Poultry vet Dr Grant Richards on intestinal worms

Worms are often the chief suspect when a backyard chicken gets sick. But how often are they to blame? This is the starting point for my conversation with poultry vet Grant Richards who has spent his 40-year career in chickens and chicken health. Grant sits at the helm of Parasite Diagnostic Services where you can send poultry manure for worm testing so you might think he’d be talking up the dangers posed by intestinal worms. But his perspective is a lot more nuanced than that. We discuss: — How often worms are the culprit for sickness in backyard chickens — The importance of testing for worm loads before de-worming a chicken — Whether you should worm on a schedule — What is a healthy worm burden in a chicken — How chickens become “bombproof” against intestinal worms — The necessity of exposure to worms in order for a chicken to develop natural resistance — Understanding the parasite life cycle — How chickens get worms and the role of intermediate hosts — Why the mobile chicken tractor set-up is helpful in avoiding issues with worms — How often to move your flock to fresh ground to avoid parasite problems — How sun, rain, frost and grass length affect parasite survival in the environment — How long to rest the ground before rotating your flock back there — Whether baby chicks can hatch with worms — The critical age for roundworm build-up in a chicken — Why not to google your bird’s symptoms — How long post-hatch it takes for a chick’s immune system to ‘fire up’ — Grant's take on diatomaceous earth — Whether you or your dogs can catch worms from your chickens — Whether Dr Richards thinks you should vaccinate your chickens — Whether it makes sense to cull your flock if mycoplasma is detected — The use of ivermectin-containing pour-on sheep and cattle drenches to control lice and worms in chickens