Worms in Chicken Poop :(

[vmbwjhomestead]

I have 5 laying RIR's. They free range from 5-8 hours a day. I noticed worms in one of the chickens' poop. I am saying one of the hens poop because I only see the worms maybe once a week in a very small amount of poop. I have been putting a couple capfuls of vinegar in their water as well as a couple squirts of all natural non toxic dish soap for 2 weeks...I heard that the degreasing agent in dish soap can make the intestines too slick for the parasites to attach to? I would like to avoid pharmaceuticals as much as possible...I thought that after 2 weeks the worms would be gone, but they're not. We live in a very rural area; when free ranging on our land the chickens could come across the feces of deer, raccoon, armadillo, squirrels, turkey, coyotes. I know that the hen probably came across the poop of another animal and that's how she got contaminated. What should I do??

 

[BantyChooks]

sorry, that does not work and could possibly be harmful. what would work, is if you go on amazon or something and get "rooster booster " , that stuff works great for those worms. my chickens had it and it completely cleared all the roundworms up, just make sure you get wormer as rooster booster sells other products too. good luck with your hens!

oh, and its pretty hard to get rid of worms without a dewormer. if you use it carefully you might be able to avoid having to use it again. unforunatly roundworm eggs can live up to a year in soil, so just be careful!

 

[BantamBrain]

Get a bag of good old Food-Grade Diatomaceous Earth/ Fossil Shell Flour. It is a natural but very effective way to get rid of worms. Mix some into their feed and also sprinkle it around the coop where the chickens like to congregate. Most importantly---wear a respirator! This stuff is made out of crushed coral and is very abrasive. Not something you want in your lungs.
You will also want to deep-clean your coop with a mild bleach water solution and replace all the bedding to remove any worms hiding in there. Do it early in the morning so the vapors have time to dissipate before the girls head back in.

No offence, but I have never heard of it being a good idea to feed anything soap. Soap kills worms in the garden, not so much inside a chicken. It could also cause them to drink less water and become dehydrated, making the worms a much more serious issue.

 

[Eggcessive]

Valbazen and SafeGuard liquid goat wormer are very good dewormers for chickens. All chicken will get worms if they are on the ground. DE will not deworm your chickens because it ceases to do anything when it becomes wet in the digestive tract. At the top of this page you can research worming chickens and look for any posts by Dawg53. He is an expert about worms here on BYC. You can always get your local vet to examine a sample of your chicken's fresh droppings for worms.

 

[vmbwjhomestead]

I have been spraying the coop with DE, the ground where they dust bathe, and I've been mixing it in with the cedar chips.

Yeah the soap advice came from an old timer who said their mother & grandmother used to feed their chickens with the dirty dishwater....but since it obviously isn't working I'll stop.

What about the vinegar in the water??

But omg...up to a year in soil?!?!!! How the hell do I prevent this from happening again?!?!!!

 

[BantyChooks]

its really hard....to completely eliminate the risk you have to change where they live, AKA where they are all day. thats only possible if you have a run though. i am still fighting roundworm and the best way is to; as soon as you start feeding the dewormer stuff to them, clean out your coop really super well. if you have a run, rake it and preferably put something down like leaves from a diffierent area into it. but, obviously as they are free range you cant do that.

hmm.....the DE won't work- there are many diffierent opinions about that- you can try, but it will only irratate there respatory systems. it works by supposedly "scratching' the worm's protective covering, and if that gets into your bird's lungs than..... lets just say regular wormer would have been better. I can understand not wanting to use cemicals though. you just do whatever you are good with doing.

oh, and the roundworms do not re- infest super quick, so if you keep a lid on it it should eventually go away. good luck!

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/search?q=DE - her entire website is worth reading.

if you look at the first two articles you can see why I am a little leery about using it. but, it is still your choice!

 

[enola]

Apple cider vinegar will not worm chickens either.

 

[vmbwjhomestead]

Yes I need to do a coop clean soon. Look what my 2.5 yr old son noticed in the chicken feed bin today (it's at his eye level). A worm dangling from the roof of the feed bin (chicken feed is kept in an airtight pet food storage bin). Could this be the source of the problem?!?!!!!

 

[BantyChooks]

hmmm, i don't know. is it the type of worm you found in there poo?how could it have gotten there? thats kinda wierd....

 

[vmbwjhomestead]

It looks similar to me. And all I did was dump the feed into this bin. Now way it could've got contaminated by me ya know?? Can things live in feed?