small, needless syringe.

As far as the Safeguard for goats (10% fenbendazole) being used on dogs, it seems I have read about that somewhere but I don't remember what the recommendation was so that would take a little research.

 

[casportpony]

Safeguard/Panacur (fenbendazole) liquid or paste, doesn't matter (dose is the same) is used on cats. kittens, dogs, puppies, birds, horses, goats, cattle, etc. It's dose in birds/poultry is much higher than other species, not sure why. When I get off this stupid iPad, I'll post the dosing info for all of the animals that it's used on.

 

[beinginspired]

Thank you

very much!

 

[casportpony]

it's important to understand how much your animal weighs and how many mg/kg your animal should get. Giving too little worming medication can cause resistance to wormers. Do you have any idea how many mg's of wormer are in a "pea size" amount? Well I was curious, so I measured it.

From left to right:
Small = 10mg ( .1cc) = enough for a 200 gram (7 ounce) bird at 50mg/kg
Medium = 25mg (.25cc) = enough for a 500 gram (17 ounce) bird at 50mg/kg
Large = 50mg ( .5cc) = enough for a 1000 gram (35 ounce) bird at 50mg/kg
50 mg/kg is at the high end of the recommended dose for birds, but it is what my vets recommended.

 

[casportpony]

There are 100mg of medicine in one gram.
There are 100mg of medicine in one cc/ml
One cc/ml of paste or liquid has the same amount of medicine, 100mg.

Weighed empty 6cc (ml) syringe


Filled with Panacur 10% paste and weighed. Difference is 6 grams, so 6 grams = 6cc's (ml)

 

[casportpony]

From Plumb's Veterinary Drug Handbook - 7th Edition

 

[jdywntr]

Umm. There are 1000 mg in a gram, not 100. This could present a huge dosing problem.