worms in 1 month old bantam chicks please help me save them (warning: pictures)

[user1111]

Hi everyone, I have 3 bantam chicks, they born 1 month ago, they were 4 but one of them died three days ago, and I discovered a heavy infestation of worms in her little intestines, now I know all of them have it (the parents and 3 chicks remaining) because I saw in their droppings eggs or larvae, I'm almost sure the worms are cestodes but sadly I live in a little town in Bolivia and sadly there are not many remedies for chickens, the worst is that when I went to vets just to buy dewormer I said it was for cestodes and some of them offer me piperazine 53%, ivermectin and levimasol and tell me it was for ALL types of worms, I was devastated because I read that none of them are efficient for cestodes, 3 of them offer me one that have Albendazol 1000mg, Pamoato de pirantel 1450mg, praziquantel 2000mg, and I've read that pirantel with praziquantel together can be toxic for chickens and the chicks, my head is a mess right now because I'm devastated for the lost chick and for the fear of losing all of them.
They mostly free range, but they have seeds to eat and since the third day the chicks born I give them 1 egg a day for all because they had a hard time trying to eat the seeds, seeds were crushed very little and not so little for the mom but chicks tried the one for the mom.
Information:
- Race: I dont know exactly, they told me kikiriki, that's what are named the little chickens here. People are not use to get bantams because usually they get chickens for eggs and meat.
- Temperature: min 11°C- max 26° with light rainy since they have born, but now is 20° max and it is mostly light rainy. (Autumn)
- Nest/Bed: Dust
- Food: Every insect they find, egg and mix of seeds. Sometimes fruits like fig, banana and papaya. There is a pile of compost where sometimes they go. Where I live there are not packed food where it says what is for and what it contains in little bags, the bags are 45kg and I cant buy those because is too much, so I buy in kg but I cant see what exactly they are giving me and if they make a mistake can give me the wrong feed, when I looked for starter feed they say to chicks people use to buy plain corn crushed very tiny, they have usually laying, growing and fatting feed.
- Drinking: chicks drink everyday, hen rarelly drink water but her poop always looked better than the rooster/cockerel who use to drink good in summer, now is not drinking too much, I think they prefer fruits instead of water. When the hen was broody I give her Oral Rehydration Salts because she did not drink water but I stopped because she pooped like diarrhea
- Behavior: Now they usually look very active, but from time to time the chicks stand like something hurts and close their eyes and the parents even shiver. They are not very docile, so it's very stressing when I need to grab them even in the night, I can get by their side but they dont like to be grabbed.
- Coop/Run: No, the mother just "found" his nest below a large bench, and I accomodate it because neighbour cats.
- Poop: Normal, normal with worms (cestodes larvae or eggs?), intestinal lining, sometimes runny and bubbles, and some of them have light yellow urates, the one who passed away had diarrhea with bright yellow watery urates
- Weight: (In the morning/night)
* Hen: 474g/520g I think she is molting but I think she is very skinny when I grab her. Have food in her crop in night and empty in the morning
* Rooster/cockerel(?):744g/754g Have little food in his crop in night and empty in the morning
* chicks: 149-164-140g/149-166-144 Have food in their crop in night and empty in the morning
- Age:
* Chicks: 1month old
* Hen: >1yo (unknown I get them in late january they told me she told me she already was mother).
* Rooster/cockerel: (they told me he has more than 3 months at least in late januuary)
- Dewormed ?only parents) In late february with Piperazine 53% in water, but I'm not sure if hen took water because I almost never watch her drink water or even the enough water. Cockerel/rooster had roundworms before dewormed
- Vitamins: (parents)I gave them vitamins in water after dewormed in late february but like I told you hen almost never drink and cockerel/rooster just take one drink that day maybe because I saw him stop when he drinked a bit.
- Another info:
* Apparently hen is molting because she has lost many feather in neck, tail and wings, but I can see them growing already but she scratch herself too much sometimes, but I can't see mites or lices when I grab her
* Chicks scratch themselfs sometimes when the mother do
* I saw them yawning many times at once to the hen and one chick.
* Yesterday the mon when standing in one leg, the lifted leg was shaking,
* The bantam rooster/cockerel had some kind of respiratory illnes until the past mom because he had trouble breathing if he ran a little, antibiotics did not do it anything, apparently he cure himself like two weeks ago maybe more.
* There are many wild birds and their droppings.
* I have 3 standard rooster(>2yo) in a bachelor coop/run who used to free range since chicks until 1yo and I feed them only corn and fruits because they used to eat many insects, They never were dewormed until february this year. I never saw worms in their poops either, diarrhea sometimes appear and dissapear, there are one with white and yellow urates in some poops but I thinked because ear infection that I need to treat too, but I will make another post for them.
My questions are:
1. It is safe to buy any dewormer for any animal as long as it has the active ingredient only? what about Excipients? sadly they are not especified in medicaments here.
2. It is safe to deworm the little chicks? I've read chickens are dewormed since they are fully grown.
3. Do you have experience deworming little bantam chicks similarly to mine in weight and age? Please tell me how you do it and if something went wrong too.
4. Right now I have Piperazine 53% but is for roundworms as long as I read, do you believe I can use that if I can't find for cestodes, just in case they can have those too but I did not found it in the chick who died? (I did it very fast without any knowledge, desperated, devastated and I'm not sleeping well lately).
5. Acording to your experience. How efficient is to deworm with powder medicine in water (the piperazine I have is powder)?
6. What is the age to start with growing feed for my chicks? I can feed the mother with the same groing feed?
7. Is it bad to give them scrambled eggs everyday?
8. Do I need to stop give them papaya in order to see if adults drink more water?
9. There are sign of another illnes perhaps I'm not aware of with the info above?
10. Do their weight looks normal?
11. Please tell me dosage of dewormer for cestodes
12. Feel free to ask anything related or give me your experience treating this worms please.
Thank you for reading.

 

[Debbie292d]

So very sorry for the loss of your little chick.

Here are the directions for your Piperazine. Scroll down and you'll see chickens. It says starting at six weeks old. Yours are four weeks and dying from having worms, so I'd go ahead with treating your chicks.

Just FYI, Fenbendazole (Safeguard) is the most-used dewormer for chickens in the USA.

That was great you gave them vitamins in their water after you dewormed them. If you have a way to limit their other sources of water via less fruit for a few days, that might work as if your water is their only source, they will drink it.

Chicks and chickens won't thrive well on a diet of fruit, seeds, and corn. That is probably why they're suffering as they can't fight anything off. The "growing feed," you speak of, if you can get it, should be for the chicks right now. If that's all you can get, the hens and other chickens can have that too. It will lack the calcium hens need, so you might try find another source of that for them. Many foods have it but we usually use oyster shell that comes in a bag. The hens eat it if they need it.

I would really work on getting your chicks and chickens some feed so they can grow up healthier.

Your feeding them scrambled eggs every day has probably been the best thing for them. Yes, you can, but I'd cut those back a little bit once you get the feed, so they eat more feed.

The itching may be mites or lice, even though you're not seeing it. I wouldn't come at them with two things at the same time, but you'll need to find a powder or spray for mites/lice. Here, most use Permethrin which is in garden dust for killing bugs in our gardens. Maybe you have something made for chickens there, but if not, see what your garden dusting stuff has in it.

I wish you good luck with your chicks and chickens and hope I helped a little bit.

 

[dawg53]

Piperazine treats only large roundworms, it wont treat other poultry roundworms nor treat tapeworms.
Praziquantel will eliminate tapeworms. I saw tapeworm strands in the feces, use Praziquantel.
Please post a photo of the praziquantel that you will be using so that someone can figure the dosages for your tapeworm infected birds.

 

[Chickens of the South]

I would try fenbendazole as it is supposed to be highly effective against cesatodes. I would give 1 mg/kg for 5 days if its paste or 1ml/liter of water for 5 days if you want to put it in a water source

 

[dawg53]

My experience with Fenbendazole is that it does not treat poultry tapeworms. Praziquantel will kill them. I've dealt with tapeworms.

 

[Chickens of the South]

I agree with the praziquantel but since they are so young it may work so well that when the worms die/come out it will stress their bodies to much and they are already in bad physical condition. I would do very small amounts In intervals to allow their bodies to catch up and heal progressively.

 

[dawg53]

Praziquantel only needs to be given to birds showing tapeworm strands and/or tapeworm segments in feces. The vector for tapeworms in poultry are infected insects that have consumed eggs expelled from the tapeworm segments.
Not all insects are tapeworm infected, which is a good thing.
Praziquantel is given once, then repeat in 10-14 days.
I agree that a small quantity of praziquantel should be given to smaller birds.
For example; dosage for Equimax, which contains Praziquantel and Ivermectin is 0.03ml per pound of weight or 0.15ml for a 5lb bird.

 

[user1111]

So very sorry for the loss of your little chick.

Here are the directions for your Piperazine. Scroll down and you'll see chickens. It says starting at six weeks old. Yours are four weeks and dying from having worms, so I'd go ahead with treating your chicks.

Just FYI, Fenbendazole (Safeguard) is the most-used dewormer for chickens in the USA.

That was great you gave them vitamins in their water after you dewormed them. If you have a way to limit their other sources of water via less fruit for a few days, that might work as if your water is their only source, they will drink it.

Chicks and chickens won't thrive well on a diet of fruit, seeds, and corn. That is probably why they're suffering as they can't fight anything off. The "growing feed," you speak of, if you can get it, should be for the chicks right now. If that's all you can get, the hens and other chickens can have that too. It will lack the calcium hens need, so you might try find another source of that for them. Many foods have it but we usually use oyster shell that comes in a bag. The hens eat it if they need it.

I would really work on getting your chicks and chickens some feed so they can grow up healthier.

Your feeding them scrambled eggs every day has probably been the best thing for them. Yes, you can, but I'd cut those back a little bit once you get the feed, so they eat more feed.

The itching may be mites or lice, even though you're not seeing it. I wouldn't come at them with two things at the same time, but you'll need to find a powder or spray for mites/lice. Here, most use Permethrin which is in garden dust for killing bugs in our gardens. Maybe you have something made for chickens there, but if not, see what your garden dusting stuff has in it.

I wish you good luck with your chicks and chickens and hope I helped a little bit.

Thank you so much! Do you know anything for their guts?, I completely forgot to mention the butts of the chicks look like purple or black and when I touch them it they make a sound like it hurts them, the one who die it was similar and its intestines were that color. There is no problem to given vitamins many days?, the one I have says 3 days of treatment.

 

[Chickens of the South]

I would also give probiotics because the worms are already taking a toll on them and the dewormer will be a bit harsh so you’ll want to fortify their guts as much as possible.

 

[user1111]

Piperazine treats only large roundworms, it wont treat other poultry roundworms nor treat tapeworms.
Praziquantel will eliminate tapeworms. I saw tapeworm strands in the feces, use Praziquantel.
Please post a photo of the praziquantel that you will be using so that someone can figure the dosages for your tapeworm infected birds.

I have this, do you think its ok? or should I keep trying looking for something that is only praziquantel? and about the dosage I dont know how to give less than a drop, may I put it water? Thank you!