Worms!!! Please Help!!!

[lolita117]

I hope someone can help me. I commented on a different thread about strange poo and nobody ever responded.

Some of my chickens have been having strange poos. Weird orange brown color. Some tarry looking stools. Not cecal poos. I've had chickens for 5 years and never had this issue before. I have close to 50 adult chickens and wasn't catching the culprit odd poopers but was just noticing a lot of abnormal poos, while still seeing some regular poos. Every body is acting normal other than one really old hen.

Anyways, this evening I separated a Cornish rock hen that had an injury. And she pooed in the separate room. Odd poo. Really soft, puddly, orange brown poo. I was staring at it, just wondering if I'd ever figure out why some of my chickens are pooing like this and seen worms. Tiny, short, thin lines swimming in the poo.

So I have several questions:

I'm still trying to pinpoint which worm it is, but I'm guess threadworms. Please correct me if I'm wrong. They were short. Maybe a 1/4 of an inch. Maybe less. Barely visible.

1. What's the best wormer?

-I see a lot of people using Wazine which I almost got a couple of weeks ago when I was suspecting worms but hadn't confirmed. Wazine specifically says not to use in laying hens. It does not give a withdrawal period. Just says not to consume eggs or meats. So this is very confusing and worrisome to me that so many people are using this product.

-Other products are confusing me too. I can't administer individual doses and I'm not interested in the natural products. I want something that's going to get the job done. A drench or feed mix in would be the best option. Cost needs to be reasonable for the amount of birds I'm treating.

Valbazen is something I've come across but I'm unsure of the withdrawal or even the effectiveness as I've read where it's slow.

Any other product recommendations? Remember 50 adults.

2. I have babies in my coop. A few weeks old. They are only divided by a chicken wire wall. (It great for slow introductions.) What can I use on the babies?

3. I also have turkeys, Guinea fowl, and ducks. Do they use the same product as the chickens? And I'm wondering about the water consumption of the ducks vs the chickens if I do a drench. I can separate them if necessary.

Please someone help me. There's so many mix reviews about different worming products and so many that are mentioned that aren't labeled for use in poultry.

Thanks so much in advance. I never had worms in my chickens and I want to buy something for them ASAP.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

You may want to take a fecal sample to the vet so you can get a confirmation of what type of worms you are dealing with.

The following link gives some information on worm identification, which de-wormer works best for what type of worm, dosage and withdrawal information.
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/11/control-treatment-of-worms-in-chickens.html

 

[BigBirdy]

For worms I use 2-3 tablespoons of food grade diatomaceous earth in one gallon of their water. Another good way to prevent worms is to clean their waterer often. I stopped buying eggs from hatcheries because they treat the chicks very badly there and they kill thousands of male chicks a day. If you want new chicks you can ask me and I'll send you a dozen fertile eggs you can incubate yourself. My hens and roosters are all very healthy and friendly.

 

[lolita117]

For worms I use 2-3 tablespoons of food grade diatomaceous earth in one gallon of their water. Another good way to prevent worms is to clean their waterer often. I stopped buying eggs from hatcheries because they treat the chicks very badly there and they kill thousands of male chicks a day. If you want new chicks you can ask me and I'll send you a dozen fertile eggs you can incubate yourself. My hens and roosters are all very healthy and friendly. 

 

DE doesn't work. I always suspected it didn't but when I almost bought the Wazine and decided to put it back because the label saying do not use in laying hens for eggs consumption ever. I went back and got the DE. I've used it off and on and thought I would give it a good try even though there is mixed information out there. I noticed the worms swimming in the poo and good month after using DE every day in their food.

So my search began again on what to use and I came across this article. So now I'm never going to use DE for anything EVER! http://www.the-chicken-chick.com//search?q=De

You may want to take a fecal sample to the vet so you can get a confirmation of what type of worms you are dealing with.

The following link gives some information on worm identification, which de-wormer works best for what type of worm, dosage and withdrawal information.
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/11/control-treatment-of-worms-in-chickens.html

All her choice products are individual administration either orally or topically other than the Wazine which only kills round worms. Her article is not practical for people with large flocks seeking board spectrum wormers. I read it about 20 times trying to see if I missed anything that could help me out.

But in case anybody is interested. I found a product label for use in poultry in other countries but not here called Lavamisole HCL. Valley Vet carries it and some other places. 2.4 grams/ gallon of water and let that be there only water for 6 hours. My take away from the direction was remove all water at night and in the morning mix up a batch based on them drinking all of it within 6 hours. No egg withdrawal.

For worming rotation you can use albendazole (Valbazen) mixed with water. Stop saying you can't and it floats or settles. Just keep it agitated and only mix small quantities. 3cc/ gallon of water. Only water source for 3 days. Can repeat in 14 days if you want. Can give to even baby chicks. I did and they didn't die. 14 day egg withdrawal.

Ivomec 1% injectable (not the plus, not the pour on) can be mixed with water according to the following article http://www.heavensentranch.com/poultryhealth.htm which is where I got the direction for the Valbazen (thank goodness because when I bought the stuff I thought it could be mixed with drinking water then could only find direction for individual oral administration). 4cc/ gallon of water. Only water for 2-3 days. Egg withdrawal is debatable.

Other things that can be used to worm chickens. 10% Fendbendazole pellets. I don't know the dosage on this, but I'm sure with a little research it won't be difficult to find dosing.

Worms are serious and I don't understand why there isn't more information on this site or even around the Internet for them in chickens. I search for a good week before I posted this thread and it took me another two week to find the information I just provided. I'm not sure if it's because most people only have a handful of chickens but I have ~40+ adult, 30+ babies, turkeys, and guineas. And let me tell you, grabbing them turkeys and guineas to give them topical Exprinex was horrible. Bad enough for the chickens, but I got beat to death by my turkeys and scratched up real good by my guineas. And I was lucky I didn't injury them. Topical and individual oral wormers are not practical for larger flocks and it's a shame that more companies aren't coming forward in the US to provide water soluble board spectrum wormers for chickens.

(Panacur and Safe Guard aqua sol are not available in the US, I've seen people talk about it on here)

I've had chicken going on 5 years and never had issues with worms until this spring. My only conclusion is that two adult guineas I got last fall had them. So I'm never bringing adult any things to my farm again. But now that the ground is contaminated and I have the turkeys I will be worming every spring and fall.