6 Best Chicken Wormers: Chicken Worm Types & Treatment Guide

Do you want to know about the best chicken wormers? If your chickens are not eating well, looking sick, and you have seen worms in their poop,, this guide may help you a lot.

Like most animals, chicken also gets worm infestations. So, they also need to be treated with chicken dewormers.

Chicken deworming is one of the most important things to do in poultry farming. So, every chicken farmer should know about chicken wormers and the method to deworm flocks.

Worm infection can make your chickens sick, which may lead to the death of flocks if not diagnosed and treated in time. 

Here, we have reviewed a few of the best chicken wormers with a guide on symptoms, causes, prevention, and treatment of worm infestation in chickens.

What are Chicken Wormers?

Chicken wormers are also known as chicken deworming medicines. These veterinary supplements treat various types of worm infestation in animals and poultry birds.

Chicken wormer also helps in lice treatment. So, overall, these are pet supplements to kill worms inside and outside the body.

The most common medicines are fenbendazole, ivermectin, pyrantel pamoate, piperazine, etc. You may see a few natural chicken wormers that prevent worm infestation in poultry birds.

Last update on 2024-07-11 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Top 6 Best Chicken Wormers: Deworm Naturally & With Medicine

Here is the list of the few best chicken wormers (poultry dewormers) –

1. Durvet Ivermectin Pour On : Best Liquid Chicken Wormer For gapeworm, roundworms, lungworms, grubs, horn flies, lice, and sarcoptic mange mites

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• This is one of the best chicken wormers, killing almost all types of worms.
• It’s best to pour on liquid parasiticide or chicken wormer.
• Just pour the recommended dose of the liquid into the chicken’s mouth directly.
• It contains 5mg of Ivermectin in every 1 ml.
• The best treatment for roundworms, lungworms, grubs, horn flies, lice, and sarcoptic mange mites.
• An egg withdrawal period of 7 days would be recommended, but a farmer can exceed it to 10 days for selling or consuming eggs, and for consuming meat, it must be over 28-30.

2. Verm-X Liquid Poultry & Fowl Internal Parasite : Best Natural Dewormer For Chickens Intestine Health

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• Best intestinal hygiene liquid that kills and prevents worm infestation in chickens.
• It is safe to use because of its natural composition.
• It contains ingredients Allium Sativum (Garlic), Ulmus Fulva (Slippery Elm), Mentha Piperita (Peppermint), Thymus Vulgaris (Common Thyme), Gallium Aperine (Cleavers), Cinnamomum Zelandicum (Cinnamon), Picrasma Excelsa (Quassia), Tanacetum Vulgare (Tansy), Foeniculum Vulgare (Fennel), Urtica Dioica (Nettle), Capsicum Minimum (Cayenne.)
• Just pour the recommended dose of liquid into poultry drinking water, and the chicken dewormer works like a pro.

3. Safeguard Merck Safe1.1LB Mult Dewormer: Best Dry Pellet Chicken Wormer

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• This is one of the best pellet chicken dewormers for beef and dairy cattle, equine, swine, chickens, turkeys, and zoo and wildlife animals.
• If you have different types of domestic animals in your backyard, this is one of the best solutions for deworming.
• It is commonly used to eliminate large strongyles, small strongyles, pinworms, and ascarids in poultry birds.
• The Safeguard dewormer for chickens is a day treatment, while you may need to use it again after 4-6 weeks to prevent worm infestation.
• It contain 2.27 gms fenbendazole per lb. The dosage indication is written in the package.
• As per the indication by the brand, it has no withdrawal period for milk, but for meat, you need to wait for 13 days.
• It also helps to remove lungworms, gastrointestinal worms, large roundworms, nodular worms, small stomach worms, whipworms, and kidney worms in pigs, gilts, pregnant sows, and boars.

4. Pyrantel Pamoate Suspension 50 Mg 16 Oz Bottle: Best Liquid Wormer for Roundworm and Tapeworm Chickens

Last update on 2024-07-11 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

• This is the best chicken deworming medicine available in suspension form.
• It helps in the treatment of pinworms, roundworms, and tapeworms. Remember, it does not work efficiently for gapeworms.
• Its easy to use and economical.
• This contains Pyrantel Pamoate Suspension 50 Mg 16 Oz.
• 4 day withdrawal period for eggs.

5. GoodEarth Diatomaceous Earth : Best Supplement for Chicken and Farm Animals To Treat All Types of Worms

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• This is another of the best natural chicken wormers that contains Diatomaceous Earth.
• It works excellent for tapeworms and all types of worms.
• It will work slowly but works excellently. You will see results within a month.
• This keeps your chickens healthy with a clean gut.
• Just sprinkle a few diatomaceous earths on the chicken coop floor with scratch feed.

6. Vetrx Poultry Aid, 2 fl.oz : Best Natural Chicken Wormer for Scaly Leg Mites and Eye Worm

Last update on 2024-07-11 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

• Best for external worm infestation like lice, scaly mites, eye worms, and other respiratory issue. It also enhances the immunity of chickens.
• It is not an antibiotics but it act like a herbal and natural product.
• Vertx poultry aid is easy to use. Add in a little water, or you can mix with veggie mix.
• It is also best for chickens’ respiratory diseases, coughs, and colds.
• Some users also used it as a topical medicine for mites on the head and comb areas.

Editors Choice

Above, we have reviewed a few of the best chicken wormers for backyard flocks. You can choose one according to the worm infestation or symptoms.

If you only see symptoms like your chicken showing a lack of appetite, you can give natural chicken wormer, i.e. Verm-x Liquid. It is safe and easy to use.

But If you see worms in chicken poop. Take the droppings to the vet and confirm the type of worm first. Then try Pyrantel Pamoate Suspension and Ivermectin. Ask your local vet before using any chicken wormer is always recommended.

Below, we have added a detailed guide on worm infestation in chickens (Helminthiasis) with natural remedies. If you are a chicken raiser, knowing about deworming chickens is crucial to backyard farming.

Guide on Helminthiasis or Worm Infestation in Chickens

Here, we are talking about worm infestation, not worms that move on the soil. Any presence of worms in the chicken’s body is called Helminthiasis in Poultry (Worm Infestation).

Worms may live inside any animal’s intestine, heart, head, skin, and other organs. In chickens, you will commonly see worm infestation in feathers, skins, eyes, head areas, and intestines.

Image Source: PoultryHub.org

Like other mammals and birds, chicken is also affected by parasitic worm infestation. Worms inside the intestine eat all nutritious substances of food and body, which cause various health problems in your chicken flocks.

Sometimes, the late diagnosis of helminthiasis may lead to the death of flocks.

If you see symptoms of worm infestation in your chicken, take your chicken poop to a veterinarian for tests. They will do a slide test to see worms in the poop.

Your vet will then prescribe a chicken wormer medicine type, which we have explained in this article.

Symptoms of Worm Infestation in Chickens: Understand When You Need a Chicken Wormer

If your chicken is inactive, check its body and poop properly. If you see small worms on poop, then you should confirm that your chickens are infested with worms.

It is very hard to see symptoms of helminthiasis in chickens, but if your backyard chickens are not eating correctly or eating more, then it’s the first sign and symptom to see.

Image Sources: sunsetcroft.co.nz

Check if your chickens may have diarrhea. Diarrhea is the initial stage symptom for a few types of worm infestation in chickens. If it occurs again and again, ask your vet.

Some chickens are puffed up and tucked to get warm if they are going through some severe health problem. You may have to check it out. What’s going on wrong?

Some hens stop laying eggs if they are affected by worm infection. So, you may put this in the symptom list of worm infection.

Image Source – partnersah.vet.cornell.edu

In a few chickens, you may see symptoms like stretching and gasping for air due to gapeworm infestation.

It is a very serious problem. Medicine like Ivermectin liquid chicken dewormers works best in this type of situation.

When your chickens have a chronic worm infection, you may see worms in their poop. In this infestation, you must treat your chickens with chicken worms immediately.

Types of Chicken Worms that Cause Helminthiasis in Flocks

Four types of worms cause worm infestation in chickens:

1. Roundworm in chickens (Ascaridia galli)

Roundworms are the common worms that affect chicken’s health. They are about 6-7 cm in size. It mainly causes loss in weight, reduces egg production, intestinal blockage, and more intestine blockage. It also causes growth retardation and mortality.

2. Tapeworms in chickens (Davainea proglottina, Raillietina echinobothrida, R. tetragona, and R. cesticillus)

Tapeworms mainly take all nutrients from intestine food and reduce nutrient absorption by the intestine. They are flat ribbon-like shape worms. 

3. Gapeworms in chickens (Syngamus trachea)

These Gapeworms attach themselves to the trachea of the chicken. So, it causes gasping for air and will stretch their neck because these worms mainly affect the windpipe of chickens. Sometimes, you may see eggs of these worms coughed by chickens.

4. Capillary Worms in Chickens (C. contorta, C. annulata, C. bursata, C. caudinflata, and C. obsignata)

Capillary worms are thread-like structures, and they are microscopic. You can see them with the naked eye.

People know this as threadworms, hairworms and the infection is Capillariasis. It mainly shows unthriftiness, growth retardation, weight loss, emaciation, reduced egg production, and death.

Causes of Worms Infestation in Chickens

There are so many ways a chicken can get infested with worms. Worms are everywhere in the soil. There is no specific place for worms; free-range chickens go everywhere and eat lots of dust and debris.

Chicken gets worms from so many sources. Sometimes, they eat whole snails, slugs, and grasshoppers, which already contain worms in their body that go directly inside the chicken’s intestine.

Most of the animals and birds eat seeds and feed on the ground. All worms live in the soil, so they go inside the intestine with chicken feed, treats, and grits, which we love to give them.

Sometimes chicken eats droppings and poop of animals and humans. It is a major cause of worm infestation in chickens.

Another important reason is wet litter in poultry sheds. Litter is the collection of chicken droppings in which flies sit and transmit worms from one place to another. Wet litter makes this transmission possible. 

Here are some best chicken coop beddings to keep your poultry house dry and clean.

Sometimes worms also get inside chicken’s intestines through the cloaca when they sit on worms in a litter of sheds.

Worm infestation is a normal thing in the life of all animals and birds. It also occurs in humans. Most people take albendazole and ivermectin every few months for deworming.

It’s not an enormous thing to worry about if we take proper precautions and treatment in time. So, now we will tell you some precautions to avoid chicken worms.

Preventions for Worm infestations in Chickens

It’s very hard to say how to prevent worm infection in free-range chickens because they peck everywhere and eat lots of unwanted things every day.

But, If you follow the points we have given below, it will reduce the chances of worms in chicken. So, take these steps to keep away chicken worms from your chicken flocks –

• Keep your chicken coop clean and the litter of the shed dry. This stops the growth of worms in soil and litter.
• Replace new litter in sheds to stop the life-cycle of parasites.
• Change the bedding of the poultry sheds regularly.
• Provide clean water and feed to your chickens.
• Use a feeder and drinker and avoid throwing food in front of them. It avoids pecking them on soil, which initially stops.
• Don’t overcrowd chicken flocks in sheds and coops.
• Try to keep your chickens away from insects.
• Give a preventive dose of chicken deworming medicines. 

So, now it’s time to understand If you see worm infection in your chickens.

How to Deworm Chickens?

We already mentioned various worm infection symptoms above in this post. If you are confirmed that your chicken has a worm infestation after proper diagnosis from the vet, then they may prescribe you some good chicken dewormers.

Most of the dosage of the chicken wormers is present on the product packaging. So you don’t have to worry about the dose.

Chicken wormers are primarily given in water. They are mixed in water and given in chicken waterers. Above, we have given a list of the few best chicken wormers.

Should I Use Chicken Wormers Without Any Symptoms?

No, never use any chicken wormers if your poultry flocks are healthy. Most chicken deworming medicines contain harmful drugs that may harm your chicken’s health if used unnecessarily.

Also, every chicken wormer contains a withdrawal period for using meat or eggs. Before using you must check out that section.

You can use natural chicken wormers that don’t have any withdrawal period for both eggs and meat.

How to Deworm Chickens Naturally?

There are several excellent natural and organic chicken dewormers that you can use in your backyard flocks.

Mixing food grade Diatomaceous Earth with chicken’s daily feed work amazingly to avoid and remove all kind of worm infestation in chickens. Mix 2% Diatomaceous Earth with regular feed. However, it takes about 4-5 weeks to see symptoms, but the results are outstanding.

The easiest way to give natural dewormers is through poultry drinkers. Use one teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar in each gallon of poultry drinking water to avoid and remove acute helminthiasis in chickens.

Most people say pumpkin seeds will kill worms in the intestine. But it’s not true. If you want to diagnose whether the chicken is infested with worms, pumpkin seed works perfectly to extract a few worms in feces.

Giving yogurt to chickens creates an unfavorable environment inside the gut for the worms. So, it stops the further development of worms inside the intestine and enhances chickens’ health.

Summary

In this guide, we have covered all about chicken wormers. We have included the causes, effects, treatment for worms in chickens naturally, and medicine.

Also, we have explained the top medicines available for deworming chickens. We have added a few natural remedies to prevent and treat your chickens.

I hope you liked this informative guide on the best chicken wormers. What remedies do you use for deworming your chickens? Must share your valuable comments below