Worms?

[notherearenttoomany]

I’ve looked through several threads on here and am still uncertain what to do. I found this (pictured) hanging off a frozen poo the other day and something similar again today.
1. Are these worms?
2. What do I do about it? What wormer is best f

I’ve read that oral is best, but I’m not sure I can pull that off. I don’t handle them much and won’t have a helper. If it’s best, I’ll do it but I’d love a medication I can put in their water for simplicity.

Flock info:
12 total in my mixed flock of australorps, Easter Eggers, barred rocks and marans/silkie mix (not small tho).
1 rooster @ 10 months;
10hens @ 10 months;
1 hen, several years old

All the girls are presumably laying—I get 7-10 eggs/day
The flock ranges together on our property all day, in at night. They always have access to clean water and layer pellets from a local feed store. I occasionally give dried worms as treats, and occasional table scraps. The worms and scraps are less than once/week.

 

[Eggcessive]

That appears to be large roundworms, the easiest to see type of chicken worm. The others and all worm eggs are too small to see without a microscope during a fecal float. Other types of possible chicken worms are cecal worms, capillary worms, and gapeworms. Tapeworms and eyeworms are much more rare. Valbazen is my choice, since it is 1/2 ml per each chicken given once and again in 10-14 days. Valbazen treats most all chicken worms except tapeworms. SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer or horse paste dosage is given 0.23 ml or 1/4 ml per pound of weight, given orally for 5 straight days. If you give it once and again in 10 days it will kill roundworms but not the others. Knowing what thoes of worms your chickens have is best done by taking in fresh droppings in a ziploc bag to a vet for a fecal float. If you can’t you can just treat for most worms. It is not that hard to treat 12 chickens especially if you remove them from the roost at night when they are asleep. I use a head lamp with the red light on to pick them up without frightening them.

 

[dawg53]

That is a tapeworm strand. You'll need to treat the hen that excreted the strand with Equimax equine paste. Dosage is 0.15ml given orally for a 5 pound hen. Or 0.03ml per pound of weight. Redose in 10 days. Equimax can be found in the equine section at a feed store.
It's not necessary to treat all your birds, only birds that excrete strands or rice-like segments in feces.
View attachment 2537113

 

[dawg53]

Looks like a tapeworm on the left and a round worm on the right to me.

Both are tapeworm strands. I magnified the photo and the one the right isnt round, like a large ROUNDworm. Note the twist and blob at the tail on the far right. Definitely a tapeworm strand. Whichever bird excreted both strands has tapeworms and needs Equimax with praziquantel in it to kill the tapeworms internally.

 

[Eggcessive]

After looking again at the picture, I would have to agree that @dawg53 may be right about tapeworms. Equimax is the best treatment for those. If you see any droppings in the morning, look for moving rice-like worms in the poop. Those are tapeworm proglottids. Your local vet may agree to do a fecal float to look for any and all types of possible worms.

 

[notherearenttoomany]

That is a tapeworm strand. You'll need to treat the hen that excreted the strand with Equimax equine paste. Dosage is 0.15ml given orally for a 5 pound hen. Or 0.03ml per pound of weight. Redose in 10 days. Equimax can be found in the equine section at a feed store.
It's not necessary to treat all your birds, only birds that excrete strands or rice-like segments in feces.
View attachment 2537113

Thanks so much! I haven’t seen any rice like pieces—I’m more familiar with those bc we foster kittens and they often have tapeworm. These look a bit different to me. I think I’ll treat for Roundworms first and see if that solves their issues. Appreciate the input!

 

[dawg53]

It's possible for birds to have different types of worms at the same time. I recommend Valbazen. Dosage is 1/2ml orally to each chicken, repeat in 10-14 days. It will take care of all types of roundworms. Then dose your birds with the Equimax. Dosage is in a previous post. Give one wormer after the other, it wont hurt your birds. I've done it a few times when dealing with tapeworms and other worms.

Worm your birds before letting them out in the morning and withhold their feed for 3 hours after worming them. Water is okay. You want to worm your birds on an empty stomach. Your birds will be hungry and so will the worms, and you'll be feeding them the wormers. The weakened worms will easily die.
Then after 3 hours go ahead and feed your birds but only provide them a small amount of feed. If you dont provide a small amount, they will gorge feed and possibly cause impacted crop or gizzard. Gradually increase their feed back to normal during the rest of the day.

 

[dawg53]

From my experience with Ivermectin, it has lost its effectiveness treating large roundworms in poultry. The problem is that chicken owners have used it primarily to treat mites not realizing its primary purpose is used as a wormer, causing worm resistance in time.
The benzimidazoles are the way to go with any type of roundworms.

 

[Chickensandhorsesforlife]

Looks like worms. @sourland , @Eggcessive ,@JadeFarms , what do you think?

 

[notherearenttoomany]

That appears to be large roundworms, the easiest to see type of chicken worm. The others and all worm eggs are too small to see without a microscope during a fecal float. Other types of possible chicken worms are cecal worms, capillary worms, and gapeworms. Tapeworms and eyeworms are much more rare. Valbazen is my choice, since it is 1/2 ml per each chicken given once and again in 10-14 days. Valbazen treats most all chicken worms except tapeworms. SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer or horse paste dosage is given 0.23 ml or 1/4 ml per pound of weight, given orally for 5 straight days. If you give it once and again in 10 days it will kill roundworms but not the others. Knowing what thoes of worms your chickens have is best done by taking in fresh droppings in a ziploc bag to a vet for a fecal float. If you can’t you can just treat for most worms. It is not that hard to treat 12 chickens especially if you remove them from the roost at night when they are asleep. I use a head lamp with the red light on to pick them up without frightening them.

Thank you so much! I’ll pick some up in the morning. Couple of follow up Qs...Do we need to not eat their eggs for a period of time after? Also, I have dogs that eat the chicken poop like candy—I suppose I best get them dewormed, too? Last, I use deep litter method but sounds like the eggs live for a long time, so do I need to empty my coop and start again to avoid reinfection? Thanks again for the help!