Wormer; Premixed food, or mix yourself?

[Aerliss]

Quick bit of background. When I use Flubenvet (Flubendazole), I have always previously just bought the food premixed (Haygate, for UK folk). But it's more costly than buying a pot of 1% and mixing it myself, in the long run, so this time I bought a pot and mixed what I needed.

However, I got no wormy poop. Nothing. I have four new ex-commercial girls, so no surprise they didn't have any worms (this was their first worming). However, nothing came from the old girl either. I supposed she just wasn't wormy. But this morning there was a super huge worm-like thing in her poop (no pics, sorry). I was a couple of days late in starting the second round of worming (my oldest bun got sick and passed away, so I've been out of sorts), so mixed a new batch of Flubenvet up this morning.

I'm just wondering if other people have had similar possible failures with mixing your own Flubenvet, and should I just go back to the premix? The 5kg bags are perfect for 4 chickens for a week, and it works, but as I said, they cost more, and getting them delivered when I'll be in is a pain.

 

[Shadrach]

I use Flubenvet when I worm the chickens here. As you mention, the premix is rather expensive and of course it means a temporary change in diet which can be a problem.
There are lots of problems with the Flubendazole products. It's not that they are not effective, it's the lack of dosing information should you wish to deworm individual chickens and administer the correct dose per chicken.
Flubendazole products come in lots of different strengths, 1%, 2.5%, 5% and I have 6% of the active ingredient Flubnedazole. The stuff I get is in a powder and is designed primarily for large poultry concerns where it is mixed in with the feed. Working out the correct dose per fowl can be a headache.
I spent some time looking for dosage per fowl on the internet; lots of info on how much to put into feed, i,e, quantity per kilo of feed.
Eventually I found a few studies of Flubendazole trials where the dosage per kilo of feed seemed reliable.
I then estimated what a particular weight of fowl eat in a day and worked out the individual dosage of the product from knowing the percentage of the active ingredient Flubendazole was.
However, if you read the product trials the dosage is different
for particular types of worms which makes things even more complicated.
On the plus side there is a very large safety factor in dosing with Flubendazole; a factor of ten is stated by the manufacturers so I've assumed it's better to give too much than too little.
This is what I give for Flubenvet. I advise you to do your own maths as a double check.
The below is based on the assumption of a particular fowl consuming 80grams of feed in a day.
0.2 grams of Flubenvet (complete product) if the Flubendazole (active ingredient) is at 1%.
0.1 grams of Flubenvet (complete product) if the Flubendazole (active ingredient) is at 2.%
0.05 grams of Flubenvet (complete product) if the Flubendazole (active ingredient) is at 4%
0.03 grams of Flubenvet (complete product) if the Flubendazole (active ingredient) is at 6%.

Now some smart people are going to notice that Shadrach's maths aren't right.
Unless you're the local drug dealer you're unlikely to have scales that measure accurately percentages of a gram. So these are estimates easiest to get by weighing out a gram and carefully making little piles of the product by halving the pile each time. You probably only need to do this once or twice and you'll be able to judge by eye what the correct amount is. Luckily you don't have to worry because of the factor of 10 safety margin.
One more point. Flubendazole should be administered with food.
I buy a liquid vitamin supplement (human or chicken) and mix the powder in with it. I soak small pieces of bread in the liquid and feed these to the particular chicken I'm trying to worm.
The treatment is for 7 days at the above dosages and used as a general dewormer. Some worms require double and I've read triple the standard dose to be effective. You'll have to research this yourself.
Just a reminder. I'm not a vet. Check my information.

 

[Aerliss]

I use Flubenvet when I worm the chickens here. As you mention, the premix is rather expensive and of course it means a temporary change in diet which can be a problem.
There are lots of problems with the Flubendazole products. It's not that they are not effective, it's the lack of dosing information should you wish to deworm individual chickens and administer the correct dose per chicken.

That was super detailed, thank you! I'm just sticking with worming the lot of them. I figure if one is wormy, they're all going to get wormy eventually. I don't have a huge plot of land to rotate them (and they're very good at sneaking into the wild bird area when I'm opening the door), so I do a twice annual worming.

Good to hear that there is a bit of leeway with the flubendazole, as I was erring on the side of caution, so maybe just a tad under-dosing? I will have a poke at numbers myself, but good to have a staring point.

Again, thank you for a great reply!