Worm treatment for your feathered friend

Birds in suspended cages, such as budgies, should be de-wormed once or twice a year as the chances of re-infestation are low, because they spend little or no time on the ground and their cages are regularly cleaned.

Ground-dwelling birds, such as chickens and quails, should be de-wormed three to four times a year especially if on dirt or sand floors. Dirt/sand floors will gradually accumulate worm eggs and the only way to stop this is to change the top few inches every year. The level of worm eggs on concrete floors can be kept low by cleaning them regularly with soapy water.

Free-range birds are more at risk of becoming infected with worms because of their increased exposure to the outdoors, more contact with wild birds and the opportunities they have to ingest insects such as snails and earthworms that can harbour infectious stages of the worms.

With poultry, studies have shown that peak worm counts can coincide with peak egg production. Unless chickens are de-wormed in spring there is a risk that egg production could suffer, just when poultry keepers should be enjoying their best yields. You may even notice smaller eggs and/or loss of shell and yolk colour and birds may lose weight, become anaemic or even die.

Totally Vets sells a wide range of bird worm treatments that can be added to your bird’s drinking water or that can be administered directly into your bird’s crop, so call into the Feilding branch and talk to us today about the best plan to de-worm your birds this spring.