Worms....in a nutshell

[Pigeonpal2002]

Thanks Yong for bringing this topic up. I think it's worth while to give a bit more information about worms.

Worms and pigeons are NOT a good combination. They can directly bring the bird's health down by a number of ways. 1) they take vital nutrients from the bird and cause the bird to have to eat more in order to compensate. 2)In large numbers they can cause blockages in the intestines that can be fatal! 3) they produce toxins that harm the bird, 4) infestations can affect moulting, cause severe weight loss and diarrhea, and 4) they can infect the lungs and cause respiratory problems (lung worm).

The thing I fear most about worms, is their surreptitious ways. They literally can be unseen, undetected and no matter how good we think our husbandry/cleaning practices are...they can still manage to infect the birds.

Round worms: Lives in the small intestine. Between 1.5 - 2 inches long. The eggs need time to "ripen" outside a host which is about 10 days before they can be infectious to the bird. After this time, if a pigeon eats something that is contaminated by worm eggs, they will hatch in the intestines. Once there, they attach themselves to the wall of the intestines and do their damage.

Thread/Hair worms: These are much smaller, almost microscopic to the naked eye. They also live in the intestines but can do more damage than round worms. All the same conditions apply as the round worm in it's methods of infection and harm.

Lung worm/gapeworm: Much less common than the other two types in pigeons. This type of worm only requires one male and female each. Once the male and female come together, their breeding cycle is finished and the worm is expelled through the mouth of the pigeon but in the mean time it causes severe stress on the bird because of breathing difficulties.

Worms are insidious, horrific and easily transmittable. I've often said this and it's so true. No matter how much you clean, how diligant a person is, these parasites can get into a bird and do damage. Everyone should have their birds tested for worms if possible. The treatments are easy and fast working but they also should become routine once their presence has been previously detected.