Worming chickens.

[tryc]

So yesterday one of my Wyandottes was very sickly looking, lethargic, pale comb, very running droppings. I was very concerned and assumed she had worms, unfortunately by the time I saw her the local pet shops were closed. This morning we got some worming medicine for her and put it in her water, after forcing some into her (as she refused to drink). Several hours later I noticed droppings full of dead worms (looked like roundworms) I was very pleased to see this as the medicine did something. My questions however are:
- will she be alright now that they are out of her?
- could there be any more in her?
- I gave some of the water/ medicine mixture to my other hen, afterward I noticed her droppings were "clean", does this mean she is worm free?
- Should I keep the worming medicine in their water at all times, or give them normal water and dose them on medication every few months?
- Is there anything else I should do for her?
Thanks!

 

[Shadrach]

Hello tryc.
Welcome to BYC.

What was the medication you gave?
Some wormers only treat specific types of worms.
Most worming medication needs to be given over a period of time.

 

[tryc]

Hello tryc.
Welcome to BYC.

What was the medication you gave?
Some wormers only treat specific types of worms.
Most worming medication needs to be given over a period of time.

Hi, Thanks
I gave them Piperazene solution heavily diluted in water.

 

[dawg53]

Piperazine gets rid of large roundworms in poultry as evidenced by the worms you saw in the feces. You might as well treat all your birds with it while you can.
Chickens can get other types of worms besides large roundworms. You'll need to buy a broad spectrum wormer such as Safeguard liquid goat wormer or Valbazen cattle/sheep wormer to get rid of other types of worms including large roundworms and redose your birds in 2 weeks to kill larva hatched from eggs that the wazine didnt treat.

I forgot to add that if you live in Great Britain, use flubenvet. Canada, use fenbendazole.
Australia use levamisole.

 

[Kneedles]

- Should I keep the worming medicine in their water at all times, or give them normal water and dose them on medication every few months?

I used to think that it was okay to put de-wormer in their water at all times, but then I read somewhere that doing this can result in all of the worms in your chickens becoming resistant to the de-wormer. This is obviously scary and undesirable, so I recommend adding de-wormer to their water every few months.
Pumpkin seeds have long been known to be good for preventing high worm loads in chickens. Try mustard seeds, too.

 

[Shadrach]

Hi, Thanks
I gave them Piperazene solution heavily diluted in water.

What dawg53 wrote above and....
I've found that treating each fowl individually giving the correct dose for each the most effective way of administering medication. For a few fowl, while a bit of a chore, it isn't that difficult.
I make a solution regarding the combined wights of the fowl and soak pieces of slightly stale bread in the solution and hand feed to each chicken; the heavier chickens getting a piece more than the lighter ones. While this isn't absolutely accurate I'm pretty sure each has something like the correct dose.
Better still would be to syringe feed each fowl. This is a good article on how to go about this.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

If you use a Flubedazole product for worming you can safely 'overdose by a factor of 10 which makes the hand feed soaked bread method easy; you just give more than your lowest estimate.

 

[dawg53]

I used to think that it was okay to put de-wormer in their water at all times, but then I read somewhere that doing this can result in all of the worms in your chickens becoming resistant to the de-wormer. This is obviously scary and undesirable, so I recommend adding de-wormer to their water every few months.
Pumpkin seeds have long been known to be good for preventing high worm loads in chickens. Try mustard seeds, too.

You're right about wormer resistance, just like antibiotics. That's why we rotate wormers and there are plenty of them on the market albeit most are off label.
Manufacturers arnt going to spend big money testing off label wormers just for backyard flock owners.
Commercial poultry operations dont worm birds at all, no need to.
As far as pumpkin seeds and other types of seeds that contain cucurbitin, the seeds have to be crushed in order to be effective. Even then, a chicken would have to eat a truckload of them to be effective as a wormer.