Worming advice from my Avian Vet

[Chick named Lola]

He just called to tell me that Lola's fecal from yesterday is neg. YAY! I asked him while I was there if he could advise me on a good worming schedule for this area...This was his advice. He said he doesn't like to treat unless there is a problem. Why give your chicken medicine it doesn't need and have to deal with the withdrawl period etc... if there are no worms? He said just bring in a sample a couple times a year, even once a year as long as they are doing well. If they have worms, we treat it then.

I'd like to hear from our experienced chicken folks what their opinion is on this.

 

[OrpingtonHopeful]

I am a novice (and I am sure you'll get better advice from more experienced folks here), but I am inclined to agree- then again I am the same way with human health. Good diet, healthy lifestyle, treat when problems arise.

Still I have to confess, I have wound up worming yearly

1) I dont have the resource to go to an avian vet with 4 stool samples (1 per gal I have left right now) yearly

2) we have had a crisis each year of chicken rearing- 2 years ago I had a hen who died suddenly and either was eggbound or had fatty liver, or worms maybe so I wormed the whole crew to be safe- This year we had a gal that showed all signs of internal laying but worms could not be eliminated (she'd lay be a food dish and eat all day) so I wormed the whole crew again, figuring if one has them they all do living in the exact same coop with the same diet, etc- I am here again to get good worming advice because I may be dealing with lice/mites and I just don't have faith that the worming regimen I just completed was actually useful.

I do think though (and obviously I share this problem) people (me included) tend to over treat chickens and lose their perspective about chicken lifespan and what good caretaking entails- I am not judging here- I had a hen live her last month in my kitchen

 

[Chick named Lola]

Wouldn't one sample do it? If one's got em they probably do right? Crap, I couldn't afford to pay for that...

 

[CMV]

I rarely treat for worms. I live up north where worms are not really a huge issue. If I lived down south I would probably use a schedule for worming, but my environment is such that I don't see the need. As it is, I use Eprinex for external parasites on my birds, and that is also an internal wormer. I use it once a year (twice) in late fall to catch any mites on my birds before winter's frigid weather. That seems to be adequate.

I do need to worm my waterfowl this year. They are 2-3 years old and have never been wormed. They are all healthy and happy (and fat), but after 2-3 years they must have something floating around in them.