Roundworm Question

[dinosaw]

I am currently treating my flock for what I believe is early stage roundworm, I say I think it's early stage as their laying is undiminished, I have only seen
1-2 worms per dropping and not in every dropping, the only outward sign would be that one of my goldlines is shedding some bum feathers overnight in the coop. I will reworm again in three weeks in to tackle any possible reinfection and am putting more stalosan than usual down. Anyway I was cleaning out the coop and run on Tuesday, creating a certain amount of dust and it occured to me that I was breathing the stuff in so my (probably stupid) question is can you ingest roundworm eggs from the dust from your chickens bedding, could find nothing on the net about it?. If I do get them then I will worm myself to be in full solidarity with the flock .

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Dinosaw. Worms in the droppings is a very late stage of worms. When did you last do them? The eggs are in the poo so I very much doubt you will inhale any. But we can get worms and have to be treated for them. Usually happens when someone comes back from an exotic holiday. Never heard of it from a chicken keeper.

 

[dinosaw]

Hi Chris, September, but they did have access to a large amount of leaves over the autumn and hence anything they could find to eat amongst them.

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Dinosaw. We normally do a Flubenvet worming course, with no treats or free ranging to make sure it is a full dose, every 6 months. We do an intermediate Vermex wormer in their water, 3 months after. If we spot any worms in their poo they are done immediately. What did you do them with? Did you know that in extreme cases you can get worms in the eggs apparently -never seen it in ours? Worst we have had a a morning poo which wriggled! Problem is if they get too bad, because when worms die they give off toxins, you can kill the bird during a worming programme. So it is wise, especially when free ranging, to have a regular worming programme.

 

[dinosaw]

Hi Chris, We use flubenvet too with same measures, was planning to do September and March wormings, have been using the verm x pellets though I must admit I missed this month. We also used to give occasional apple cider vinegar as I heard this made it unpleasant for worms due to the acidity but found that whenever we did, the number of soft shell eggs increased quite a bit. I never knew the worms gave off toxins, thanks for the info. The reason I had thought the infestation must be in its early stage was that none of the birds have lost weight and 4 of the 6 are still laying every day which is what the books tell you to watch out for, similarly none of them have had runny vents or dirty tail feathers. To be honest it was only the fact that i was finding feathers in the coop that made me pay special attention to their poo and so I watched them for the first ten minutes of the morning, have only acutally seen worms in two of the hens poo so far. Good news is that the worms are now dead when pooped out, bad news is that my birds are trying and in some cases succeeding in eating them. I think that I may have to rethink where i let them free range, currently this area is all under shade and so the worm eggs wont be killed by UV.

 

[chrismahon]

One thing we have noticed with ACV is that, apart from ours hate it over 1% strength, if it is applied continuously the worms rapidly become immune so it has absolutely no effect. We tried it for 12 months. So we give them one drinker full at 1% each month (but not when worming) and remove all the other drinkers around the orchard. It does occasionally remove some worms at that but, I wouldn't rely on it. Better it is considered a health tonic and not a wormer. We have noticed that after a course of Flubenvet the size of the eggs increases 5 -10% initially, then tails off quite quickly to normal. It may be due to being confined to the run and only eating pellets though, rather than removing any worm burden. They don't seem to lay any more or any less in number, with or without wormer.

Don't forget worm eggs are in wild bird poo as well. UV won't be effective half of the year anyway as the sun is far too low, so I'd just adopt a regular worming programme and let them go where they want.

 

[Chuck]

Cider vinegar is not a wormer and therefore should not be relied on and ditto garlic. In common with many other keepers I've found Verm X not to be effective. Anyone with a persistent worm problem might consider worming their birds three times a year but more than that should not be necessary whether in confinement or free range.