Poultry and Pets > Poultry FAQs and other Information
1. Worms - Treatment and Prevention
Aunt Sally:
The advice given in this topic is that of the authors and cannot be considered as professional advice. It is, however, drawn from the experience of a large number of chicken keepers.
Worms in chickens are of two general types
1. Gut worms These live in the chicken's digestive system and cause the hen not to thrive in many ways. They can be picked up by your hen from other hens or from wild birds. Transmission is via faeces.
2. Lung Worm or Gape Worm These live in the chicken's respiratory system and can be very quickly fatal by suffocation. They can be picked up by your hens eating slugs, snails and earth worms when free ranging, and from the faeces of infected birds. Birds infected with these can be seen gaping and have respiratory distress symptoms.
Frequency of worming Most vets will recommend treating your chickens for worms every 4-6 months, but this is a decision for the individual to make.
The risk to chickens of contracting worms is very variable. A small worm burden is natural for all birds and will usually not cause a problem. If you just have a few hens in a run or in your garden the risk is quite small and wild birds is normally the only way they will get them, you may choose to worm these hens less frequently. If the land you have your birds on has been used for hens for a long time the risks are higher. The greatest risk is to large flocks of free range birds, you may choose to worm these more frequently.
Worming Products
There are a number of products available for use in treatment including: Flubenvet, Panacur , Verm-X and Diatom and some other unlicensed products which some chicken keepers use.
Flubenvet Intermediate is the most commonly used. It is a white powder containing 2.5% w/w flubendazole and sold in 240g tubs. There is now a 1% formulation which is intended for small flocks. Flubenvet is a broad spectrum anthelmintic (acting to expel or destroy parasitic worms) and is for oral administration. It is active against mature and immature stages of worms in the gastrointestinal and respiratory tract. Flubendazole has no adverse effect on egg laying and hatchability and there is no need to withdraw eggs from consumption. There is zero withdrawal on chicken eggs and poultry can be slaughtered for consumption 7 days after the end of treatment.
Dosage and Administration of Flubenvet There are a number of different methods of administering flubenvet. The correct dose rate for the 2.5% formulation is 1.2g Flubenvet Intermediate (about ~¼ teaspoon full) mixed into one kilo of feed and the chickens should be fed on this for 7 consecutive days. Large birds will eat more feed, smaller ones will eat less and so they get the correct dose for their body weight. It is a good idea to restrict treats to a very small amount in the afternoon while your hens are being wormed to ensure that they eat sufficient wormer.
Another method, if you only have a few birds, is to dose each bird individually each day for 7 days. It is not possible to weigh out the correct dose on domestic scales.
2.5% formulation - use about 0.1- 0.2g per bird per day for 7 days.
1% formulation – use about 0.4 - 0.5g per bird per day for 7 days.
You will have to estimate the amount of powder needed from the volume of the 6g scoop. Hide this in a treat such as a grape which the hens gobble up without hesitating or add it to some porridgy food, mashed potato or whatever your girls like to eat.
The new 1% formulation, which does not require a mixing licence for purchase, should be used at 2.5 times the dose rate of the 2.5% formulation.
The 240g tub is 2.5% flubendazole
The 60g tub is 1.0% flubendazole
Hillfooter has given us a good method for administering the 1% formulation:
--- Quote from: hillfooter on November 04, 2009, 01:58 ---___________________________________________________________________________
Here's a simple mixing method for 4 L/F birds using 1% Premix. The birds must be confined during the 7 days treatment so that they eat ONLY the treated feed.
___________________________________________________________________________
Measure out 4KG of feed, add two scoops (2X 6grms) of wormer. Mix REALLY well and feed this exclusively for 7 days.
___________________________________________________________________________
WHAT TO DO WITH THE LEFTOVERS
(You'll probably have about 400grams left over which you can continue to feed for a further two days if you like or throw away. Don't add further unmedicated feed on top as you don't want to let them have a weak dilution which might breed resistance in the worms)
HOW THIS IS CALCULATED FYI
Remember 2 facts - they must be medicated for 7 days continuously, and using the 1% Premix the feed medication rate is 3grams per kg of FEED.
So first you need to calculate how much feed you will need for all the birds for 7 days. If you know your birds consumption use that, but if not work on 900grams per week, per L/F bird. So in your case that's actually 4 birds X 0.9kg = 3.6Kg (make up 4kg for ease of using scoop measure).
HOW TO MIX
Using a large container (a trug is ideal) and rubber gloves sprinkle some corn oil onto the pellets and mix well so that the pellets are just slightly darkened but not softened so they disintegrate. The oil prevents the powder settling. Sprinkle the two scoops of Flubenvet powder over the surface in several batches, as evenly as you can, and mix really well as you sprinkle each batch.
If you feed mash don't use the oil but use the mixture in 4 batches topping up the feeder every two days which you should remix each time you top up so the powder doesn't settle out.
You now have 4kg of medicated feed you can fill their feeder from and feed for the week.
HOW TO AVOID BEING CONFUSED
Don't try to follow the rather convoluted instructions provided by Janssen and stop thinking about how much medication each bird needs per day. They will eat the requisit amount of wormer for their weight provided you don't feed them anything other than the medicated feed. So NO treats or unmedicated feed. If they free range it's best to confine them so they don't eat too much unmedicated food. Don't worry about overdosing, Flubenvet has been tested at upto 2.5 times the recommended dosage with no ill effects. I prefer to slightly (<20%) overdose than under.
--- End quote ---
Some Suppliers of Flubenvet:
Petmeds
The Domestic Fowl Trust
SPR
Farmrite
wormers . co . uk
Panacur is a wormer more commonly used for cats and dogs and birds which are not to be used for meat or eggs soon after dosing. If you take your hens to the vets for worming they will probably be given panacur (unless your vet specialises in chickens), one dose followed by another 10 days later if there are signs of worms is in the faeces. Vets recommend withholding eggs for 10 days after the last dose of panacur.
Diatom is another name for Diatomaceous Earth, it is 100% natural and is mined from the ground. It is comprised of the fossilised remains of diatoms (a type of algae ). The diatoms have a hard shell made of 'sharp' non-crystalline silica, which does not decompose in the lakes, or sea where diatoms lived. Thus over long periods of time large volumes of diatoms are exposed on the surface of dried out lakes. It can be added to animal feed at a rate of 5% to combat intestinal worms and can be considered an organic remedy as its action is physical rather than chemical but many chicken keepers have found it unreliable. Its efficacy is debatable.
Ivermectin Eprinex
Ivermectin was originally developed to control worms in human in the developing world countries and found its way from there on to the animal market . It is not licensed for poultry although some vets recommend it and are happy to prescribe it. You drop 2-3 drops on to skin on the back of the neck (like cat/dog flea drops), repeat after 3 days if the birds already have an infestation - it works for mites and lice too. A preventative dose can be given once a month, or less frequently in the winter. As it is not licensed for poultry opinions on egg withdrawal vary, some recommend an egg withdrawal period of 7 days and same say there is no need to withhold eggs although again as not licensed they cannot be sold.
You can read more about Ivermectin Here this also gives a recommended dosage.
Verm-X
Verm-X is popular with organic poultry flock keepers being based on totally natural ingredients. It can be bought over the internet and is easy to administer in small doses. As a herbal formulation, Verm-X is available off the shelf and does not have to be signed for. It’s efficacy is uncertain and we believe it has no activity against gape worm.
You can read more about Verm-X Here
I recent contacted the manufacturer of Verm-x for information regarding its efficacy especially for gape worm. This is the reply I received:
Thank you for your interest in Verm-X for your Poultry.
Being 100% natural and therefore not a classified and licensed medicine we
are unable to publish or use any marketing that implies we are such - this
includes certain words e.g. 'de-wormer or anthelmintic' and prevents us from
publishing our efficacy trials.
However we have lived with this restriction since we launched in 2002 and
due to the effectiveness of our formulations the respect in Verm-X has grown
throughout our markets, recently being accepted for use on Organic Farms and
awarded recognition by an Environmental Best Practice Award Scheme supported
by the British Government.
We are aware that in the past few months independent test results from the
usage of Verm-X have been published in several publications such as
Practical Poultry, Fancy Fowl and Smallholder magazines.
In addition we are aware of different poultry chat room sites that have
received positive communication regarding usage of Verm-X.
Apologies that due to legislation I am unable to answer your specific
question with specific answers, this I fight constantly but fortunately we
have a fast growing loyal consumer base that have found Verm-X to be an
effective alternative to chemical applications.
Yours
Philip Ghazala
Paddocks Farm Partnership
Tel: +44 (0)870 850 2313
pg@verm-x.com
www.verm-x.com
Some hen keepers add Apple Cider Vinegar to their chicken's water. But is should not be relied upon as a treatment for gut parasites ! It does have other health benefits. Make sure you buy unrefined apple cider vinegar, the type sold for horses and not the sort from supermarkets.
happychickens:
Hi - As usual great advice, just have one question, friend keeps ducks and one of hers did get lung worm, her vet gives her syringes of fluid that sheep farmers use - (unfortunately she is away at present and I cannot remember the name of the stuff) so once a year she catches the ducks and gives them their individual dose each - have year heard of this before which chickens? Thanks
Aunt Sally:
No... but vets often give poultry things which are not licenced for them. Frequently without giving the correct advice about egg and meat withdrawal times :evil:
happychickens:
Hi - Thanks for your reply - it does not suprise me about the vets, when it is not their speciality they seem to bluster through things! which is one of the reasons a site like this is so great. Will not try the worm thing, just carry on with flubathingie stuff (sorry never remember the names and nothing is ever to hand when on the internet!) Thanks :)
John:
Vets are allowed to prescribe medicines not specifically for a type of animal if no suitable medicine is available. That's why common eye ointment for cats costs 5 times more than the human version. The paperwork.
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