Worming Too Often - Harmful ?

[dawn]

I have 4 chickens, I've had 2 for 6 months (they are 11ish months old) and 2 for 4 months ( they are 7 months old). I know the younger ones were wormed just before they came to me but don't know when the others were wormed - if at all. They free range together so I can't feed them individually.

I was wondering about worming them all now as it's 6 months since the first ones came to me, but wondered if that would cause a problem as the other two were only done 4 months ago. Or would I be better to wait another 2 months ?

I don't think I've seen any signs of worms, although a post about green pooh did worry me. There was some of that, in much bigger quantities than they usually pooh too but seems to have cleared up. They'd had a lot of sweetcorn just before so I'd put it down to that.

 

[Anonymous]

My avian vet recommended I worm my chooks 4 times a year with Flubenvet. They did have really bad worms when I first got them so I don't know if that is why he recommended such a frequent routine. However, I have followed his advice and they are all very healthy and happy, so I guess you would be fine to worm the first lot again.

 

[Anonymous]

Worming all of them now with flubenvet now will be fine.Four months since their last worming will not harm your chooks.Far better to have them all wormed together,it makes the job a lot simpler for you.

 

[dawn]

Thanks for the help, I'm off to mix up vast quantities of food and worming powder now - next door's chickens (all 20 of them) regularly invite themselves over for breakfast, so they're all going to end up being wormed too !

 

[Anonymous]

Wish I lived next door to you .......

 

[Tim]

Don't panic. Worms are bad - yes - but there is almost always a background level of worms and your chooks can usually handle these. If you use ACV every month, this will help to make the digestive system slightly acidic which isn't nice for worms and will help to control them. The biggest factor (IMO) is the chicken run - if they are kept on the same bit of ground then they will need worming more frequently.

Flubenvet is a good choice. I worm as most people do routinely at 6 months but also use ACV in the water for a week every month - however - if you find worms or your chooks are ill and you suspect worms, I'd recommend you get a Worm Count done by post. For £10 or so, you will know what worms your birds have and then you can treat accordingly.

Flubenvet kills all worms (Tapeworm needs double the quantity but is uncommon) but if the chickens can pick up eggs from the same bit of ground and intermediate hosts like worms etc that have eaten the eggs, they will get reinfected within a few weeks. If you know what the worm is, you can look up the prepatent period (time from the worm laying an egg to hatching and laying eggs again) and repeat treatment again a bit before this period. This ensures the worms are killed, then, the eggs that are eaten and hatch are killed before they can lay eggs again.

You shouldn't have a problem if chooks are healthy and are moved around or have a large area to roam in.

So (a bit of a long answer to a short question :? ) no, it will not hurt since worming can be done every couple of weeks for a short period if you have a problem to kill off the worms and then their eggs before they hatch...

 

[Anonymous]

Nettex are developing a wormer for chickens that kills the usual worms that affect chickens and also tapeworm.I suspect with the increase in chicken keeping,and,a lot of us having them in our back gardens where dogs and cats toilet more chickens are being affected by tapeworm.