Worms

[Fuffy]

Hello

I did the research, got the run and coop, got the birds...
Decided to go down the route of diatomaceous earth rather than chemical parasite controll.
Spent a small fortune getting the stuff and have religiously been giving it for about 6 weeks:
-Daily in the feed.
-Every other day in the coop,
-Once a week onto the birds, and
-Once a week spread liberally around the soil where they like to sit and have dustbaths.

So I wonder: HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT I JUST PICKED UP A HANDFUL OF WORMS OUT OF THE COOP???!!!

I thought the DE is supposed to dissolve the parasites?

This was a clump of worms much like a puppy makes on their first worming (Looks like ascarids!). Maybe 6 or 7 3inch long worms, white in colour, round with pointy ends, slightly curled like spaghetti (NOT closely curled like ringlets). They were dead when I found them, but it had been about 4 hours since I let the girls out...

Would I be correct in assuming if one has them then so does everyone else?

Should I worm them? Bearing in mind they have just finished a 10day course of antibiotics?

As a stop-gap for today, I took some nice tasty fish and mushed it up with 2 tsp of DE and hand fed the girls. So I know that everyone except Isadora had plenty of DE. I would much rather do this everyday than feed my birds a load of chemicals, as I try to hand feed them everyday anyway.

I should also say that I poo pick the run most days, and the coop every day, and that the coop gets completely changed once a week.

Please pass out your wisdom, lovely people out there in computer land

 

[MakNat]

They say raw pumpkins seeds will paralize all worms and they will pass them. I think you are suppossed to feed them buttermilk after the pumpkin. It totally cleans them out. Them use the DE as a preventitive. I was just going to ask about this myself. Garlic and ground cayenne peppers too work well as a preventitive.

 

[Fuffy]

Quote:
Thanks MakNat

I'm awfully worried about overloading them just now after they have been sick!

I think they have not been getting the DE, coz it doesn't stick to the pellets very well....

Am giving them their 3 day course of organic wormer now, and am going to make sure they get the DE by feeding it from the hand in treats. Will just have to see if it works I guess