The other day I found that my light sussex hen, Lighsa, wasn’t being as active as usual.
The other chickens were happily scratching and pecking and investigating the world, but
Lighsa didn’t seem quite as energetic as usual. The next day she was sitting like this
– withdrawn, tail down, not wanting to move around much, not interested in leaving the
chicken run to go out into the garden with the others. She is clearly sick. If a chicken
is acting as obviously sick as this, then she is very sick, because as prey animals,
chickens typically try to hide their illness, from any predators that might be around, from
their flock mates, and from you. Poor Lighsa. What can be the matter?
She hasn’t laid for the past few days, but it’s been unusually hot here and I had put
the lack of eggs down to the heat. (Chickens will go off the lay if it’s too hot – check
out one of my other videos about all the reasons that can cause there to be not many eggs in
your nest box.) But it’s now obvious that there’s something
wrong with Lighsa. As I was watching her, she gave me a big clue.
She did a poo. And in the poo, I could quite clearly see a worm. Eew! That’s disgusting!
Especially in my chickens! I like to think I care for my chickens pretty well, but that
looks awful! What is it and where did it come from?
Well, it’s a roundworm and it’s probably the most common parasitic worm of chickens.
Poultry roundworms are Ascaris galli. They belong to the nematode class of worms. If
you see one in a blob of chicken poo, you will certainly notice it because they are
very large. They live in the gastrointestinal tract of birds including chickens, sometimes
latching on or burrowing in to the intestinal lining but mostly just hanging around in the
gut, eating the contents of the intestine– the food that the chicken eats. The worms
lay eggs that are excreted with the chicken poo. The worm eggs are then picked up and
eaten by another chicken, and the roundworm’s life cycle continues.
I know my chickens are at risk of roundworms because I let them free range, and so they
come into contact with soil where wild birds have been. And even without the wild birds,
I know I introduced roundworms onto my property when I got a rescue hen who was riddled with
worms. The worm eggs can live in the soil for more than a year, so as long as I have
chickens, I know I will always have the possibility of infection from roundworms.
Adult hens can coexist with a few roundworms in their gut, but a very bad infestation can
make the chicken lose weight, become anaemic and lethargic, and possibly cause diarrhoea.
Lighsa is clearly not happy, so I want to get her some help as soon as possible. And
that’s going to mean an antihelminthic medicine. Some organic measures can help – for example
research has shown that ground up garlic in the chickens’ water can go some way towards
preventing or controlling a build-up of worm numbers but it can’t actually cure an infestation.
Commonly recommended treatments for roundworms in chickens are ivermectin, levamisole, and
piperazine. Of course, just our luck, this is not a good
time for Lighsa to be sick – it’s the beginning of a long holiday weekend and our
usual vet is closed for three days. What can we do?
The only option is a pet store or a pharmacy, but that is an option, because humans and
our pets get roundworms too. The most common human roundworm is a related species called
Ascaris lumbricoides. And medicines that treat nematode worms are usually effective against
a wide range of parasitic worms. But I need to be careful – medicines that are OK for
mammals are not always safe for chickens. I need a broad spectrum wormer that is safe
for birds. I do a bit of research myself and I also chat
with the vet nurse at the pet shop. They have a wide range of worming medicines for pets.
Unfortunately the only ivermectin product they have must be given orally, and dropping
anything down th throat of a chicken is a very risky business, liable to cause suffocation
or drowning unless you’re an expert. And I’m not an expert.
Levamisole (marketed as Nilverm) is also extensively used for farm animals – cattle, sheep, goats,
pigs, and is also safe for use with chickens. Levamisole and flubendazole are marketed for
birds as Aviverm and Flubenvet but none of these are available from this store.
So I look at all the products they do have, and there’s this one – it contains emodepside
and praziquantel. Emodepside kills a wide range of nematodes including roundworms, and
praziquantel kills the flatworms - trematodes (flukes) and cestodes (tapeworms), both of
which can be carried by birds and transmitted by earthworms, so my chickens are probably
at risk of those too. Both emodepside and praziquantel are safe for use in chickens,
and what’s more this product is designed for use as a topical product, just spotted
on to the skin, from where it is absorbed into the body.
So that will do nicely. But one other thing to consider carefully when using any medicine
off label is the dosage. This tube is one dose for a large cat, but chickens are not
that big and also, remember, chickens are not mammals so the dose rate for chickens
cannot always be calculated simply by scaling for their size relative to a cat or a dog.
For each chicken, I need about third of a millilitre, which means each tube will dose
three chickens. So I transfer the contents into a small syringe, so I can dispense it
out accurately to each chicken. Since all of my chickens free range over the same area,
they are all at risk, and it’s a good idea to treat all of them.
Then it’s just a matter of dropping the required dose onto an area of Lighsa’s skin
that’s not covered in feathers. There’s usually a patch of skin with less feathers
right under the wing. And in a few days, Lighsa will be looking
much happier and resuming her usual activities. So if you have to deal with a situation like
this, here are a few important points to keep in mind:
- Chickens that free range are at risk of catching nasties from wild birds, earthworms
and parasite eggs in the environment. When chickens are kept inside with a hard floor
that can be cleaned easily, it’s easier to control external infections. This is one
of the factors to consider when you decide whether or not your chickens should free range
– check out my video for some other factors to consider.
- Always get advice from a qualified vet if at all possible. Ideally a vet who specialises
in poultry, or birds, although special bird or poultry vets are rare.
- Remember that chickens are not mammals. Some medicines that are good for humans and
dogs and cats are very dangerous for birds. - Even if the product is safe for chickens,
chickens might require a different dosage, because they are smaller than most pet animals,
and because birds’ physiology is different. A few days later, Lighsa was looking much
happier and resuming her usual activities.