Diamond still has gape worm

I have felt for some time that all was not right with Diamond. I had wondered if she still had gape worm but she wasn’t showing the symptoms that she had last time. Recently though, as well as the mucky bottom, she has been making a snoring sound when breathing which indicates the possibility of a bit of a blockage.

Then a few days ago Diamond pooped on the chickens’ patio area and I saw the gape worms. I had researched them last time so I knew what they looked like. They look like thin red threads.

I had wormed the flock recently but it takes a double dose for gape worm. They are really difficult to get rid of. The biggest problem with Diamond is that she is really difficult to treat. If it was any of the other girls I could put the flubenvet in a treat and separate them and they would hoover it up.

Not so with Diamond. I tried holding a dish of chopped tomato and powder in front of her and she refused to have any. I even tried moving her to the dog crate in the shed and putting the dish in with her but she refused to have it. Any slight stress and Diamond won’t eat anything no matter what treat it is. I also tried getting her out at bedtime when the other girls were in and giving her the dish of tomato but she refused to touch it and just wanted to go back in. This worked last time but not now.

This causes a real problem with treating her. I have researched the dose of flubenvet and found it’s recommended to use 24g for 30 birds. This means 12g for 15 birds and so 6g for 7 birds. The measuring spoon is 6g. This means the usual way I worm of one level measure spoon per day between the flock is pretty much the correct amount. The problem is that for gape worm a double dose is needed. This means a third of the measure spoon for Diamond. There lies the problem when I can barely get her to take more than a few pecks.

Enough powder to make up third of this spoon is quite a lot for a girl who is very reluctant to take it. Diamond probably didn’t get enough last time to rid her of the gape worms completely even though I was giving her extra. This is so frustrating! What terrifies me is the rest of the flock getting gape worm. If eggs or worms are picked up by the other girls they will have them too.

I had to come up with a plan to get Diamond to have the double dose. I decided to separate the corner of the run where the large wooden shelter is. I set up a feeding station just inside the shelter. I put in a dish of water, a dish of mash and a dish of sunflower hearts. I divided the flubenvet between the mash and sunflowers hearts with a little olive oil to make the powder stick. Diamond had taken a few sunflower hearts like this the day before.

I thought it would take quite a big helping of sunflower hearts to take all the powder which would be unhealthy for her so I planned to leave her in her section until she had eaten all the mash. Then she could be returned to the flock.

I decided to leave her in there all day if need be until she had eaten the mash. She ate the sunflowers hearts straight away but didn’t touch the mash. It’s so difficult to get this amount of powder into her but I decided to just keep trying different ways until I could get her to have it.

By the afternoon when Diamond still hadn’t touched the mash I mixed the flubenvet to more sunflower hearts and olive oil. I decided that in the end it doesn’t matter how many sunflower hearts she eats if she takes the flubenvet but she only ate a few. If I can’t get her to take the medicine then she is doomed.

I don’t know what else to do. I have done loads of research to see if there is something that can be given directly to the beak but can’t find anything available to buy so I just have to keep going with this.

As the day went on I couldn’t get Diamond to eat anything or to have any water. I was beginning to feel a bit desperate about the situation. I decided to move one of the little coups we use as nest boxes into her area and keep her confined until she starts eating. She can use this at bedtime and it’s probably best to have her separated anyway.

I put a tarpaulin over it to stop any drips wetting the top of it. Diamond went to inspect it straight away so I didn’t think there would be a problem at bedtime.

As I couldn’t even get Diamond to have water I decided to syringe water to her beak. My husband suggested dissolving some flubenvet in the water so that she at least gets some of that as well as water. What we hope is that if she has some flubenvet and it kills some of the worms she may feel a bit better and start eating again.

I thought that I would know if she still had gape worm because I thought she would show the same symptoms as before which were beak breathing and coughing. This time the only sign was a mucky bottom and a slight snore sound occasionally. Yet I think she must have still had them for some time and I am worried that it might be too late but I have to keep trying to medicate her.

I am so frustrated by this. It was the first seramas we had that bought mico to our flock and now Diamond has bought gape worm in. Considering the research says gape worm is uncommon I feel so unlucky to have this come into our flock. I have to get rid of it or it could risk the whole flock. I am feeling pretty down hearted about this at the moment.

Diamond’s second day in confinement

Flubenvet isn’t soluble. If you mix it with water it will soon separate with the powder at the bottom and the water on top. However, yesterday, when we mixed it with water and straight away sucked it into the syringe it meant that by putting that into Diamond’s beak she was getting some powder and some water. She refused to eat anything yesterday.

Now that we can see that works we have given Diamond the full amount of flubenvet that she needs today. We did it by syringing into her beak splitting it into two lots, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. As I had hoped this has kick started her into eating a little this afternoon. She has had a piece of apple which is one of her favourite things, a few sunflower hearts and a little corn. It’s a start and I am feeling a bit more hopeful today.

We will continue to give the flubenvet like this until Diamond will eat the mash and then I can switch to adding it to mash again. She will need seven days and a repeat of another seven days in three weeks time. I am keeping everything crossed.