Worming Meds Overdose. Is it possible?

I wormed my chickens yesterday with Piperazine.

Is it possible to Over dose on the worming meds?
I may have put too much in.... Will that make them sick?

What is the correct dose (tsp or tbsp / gallon)?

Also, I would like to worm them for Gape worm with the Oral Horse paste, can I do that today, even though I did piperazine yesterday? Or will the both the wormers at the same time be too much for the chickens to handle. I just thought, that since I was going to do egg withdrawal, I might as well do both at the same time.

Silkiebantam, the age old question of how much.

I have actually taken medications and weighed them to see what a gram is.

With piperazine this is what I found

1 gram = 1/4 teaspoon

4 grams to four litres of water = 1 teaspoon to four litres

Unless you gave them copious amounts of piperazine, I highly doubt that you would overdose them.

This is the measurement that I have used in the past. Seems to have worked.

Why are you medicating for gapeworm? Have you actually seen the chickens gaping? Perhaps you have. If you have not, I personally would not worm for gapeworm. Just a personal choice though, others may chime in.

Also, I am not sure if there is withdrawal for eggs with using piperazine. From my understanding it is pretty safe, and that medication is what has been used for human beings with worming. Again, just something in the cobwebs of my mind, others will chime in.

When I wormed with piperazine, I did not use any withdrawal time for eggs, because of things I had heard about it. But then I wasn't selling eggs at that time anyways. Don't take what I say as gospel, but these are just my thoughts here, perhaps more knowledgeable answers will come your way. Have a wonderful and great day, CynthiaM.

Hi sb, I too am trying to work through the cobwebs but I believe there is no withdrawal for Piperazine. Also thinking that you have to re-medicate in a few weeks (can't remember how many weeks) as you need to zap out those worms that may have now hatched that were in egg form at first worming. Also if you are going to use the oral horse paste, safeguard? (next time) be careful as I did use it for gapeworm when my birds were moulting (as it says not to) and it really will deform the feathers that have not not yet come in. They do tend to come in OK next moult but they looked very odd for a long time!! No more suspected gapeworm though!

XOX Monika

Thank you guys! The dose is helpful. I added about 1 1/2 tbsp for a 2 gallon waterer.

Thanks for the advice on the molting and Safeguard, Island Girl. I see a lot of feathers floating around the coop, and some of the girls are looking droopy. (mine always seem to get droopy and pouty looking when they molt.) A couple chickens look underweight, and that's what prompted me to want to worm them.

It's been a really wet year, and earthworms are plentiful. Plus one of my Roo's is wheezy when he runs, so I thought it may not hurt to worm for gapeworm. I don't see a lot of gaping at this time, (although last fall I seen lots of yawning and head shaking). I had another Roo that was wheezy when he ran or exerted himself, and when we butchered him, I looked in his wind pipes, but couldn't see anything... mind you, maybe I didn't really know what to look for, or maybe they came out when his head came off. His lungs looked fine to me as well. He was other wise a healthy boy. I just wanted to rule out gape worm.

Also, I was thinking about tapeworm. My cat recently had it. I gave him the safe guard horse wormer paste twice, and see no more signs of it. Chickens can get tapeworm can't they? I don't think Piperazine covers that.

I will wait until after they molt. It's good to know about the feathers....