Tiny worms in chicken poop?

[robinwhiskers]

After picking apart every article and thread I can find online about worms in chickens, I thought why not post this thread myself? Today I took 2 of our 9 month old 7 birds (these 2 pullets are the only ones I trust outside the coop and they're closely supervised) into a patch of grass and when they pooped they had diarrhea-like poop with a bunch of tiny worms wriggling around in it. They both seem active and healthy, they eat well, are drinking as far as I know, are laying eggs...I sprinkled some DE in their run today and a Barred Rock pullet pooped but it was a firm stool with no worms. No other chooks pooped while I was in there so I couldn't do any more checks. How should I go about treating this? One of those pullets especially is very special to me, I'm doing extensive trick training with her and she is my lovely girl. I love all my chooks of course and don't want any big health issues. I want to take action as soon as possible.

 

[azygous]

One of the easiest to obtain and use is Safeguard. I've seen it at Walmart. It will kill all species of worms so no need to identify the ones you saw. But it sounds like round worms. You need to treat all your chickens. The ones not displaying worms in their poop likely have the worm eggs incubating in their intestines.

Another broad wormer is Ivermectin. You can get it in liquid that you drop onto the skin on the neck.

 

[Eggcessive]

Were they thin and very long like spaghetti, or short and tiny? Pictures are always helpful. The best thing is to collect some fresh droppings and get a fecal test performed by a vet. Chickens can have around 5 types of worms, and depending on the type, affects which wormer to use. Very tiny worms about the signs of rice that move can be tapeworms, which usually require something with praziquantel in it. SafeGuard liquid goat wormer and Valbazen are very good for individaul dosing, and WormOut Gel is good for using in the water.

 

[rebrascora]

I would agree that they sound more like tapeworms. Unfortunately a faecal float is not always likely to pick up tapeworm infestation because the segments that the tapeworm releases are so large, they are unlikely to be caught by the sampling method being so much larger than the other worm eggs being checked for.
I don't know a huge amount about tapeworms but their eggs are shed in a segment of the adults body rather than individually like roundworms etc. hence being much larger. I'm not sure at what point they hatch out or if in fact these immature worms that you are seeing are being shed by the chicken as part of their immune response and will die rather than a risk of reinfection, whereas the egg segments are ingested by a third party like worms and slugs and then return to the chicken via ingestion of the intermediary host..... I may be mistaken on that and will be revising the lifecycle of a tapeworm after I post this.
If they are as @Eggcessive so well describes ie small rice grain size wriggling worms and not vermicelli noodle like (roundworms), then go ahead and use a Praquizantel product and check the dosing for tapes as sometimes it requires a double dose. Ivermectin products will not kill tapeworms nor Wazine, which I think has the active ingredient Piperizine.
So far I haven't had a problem with tapes (touchwood) so I'm a little rusty on the details..... off to research now....

 

[Boonie Stomper]

http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2655&Itemid=2933
enjoy your learning

 

[rebrascora]

Gosh! There is so much conflicting info on tapeworms in chickens .... from rare and pretty harmless to widespread and potentially lethal!
Not sure where in the world the OP is but Flubenvet (available here in the UK via mail order and certified for use in poultry) at a higher than normal dose will also be effective against tapeworms, but is supposed to be ratified by a vet at that higher dose, and an egg/meat withdrawal period of 7 days, is advised in that increased dosage situation.

 

[Kiki]

Tapeworms are hard to get rid of.
Most all wormers need to be given multiple days in a row to get rid of them.
From what I have read they are also not very common.
I would bet you are seeing roundworms.

 

[SonoranChick]

If it is tapeworm, you need praziquantel. In the US this can be found in Equimax, which is a horse dewormer. Tapeworm segments are visible as little white specks that looks like moving grains of white rice or dots of white glue in the poo (very creepy)...regular chicken wormers, such as safeguard, are great. But they don't kill tapes. Be sure of what kind of worm you are dealing with before you spend money on a dewormer, and if it is tapeworm, feel free to ask questions on how to treat! I have unfortunately become really good at it...haha...not really a skill I thought I would pick up along the way but I'm happy to help if I can. Good luck!

 

[robinwhiskers]

Okay, so what I've collected so far from all of my research is I should purchase Safeguard (the chicken had lots of wormy diarrhea today...) and give each bird .5ml...I don't get it, am I supposed to do it once and wait 24 days or whatever the period is to do it again or do I do it for several days in a row? Also, it will be hard enough to get my tamest birds to get it down, a few of my birds for some reason are very flighty and won't want to be handled like that. Could I even put the dose in maybe a dish of egg for each bird (they go nuts for eggs)? How should I go about treating with Safeguard?

 

[robinwhiskers]

I found out how many milliliters each bird will need based off weight, I'll give them a dose, wait 10 days, and then dose again. It's unfortunate 24 days of eggs will go to waste though, but the health and happiness of my wonderful pets is my main priority. Dosing orally might be difficult with some of my birds, could I maybe put it on break or in yogurt or something for each bird?