Deworming

[Shari S]

How often should you deworm your chickens. They seem to be fine but some of them have messy butts and the egg production is 4 or 5 eggs daily out of 16 chickens. What do you use for deworming and how much?

 

[coach723]

If you have a vet that will do a fecal test for you, that is best. If you do not, then most commonly Safeguard (liquid goat wormer or horse paste -fenbendazole) or Valbazen (labeled for cattle-albendazole) are most commonly used. The frequency is determined flock by flock, every flock is different. Some can do once or twice a year and that's enough, some may need to be done more often, it depends on the worm load and type of worm in your environment.
Those two medications will take care of all common worms except tapeworm.
Safeguard dose is .25 ml per pound of body weight, orally, dose 5 days in a row.
Valbazen dose is .5 ml orally for a standard sized bird, dose twice, 10 days apart (actual math for dosing is weight in lbs / 2.2 X 20mg / 113.6).
If you ever have to treat for tapeworm a medication containing praziquantel is best for those, most use Equimax or Zimectrin Gold horse paste for those.

 

[amanda wilson]

What about safeguard Paste for horses? How much then? I used to use a Pea size amount for Chihuahua puppies,...would that be ok? It's a very safe medicine.

 

[coach723]

Yes, you can use the horse paste. Dose is the same, as in my post above, .23ml per lb of body weight. You need to measure it out with an oral syringe, not use a 'pea sized' dose. 'Pea sized' is very subjective and can lead to under or over dosing. See the link below for a full explanation of that. Weigh the bird, give the dose that is correct by weight, and measure it correctly. Under dosing can lead to medication resistant parasites. If you have a difficult to measure fraction, round UP to the next measurable amount, never down. The amount may seem larger than for a small dog, birds are dosed very differently as they metabolize things differently than mammals and often require more per lb of body weight.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-sized-blob-of-horse-paste-de-wormer.1141545/