The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: david c on March 02, 2017, 10:05:39 am
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What's the most cost effective way and effective to worm hens please. I recently bought in some extra hens from a guy who was retiring and noticed that one of their droppings had round worm in it.
I've 140 and only seen the 60g pack for 20 and that is very expensive. What about panacur 1l? I can use remainder on other stock. How much and can it just be put into their water?
Cheers
David
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It is possible to buy poultry feed with added wormer. Ask at your feed merchant.
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I use Panacur on mine. It's safe and effective.
Another one that you can also use on your other stock is Ivomec (or equivalent) I find the pour on great for poultry as it also acts on lice and red mite. Obviously you only need a minute amount for a hen. I get a dropper and put a few drops on an area they don't preen like comb, or top of the head. Just move the feathers away so you drop it direct onto the skin.
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But don't tell the supplier it's for hens, they may not sell it to you.
I followed someone else's advice and used a sheep drench, again very tiny amount with a syringe, (no needle)! 1 hen had seemed on her way out, picked up and raring to go, so did the others and the geese. All much better.
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Ivomectin carries an egg withdrawal period of up to 28 days, depends on the vet.
Best stick to a licensed product. The 60g tubs of 1% Flubenvet are indeed expensive. We use Flubenvet 2.5% in a 240g tub which medicates 200Kg of feed, so should be enough for 200 laying hens which will each consume about 120-150g of feed every day for the 7 day treatment period. It is important they are unable to eat anything else of significance or the dosing will be ineffective.
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Ivomectin carries an egg withdrawal period of up to 28 days, depends on the vet.
Best stick to a licensed product. The 60g tubs of 1% Flubenvet are indeed expensive. We use Flubenvet 2.5% in a 240g tub which medicates 200Kg of feed, so should be enough for 200 laying hens which will each consume about 120-150g of feed every day for the 7 day treatment period. It is important they are unable to eat anything else of significance or the dosing will be ineffective.
So easy to buy the feed with it already added imo. Adding small quantities and mixing it in always seems a bit hit and miss to me.
Using unlicenced products is an individual choice but for example SpotOn for farm animals is not the same as SpotOn for dogs!
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Luckily I, like many others will have taken the opportunity of worming etc while fastened in and not laying over winter.
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Thanks for your replies.
My feed merchant does not do the medicated feed. For hens only does the herbal crxp.
Re the panacur - did you administer orally to each hen or stick some in their water?
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You can do either. Panacur has a very high safety margin.
I actually put it in their food - usually in the morning when they are hungry and will eat it all in one go.
As you will be aware poultry are monogastric, like dogs, unlike sheep and cattle. It is recommended to give panacur to dogs over 5days, instead of just one as in ruminants. So I looked up the dose rate for dogs but can't remember where!
Anyway for monogastrics you give about the same daily rate as you would for say a sheep, but you give it for 5 days. So effectively they get 5 x the dose in total. (Don't worry - you won't overdose them. It's because feed passes differently through a dog or hen.)
So, as I say, you can put it in either feed or water which is easier than handling each hen.
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My feed merchant does not do the medicated feed. For hens only does the herbal crxp.
You can buy it on-line. We get it from Farm & Pet Place. Excellent service.
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We also get from Farm and pet place. Good price as well.
What withdrawal period do you use if using panacur? And how did you come up with that number?
Dans
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What withdrawal period do you use if using panacur? And how did you come up with that number?
Dans
I don't use a withdrawal period as I eat the eggs myself. I weigh about 100x as much as one of my hens so the amount of panacur remaining after metabolism and available to go into a 2oz egg is pretty minute.
But technically the withdrawal period for eggs is 7 days.
Have looked up the specific dose rate for poultry and it is 5mg/lb of bird/day for 5 days. NB - this is MILLIGRAMS (mg) not MILLILITRES (ml)
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If using Flubenvet I measure out the layers pellets, drip over a little vegetable oil and stir it in well, until most of the pellets have a thin layer on them, then sprinkle over the powder ad stir again. This distributes it over the feed without it ether settling out or blowing away.
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I do a similar thing, but add my Flubenvet powder to a small amount of the measured pellets with some oil, mix them, then gradually add more pellets mixing as I go. It seems to give a reasonable mix with Flubenvet on all the pellets.
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I use DE, I know it is a bit controversial but I have wormed my flock on that for 2-3 years now and recently my alpacas as well, and I have not see any signs of worms or worms in the faeces. I did once try Flubenvet and just after the course was over, two of my hens took very ill both with gut problems :'( . I sadly had to slaughter both. Ive not used Flubenvet sinced, I have stuck to DE.
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Tried Flubenvet powder + Marriages layers pellets with added flubenvet. However I prefer to use Ivermectin 1% drops (Available on ebay for a few quid )
Wait until the birds are roosting and simply walk along and put 2 drops on each medium size bird or 4 for large fowl.
I usually give it a week before eating the eggs but the cats/dogs dont mind that ;)
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ivermectin is not effective against tapeworm and not the drug of choice against gapeworm either fyi. Plus 'one or two drops' per bird is unlikely to be the correct dose and in fact at 1% you are very likely under dosing.
under dosing off lable drugs is a great way of promoting drug resistance. Ivermectin is useful against ectoparasites but should only be used with your vets say so. and I've no idea if ivermectin is carried on into eggs so if anyone has collies or other dog breeds with potential ivermectin sensitivity they should avoid feeding eggs from hens treated with the drug.
Do not be tempted to use ivermectin on waterfowl.
if any animal has a high worm burden and then you worm it-it can cause problems because when the worms die off, they release toxins into the animal. best to worm regularly from the offset using a licensed wormer-just because you don't see worms, doesn't mean your birds don't have them!
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ivermectin is not effective against tapeworm and not the drug of choice against gapeworm either fyi. Plus 'one or two drops' per bird is unlikely to be the correct dose and in fact at 1% you are very likely under dosing.
under dosing off lable drugs is a great way of promoting drug resistance. Ivermectin is useful against ectoparasites but should only be used with your vets say so. and I've no idea if ivermectin is carried on into eggs so if anyone has collies or other dog breeds with potential ivermectin sensitivity they should avoid feeding eggs from hens treated with the drug.
Do not be tempted to use ivermectin on waterfowl.
if any animal has a high worm burden and then you worm it-it can cause problems because when the worms die off, they release toxins into the animal. best to worm regularly from the offset using a licensed wormer-just because you don't see worms, doesn't mean your birds don't have them!
A couple of drops applied to a hen, by the time it has gone through her body, will leave a negligible amount available to enter the egg. I wouldn't exactly get paranoic about giving the resultant eggs to a dog 10 x the size of the original hen.
But - what happens if you apply ivermectin to waterfowl? I have looked extensively on various poultry/waterfowl forums and can't see that anyone's had problems with ivomec, so wondered what adverse effects you had heard about.
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Our Family Business was Poultry+Eggs and we used a Vets that only dealt with poultry.
Now I have a smallholding and keep fewer birds I still consult with the same vets that I did when I kept thousands and they have prescribed the 1% Drops in the past However their prices were a lot more than what I pay now (ebay).
I have seen birds that I have bought in with worms in their poo + gaping. so treated them with ivermectin with the doses recommended by my poultry veterinarian and they have cleared up just fine so I know who I will listen to.
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https://poultrykeeper.com/poultry-medication/alternatives-to-flubenvet/
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Better off FEC first. I am def against worming for the sake of it. Ive never had a problem with worms and for a large number its expensive. Get a test done for around £12 through many companies on-line and take it from there.