worming question????

[lollimama]

Hi all! I am worming my birds after finding a roundworm in poop the other day. It seems I'm destined to experience just about EVERY trial out there before my chickens start to lay. We just started eating our eggs (from the ONE hen who is laying) last week after treating them for some sort of respritory issue that came about after we had to cull and egg eating feather plucking devil (they're now better thank goodness!) but then I found the dreaded worm. Ugh. There was no mistaking it - just like a little angel hair pasta noodle in a pile of poop. My chickens are otherwise perfectly happy and perky as ever. I never would've suspected anything was wrong - no other symptoms at all. In fact, the worm was from one of the pullets who has not started laying yet (they are over 20 weeks).

Two days ago, I removed everything from the coop, sprayed it down with a mild bleach solution and allowed it dry. Moved the coop out and raked all over the place, threw all that away. Dusted the ground all over with DE, moved the coop back, and dusted every inch with DE inside and out. I then made a new poop board out of cardboard and covered it with plastic. Dusted it with DE and added compressed wood shavings. I also did this to the nest boxes etc. I threw out all their food that had been out and cleaned their water and food containers and refilled the food. Then I put medicated water into another water dish (1oz. wazine + 1 gallon water). I then stuck them in their coop for the night and didn't let them out until today (over 24 hours). My question - they hardly drank ANY water at all, so should I try it again? I haven't changed their water out again yet but I didn't know if they need a fresh dose of medication? Or should I even worry about it? There are only three of them in there together and it was a cold day yesterday so I'm sure they drank some but it's hardly noticable. Any advice?

My follow up plan is to wait two weeks and then give them safe-guard. Then wait another two weeks till we eat any eggs? I am also treating my three younger birds but I don't think I'm going to do the follow up with safe - guard with them (they are about 12 weeks). My three younger babies are in their own coop/small brooder outside next to the big one. But they do free range in our tiny yard all together every day all day long so I figured I should do some sort of treatment.

 

[flowerchild59]

Wazine is a good starter for worming. I would follow up with valbazen. Please read my old thread on my worming adventures and respiratory issues.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/se...hickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=590535#957

 

[flowerchild59]

Quote:
How many birds do you have? I would catch them one by one and give the valbazen orally. The large fowl dose is 1/2cc.

 

[dawg53]

This is the problem with wormers that you have to add to water. You dont know if the birds drank it, or drank enough of it to be effective. Additionally birds drink less water when temperatures are cooler. A sick bird wont drink at all. It's the same with water soluable antibiotics. Direct administration by oral dosing for worms is best. That way you know they got properly dosed, no guesswork.
Lollimama, I recommend that you discard the wazine and go ahead and dose them with the safeguard, then redose them again with safeguard 10 days later. Wazine only gets rid of large roundworms. The safeguard will get the roundworms and most others, ensure you administer it orally. As Flowerchild59 stated, consider purchasing valbazen. It kills ALL worms that chickens can get.

 

[lollimama]

Ok, I should've known I'd start out a little off track...with my feed store advice. So, Valbezen is the trick? I've heard so many medications listed on here that I wrote down as many as I could and then chose what seemed to be the best course of action. The safeguard that I purchased was the pour on kind - I've read on BYC somewhere that you have to administer it to the back of their neck on the skin. I was going to do that in a couple of weeks becuase the thread that I read said that it would kill everything and could be potentially dangerous to the bird. It is theoretically better to kill the adult worms first and then follow up to kill the others so that their system isn't overrun with dead worms? This whole conversation is totally disgusting Blech. So, will Valbezen do the same thing (over load them with a hazerdous number of dead worms and be a potential danger?)???

 

[lollimama]

Ok, I just looked up Valbezen on amazon, $40??!!!?!?! Yikes! That's a heart stopper. Not sure I'm up for that price - won't the safeguard work?

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Safeguard is not administered on the back of the neck. You must have it confused with ivermectin. I quit using ivermectin long ago, it is losing its effectiveness as a wormer in chickens. The valbazen is pricey, but it is 500ml and it has an expiration date currently sometime in 2015. It'll last you a very long time. Safeguard that is normally used in chickens basically comes in 2 types that are used; safeguard liquid goat wormer and safeguard equine paste. The goat wormer is easier to administer.
Valbazen slowly kills worm over several days, there's no need to worry about toxic worm overload.