Worming Free-rangers

[helkat]

Hi all! I have been reading a few threads on worming chickens. We have 5 bantams and 10 hens/roos, and none of them have ever been wormed.

Do they need to be? They are free-range. Some go into a coop at night and some roost in trees. We have a pond, so it would be really hard to make sure medicated water is there only water source for 24 hours unless we kept them penned for 24 hours.

We also have ducks and guineas if that matters.

Thanks!
Helga

 

[CheerfulHeart2]

This topic interests me as well.

 

[threehorses]

Yes, they do. You have some options though.

Can you catch any of them at all? Do they eat from a common feed? Something you can mix wormer with into a wet mash and have them eat?

Are you willing to catch some and take their droppings in for a 'fecal egg count'? That can tell you whether or not those birds had worms. that can help give you an idea of the state of the flock. If the feces taken in have lots of worms or medium worms, assume the whole flock does.

 

[helkat]

I am sure we could catch them if we needed to. They (ducks, guineas and chickens) all eat the same feed.

Would a regular vet be able to do the fecal egg count? I don't think our vet specialized in poultry, but he has been wonderful in helping us with two injured ducks.

What do you suggest?

Thanks!
Helga

 

[77horses]

I would see if your vet could help.
Good luck!

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
A regular vet can indeed do the count. They might have to work a little harder to identify the exact species, but it's the presence of the eggs that is important and they're count. I was trained as a vet tech for cats/dogs and I could do that even. The worming is usually a broad spectrum wormer if there's a light load, a light spectrum wormer first if there's a heavy load. You wouldn't have to have the vet prescribe the meds and, unless it were an avian specialist, I would not have them prescribe it. There's a general list of wormers and what they kill. If you have worms, likely you'll at least have round, capillary worms, and some cecal worms. Maybe tapes but those aren't often found in any fecal exam at all - you find them in the environment and vent just as you do with cats/dogs.

You have two options.

The trick really isn't going to be the free ranging - it's going to be the waterfowl. You'll want to use a medicine that they can have as they have slightly different tolerences than chickens.

If you could catch them up, that would be different. You could use wazine for a day on the chickens. Ducks are usually mostly parasite free, but it's possible to use ivermectin on them. On the second follow up worming, you can use ivermectin pour-on (5% for cattle) on each of them if you wanted to, or just let the ducks be. Ducks and geese more often get external parasites and ivermectin will treat those.

If you want to do a flock worming, I'm not sure how waterfowl do with fenbendazole and I would ask a qualified waterfowl expert first on that. But 10% SafeGuard fenbendazole can be mixed with water and pellets/crumbles and fed as a mash for a day (MSUCares has directions on how to do that - I can link or quote if you need). That way rather than depending on water, you could use the feed which they can't get from a pond.

There are other options as well but these are some starters.