Worming with Horse Wormer

[casportpony]

Hello,

I'm not sure if my chickens have worms or not...egg production has been way down and several have been having poopy butts. Tonight I found one dead that seemed fine earlier today. I'd like to try the Safe-guard but I'm a little unsure about dosing. I've got Rhode Island Reds, 2 large ones (3 years old) and 3 smaller ones (2 years old). Do you just estimate their weights based on what is average for the breed or do you actually have to weigh them? The large ones are hard to handle, the smaller ones more docile and accepting of being handled.

We have an 8 year old bunny that live in the coop and yard with the chickens so I don't want to use anything that might harm her. Unfortunately she prefers to drink out of the chickens water instead of her bunny water bottle.

I've never wormed any of my chickens and have been keeping chickens for almost 7 years. Hmmm. I wonder if that's why my chickens seem to die mysteriously by age 4 or less. I've lost several to a crafty fox, a few to water belly, and one to a retained egg. The few others I've lost seem fine and then I find them dead. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might have happened to those?

Thanks!

I'm pretty OCD about weighing, just ask the people in the peafowl forum, lol!

Pictured above is a young peacock and he was given 1.75ml of Safeguard.

Anyway, I actually weigh most of mine on a kitchen scale, but sometimes I go by what a wiki page say the average is, but sometimes those are wrong... For example, the web says that an average peahen weighs 3-4 kg, but I just weighed one of mine and she's 4.5 kg. Since I worm using 50mg/kg, she gets 2.25ml instead of 2ml. Does the .25ml make a difference, no, but I'm sort of OCD, so that's what she gets, lol.

I also have some RIR hens, some bigger, some smaller. The web says the average is 2.9kg, so if I were going to dose them like I do my peafowl (50mg/kg) and *not* weigh them, they would get 1.45ml of the paste or the liquid (145mg) unless they were underweight. After you've weighed a few you start to get a feel for it and can usually guess within 500 grams.

-Kathy

 

[Shelz]

 
Hello,

I'm not sure if my chickens have worms or not...egg production has been way down and several have been having poopy butts.  Tonight I found one dead that seemed fine earlier today.  I'd like to try the Safe-guard but I'm a little unsure about dosing.  I've got Rhode Island Reds, 2 large ones (3 years old) and 3 smaller ones (2 years old).    Do you just estimate their weights based on what is average for the breed or do you actually have to weigh them?  The large ones are hard to handle, the smaller ones more docile and accepting of being handled.

We have an 8 year old bunny that live in the coop and yard with the chickens so I don't want to use anything that might harm her.  Unfortunately she prefers to drink out of the chickens water instead of her bunny water bottle.

I've never wormed any of my chickens and have been keeping chickens for almost 7 years.  Hmmm. I wonder if that's why my chickens seem to die mysteriously by age 4 or less.  I've lost several to a crafty fox, a few to water belly, and one to a retained egg.  The few others I've lost seem fine and then I find them dead.  Does anyone have any ideas as to what might have happened to those?

Thanks!

If you're using the safeguard liquid goat wormer, use a syringe without a needle and dose your 2 large size RIR's 1cc of the goat wormer orally undiluted, your 2 smaller ones 1/2cc. 
If your using the safeguard equine paste, give your 2 large RIR's a large "pea" size amount orally. The 2 smaller ones a regular "pea" size amount orally. You can put the paste on a piece of bread and give the treated bread to each chicken individually.
Then redose your chickens again in the same manner 10 days later. Discard eggs for 14 days after the last dosing.

My question is,,,,when using the safeguard wormer, do you worm the chickens 3 days in a row? Or just the one time, then a second time 10 days later.?

 

[dawg53]

It's your choice. I prefer to give it 3 days in a row. I also worm often due to our wet/warm soil conditions.

 

[Shelz]

My question is,,,,when using the safeguard wormer, do you worm the chickens 3 days in a row? Or just the one time, then a second time 10 days later.?

It's your choice. I prefer to give it 3 days in a row. I also worm often due to our wet/warm soil conditions.

So worm the 3 days in a row....and then do you do it again in 10 days or not. Then I understand you have to throw out any eggs for 14 days after the last treatment, correct?

 

[dawg53]

Quote: So worm the 3 days in a row....and then do you do it again in 10 days or not. Then I understand you have to throw out any eggs for 14 days after the last treatment, correct?
Worm 3 days in a row...that's all. Then toss eggs for 14 days.

 

[Shelz]

Excellent,,,thank you so much for the quick replies....

 

[Corbbean]

Either I am misunderstanding something or your units are off. There are 1000mg in 1g, therefore 50mg equals 0.05g (not 0.5g, as you have written). I do believe all your dosage recommendations are 10 fold higher than they should be. Have I missed something?

I'm about to dose my chickens. They each weigh very close to 2kg, so I am planning to give them each 0.1g (or 0.1cc). If any one could tell me if this is wrong, I would appreciate it!

 

[casportpony]

Either I am misunderstanding something or your units are off. There are 1000mg in 1g, therefore 50mg equals 0.05g (not 0.5g, as you have written). I do believe all your dosage recommendations are 10 fold higher than they should be. Have I missed something?

I'm about to dose my chickens. They each weigh very close to 2kg, so I am planning to give them each 0.1g (or 0.1cc). If any one could tell me if this is wrong, I would appreciate it!

The dosage measurements are for 10% paste. ie there is 100mg of active ingredient for 1g (1000mg) of paste.

So...

0.5cc of paste ~= 0.5g of paste
0.5g of paste = 500mg of paste
500mg of (10%) paste contains 50mg of active ingredient

A dosage of 50mg active ingredient per 1kg body weight
=500mg of (10%) paste per 1kg body weight
=0.5g of paste per 1kg body weight
=0.5cc of paste per 1kg body weight

If your bird weighs 2kg then you would need 1cc (or 1g) of paste.

Make sense?

-Kathy

 

[Corbbean]

Nevermind- I think I figured it out! When you say 50mg/kg, you mean 50mg of THE DRUG, not the PASTE. So, since the drug in the paste is only making up 10% of the weight, you need to multiply by 10. Duh! Don't mind me...

 

[Corbbean]

The dosage measurements are for 10% paste. ie there is 100mg of active ingredient for 1g (1000mg) of paste.

So...

0.5cc of paste ~= 0.5g of paste
0.5g of paste = 500mg of paste
500mg of (10%) paste contains 50mg of active ingredient

A dosage of 50mg active ingredient per 1kg body weight
=500mg of (10%) paste per 1kg body weight
=0.5g of paste per 1kg body weight
=0.5cc of paste per 1kg body weight

If your bird weighs 2kg then you would need 1cc (or 1g) of paste.

Make sense?

-Kathy

I just came to that realization. Thanks so much for the clarification, though. Hopefully I'm not the only person to ever be confused by this!