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I am a returner to keeping poultry. I have a small back garden flock of 6 hybrids that free range over a large garden most of the daytime. They are only confined to their large run during really bad weather. I worm the birds every three months but recently I have noticed several of them 'gaping' and so I know they have gape worms.
I have treated them with flubenvet in their layers mash. Is it correct to put the flubenvet in the dry mash (at the recommended dosage) as the birds are eating other things like grass, insects and a small ration of mixed corn in the afternoon. Is this sufficient to kill the gape worm?
Thanks

Hi Harbottle.
May I just welcome you to Poultry Talk. com
I hope you will enjoy being a member and will find us a useful resource. Glad you saw our new ad in this months Practical Poultry.

Great to hear you have returned to Poultry Keeping and sorry to hear about your Gapeworm.
I will mention this to Jane, who has a very good knowledge on health issues. Having a brief look I have read that Flubenvet should kill it.

Regards,
Jamie.

Poultry Talk. com Team.

Hi Jamie,
Thank you for the welcome. I'll look forward to hearing from Jane. I find the instructions on the flubenvet a little confusing. It says the powder must be added to the feed and that the feed must be 'the total feed' for that day. So I'm not sure if adding it to the layers mash is the correct thing to do. I can get my birds to eat medication on some moist bread but have no idea what the correct dosage would be.
regards
Glenn

Hi Glenn,
Feeding flubenvet on their layers mash is fine hunny, try adding a small amount of codliver oil too and this will help it stick to the pellets/mash and stop it blowing away,what ever amount you feed in the morning, add the Flubenvet to it, and feed as normal, each bird will then eat the RDA for it's own body weight. Flubenvet will kill gapeworm, but i'd wouldn't be too worried that is what's causing your birds to 'gape'. Gape worm is actually very rare! And if you worm regularly the birds are even less likely to get them. It's proberbly a touch of canker, and for this you can treat with ACV at a dilution rate of 25mls per litre of water for 7 days. Canker is a common pathogen found in all poultry, and flares up now and again a bit like a cold, and is far more common than gape worms. Young birds suffer alot with canker due to their low immune systems, but it can also occur in any bird, any age, stress is also a factor of a flare up. Keep up with your worming regime, and treat once a month with ACV to prevent a worm build up and a reduction of the gaping.
Jane X

Thank you Jane,
That's very helpful. I hadn't heard of canker in Poultry so maybe that is what it is. I thought it was gapeworm as all the books I have on poultry say that the birds catch them from slugs and snails...and mine are particularly fond of snails...to such an extent, that I haven't seen one in the garden for some time!
Is ACV a brand name? Can I just ask for it at my local feed merchants, I get my flubenvet from them.
Regards
Glenn

If the bird is gaping, making a sound of soft gargle or similar soft rasping sound (haarrh?) then odds on it is gape worm not canker. Apple Cider Vinegar will not help stop gape worm infestation, it will help with general condition and may reduce risk of worms. Personally my money is now on Flubenvet and I have discontinued using Vermex wormer.

My personal method for flubenvet dosing is to make up small pea sized pellets using a proprietary avairy egg biscuit type food (available in most pet stores and similar) Bread crumbs and flour could be used instead but I haven't tried this. My sytem is to mix one level 1/8th teaspoon per bird into a small amount of egg food mix and add water gently and slowly. You need a consistency that will allow you to roll small amounts into a pea sized pellet. Aim for about thre pellets per bird to reduce hassle, you are unlikely to get it all into one pellet per bird. (Careful with amount of water, I once wound up having to add more egg food mix, water and wound up with ten pellet per bird - bless them they are still talking to me, thanks be for spinach leaves, great for bribing hens!!)
At this point it is worth noting that according to Jannsen help line, Flubenvet makers, it is practicall impossible to overdose with this stuff.
I find if I get the beak open with one hand the pellet can be pushed gently to back of tongue which usually means automatic swallowing. Using the egg food also means the birds gets a pleasant taste so the next pellet may be more happily received or even pecked out of your grasp. Do try to avoid fingers on the hand holding the beak open going under the beak/throat junction - restricts swallowing and bird not happy. You can easily feel pellet going down throat and this 'fondling' can be well received by bird. Important because you will need to repeat this anpother six days.
Why go to the bother of mixing/feeding medication by hand? Because I think sick birds eat less food and I want to make sure my birds get ALL their medicine down them. I never want to lose another bird to gape worm and had I done this at the outset of symptoms, would probably have saved the bird I lost. It was touch and go with the others, who were slightly older.
Recent reports suggest gape worm is on increase. Due to increase in infected slugs or organic wormers not controlling gape worm, which attacks birds differently to other intestinal worms, I gather. I do know that two weeks after using organic wormer, I used flubenvet (my way) and found dropping with 3" round worms in it...

Oh yes, Apple Cider Vinegar - not bad for humans either, have developed taste for it with apple juice and dilute to taste. Don't let anyone tell you the supermarket cider vinegar is the same, it ain't. If you have a merchant available selling corn, horse feed they probably sell ACV by 5l drum - I get mine on web, google for choice of sellers.

Great comments above and very good tips , other acurate and important information about Gape worm are:
Transfer by: Earthworm, slugs, snails and also on free range where ground maybe contaminated by wild bird.
Siggns: Gaping, Dyspnoea, Head shaking and lost of appetite and condition.
Worms can be up to 2 cm long
Best treatment avalible: Flubenvet

Re chasing clouds comments, why stress out the birds more by catching them up and forcing a pellet down their beak when flubenvet works just as well by mixing it with their feed?

a good preventative is to add diatom into your feed, it doesn't cure worms but it does act as a preventative along side ACV, we add it at 1% weight ratio so 200 grams per 20 kilo sack of feed.

A good point made there Archie, was just thinking the same. Most poultry keepers have their own way of worming and treating their birds, but this does seem like a bit of a faff to me,stress can cause a whole host of other problems in birds, it's best to minimise stress where ever possible. Flubenvet is the only licenced poultry wormer available to the average hobbyist, and works really well, a touch of codliver oil is a good way of making it stick to the feed so it doesn't blow away. As for ACV, it's an excellant natural addative and does alot of good, including turning the guts Ph to acid which worms don't like, therefore preventing them in the first place. But, i use Flubenvet alongside ACV just as a precaution, prevention is always better than the cure! I still stand by what i originally said, Gape worm isn't common here in the UK, and there's quite a few other things which can cause a chicken to gape. The feed, canker, a blockage, dry dusty conditions etc. The member who posted uses Flubenvet regularly, and has a pretty good worming regime, so having that in mind, i would be sorely tempted to look elsewhere for the cause of the gaping.
JubesX

Wild Pheasants are usually the carriers of Gapeworm and can bring it into the flock if they come close.

Flubenvet kills Gapeworm. It's not that common in chickens though but is characterised by rattling in the trachea (windpipe) and can often be confused with other respiratory problems such as Mycoplasma. When the infestation gets really bad, you get the gaping - neck stretched, gasping for breathe.

First action is to worm with Flubenvet - if it doesn't help after 3 or 4 days of treatment, it is something else and I would be looking towards the help of a poultry vet to diagnose as it could be a number of more complicated illnesses that require sampling before diagnosis.

ACV / Verm-X will not help in the short term although I am a great believer in ACV over the longer term.

Good Luck.

Tim

hi, ive got an ill chicken, been around many birds including pheasants. I think its this gapeworm thing shes repeaditly opening her beak and no sounds coming out and she wont eat or drink. Can anyone help me thanks

hi, ive got an ill chicken, been around many birds including pheasants. I think its this gapeworm thing shes repeaditly opening her beak and no sounds coming out and she wont eat or drink. Can anyone help me thanks

First question then - has she been wormed recently with Flubenvet?

try putting her on tylan for 3 days i had the same prob and it cleared after worming and tylan tommy

think you might be confusing the gaping action with some type of cold - tylan and baytril generally used for types of colds not worming. Make sure you do the worming for long enough - with the flubenver it needs to be constant for 4 days but I do it for 7 days as I cant be sure who is getting what quantity and after 7 days I know for sure - some people would call this wasteful but I would rather be sure. Can I mention that ACV should not be giving in the water all year round but as a weekly treat - birds have died from overdoing it. Red x

From what I understand Tylan is an antibiotic that kills various types of bacteria, useful for infections after breaking the skin or secondary infection of mycoplasmas (respiritory problems). It is prescription only medication so you would need a trip to a vet for them to diagnose the bird . Coughing / gaping can be in my opinion gapeworm or respiritory problems but with the latter, you will hear the bird wheezing and there are usually bubbles in the corners of the eyes and sometimes discharge from the nostrils and bad breathe.

Flubenvet on the other hand does not require prescription... so before visiting the vet, it is worth considering worming. It is the first question I ask as so many 'problems' can be solved once birds are wormed.

Flubenvet dosage is 7 days according to the instructions but I have looked at commercial flock worm samples which showed it worked very quickly, even after a couple of days.

I hope this helps.

Tim

Hi, i have only kept birds for 39 years, 3 years studying poultry and avian species at college 24 years in the poultry industry meat and egg management uk and canada. 10 years with HOMOEOPATHY and natural products. i make no medical claims. Always consult a vet. vets out of 7 years studying are lucky to do 6 weeks on birds, we use to get them through our college for 2 weeks. there are some great vets out there who specialise in avian species, power to their elbow. testimonies speak for themselves. happy to help. Keep it natural, always! www.allcreatureshealthcheck.com Colin.

hi i have 4 chickens at the moment with a largish run for them to be out in the afternoon when were not in and get let out into the garden to roam about, my light sussex has been playing up recently she had just been sitting in the corner, she has been drinking and eating sweetcorn, we thought she was egg bound so we put her in a make shift steamer with moist heat but nothing happened from that but she seems to be standing with her mouth open, the other 3 are acting the same so i dont know whether it is this worm or not. I only looked up this after my dad posted on another forum and someone mentioned this. any help would be brilliant.
thanks Matt.

Hi - I have recently lost 3 hens and I think Gape Worm has been the problem. My other hens are displaying signs of coughing. The 3 that died coughed intially then went off food, they dropped their lower body and had a lot of salivery bubbles around their beaks. We have been treating with Flubenvet, but as I say, the other hens are still displaying signs of coughing. I'm really not sure what to do next. The hens are kept in a large run, but have free access to a large garden during the winter months. Is the vet the next action?

Coughing / sneezing can be caused by respiritory problems as well as Gape Worm. If you have treated with Flubenvet, in my opinion it is unlikely to be Gape Worm.

I would go and see a poultry vet. It could be one of a number of respiritory problems that will most probably be treated with prescription antibiotics such as Baytril or Tylan.

There is an article that covers some of the respiritory problems in chickens here..
I haven't seen a poultry vets list on poultrytalk but there is one that (hopefully!) lists one in your area: Poultry Vets list.

Good luck and do let us know how you get on.
Tim.

We used Tylan which has to be added to their water for a week and treated again a few weeks later. The chickens were gaping as if gasping for more air. There is a definite difference between gape worm and the gasping with their mouths. The gape worm tends to make them gurgle as well as the worms sit in their crop.

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and wondered if anyone could help me with something I am having problems with.

I am an MRes student looking at gapeworms in birds. The next part of my project involves finding some gapeworm samples but it is proving rather difficult to get these. Does anyone have any information on gapeworms, expecially if they know any cases of them?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks,

Sarah.

Hello Sarah,

Welcome!

Your best chance of finding Gape Worms would be via a poultry vet or post mortem service. St David's Poultry (AKA Chickenvet) have 15 or so poultry vets and would be a good starting point.

Good Luck.

Tim

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