I wanted to share my experience with capillary worms and peafowl. I am not a veterinarian, or do I claim to be one. I have been raising peacocks since 1985. During this time spent raising peafowl, I have made some mistake that was costly to me, and I would like to share my experience with you. This is my true story so take it for what ever it is worth.

My veterinarian informs me that there are three types of capillary worms. Capillaria caudinflata has an intermediate host in the earthworm and infect the bird small intestine. Capillaria obsignata is passed directly form one bird to another and infects the small intestine and ceca. Capillaria contorta can either be passed directly or by the earth worm and infects the mouth, esophagus, and crop.

Ivomec is a very good wormer however it isn’t a miracle wormer. I use Ivomec on my cows, dogs (used for prevention of heart worms) and all of my fowl including peafowl. However it is not effective against capillary worms. I am like many others, who were under the impression that all you had to use was Ivomec and automatically assumed I was doing a good job of controlling internal parasites. Boy was I wrong.

I always worm my peacocks in the month of February down here in South Texas because of the warmer weather. Then one March, I notice that my Silver Pied Male was starting to loss weight and didn’t have all the energy that he should have. The first thing that I did was to reworm him with Ivomec. Well two weeks went by the silver pied showed very little improvement. I call the veterinarian that I use on the ranch and he ran a fecal sample and, found out that he was loaded with capillary worms. I was wondering how that could be, after all I have used Ivomec the miracle wormer. When I made that statement to the vet a big smile came across his face and I had new that I had made a big mistake. The veterinarians gave me a crash course on Ivomec and a wormer that I had never heard of before Panacure. After worming him with Panacure to get read of the capillary worms I was taught a very valuable lesson that day. Even though I didn’t get to use the Silver Pied for the upcoming breeding season that year, he made a full recovered and I have been using him every since producing some very nice Silver Pieds.

Needless to say from that day on, I used Panacure in conjunction with Ivomec. I do not recommend using both wormers together. I use Ivomec one month and then the next month I will use Panacure. I use the wormer three times a year. Before laying season starts and then right after the laying season is over with and then one more time before winter set in. The recommended dosage for Panacure is 5mg. per lb. of bird, or .1cc per every two pounds of bird orally for three days, then repeat the process again in 14 to 21 days. The recommended dosage of Ivomec for an adult peafowl is .50 cc is more than adequate.

You can purchase Ivomec and Panacure from your local feed store. In the event that the feed store is out of Panacure you can purchase some from your local vet.

If for some reason your local vet is out of Panacure I am going to tell you about an alliterative. It is called MULI-WORMER TRIPLE ACTION. Manufacture by ROOSTER BOOSTER Your local feed store should have some in stock. The wormer will come in a 1.25 pound container in pellet form. This wormer is a multi action product that kills round worms, cecal worms and capillary worms (Capillaria Obsignata) in poultry. The wormer also contains an antibiotic that controls infectious Synovitis and Vitamins.

Direction for use mix 1.25 pounds of MULI-WORMER pellets with 50 pound of feed.Rooster Booster is manufactured by TDL Industries Inc. the contacted information is 1-888-628-1382 PO Box 1164, Laurel, MT 59044

A word of caution always read the direction and manufactures warning statement before using any of the above wormers.