# Do Ducks eat paracitic worms?



## heathen (Sep 22, 2012)

Hello BYHERs I got into a rather interesting discusion with a nice in my opinion missinformed lady the other day about paracitic worms. She Claims she does not use chemical wormers or natural wormers because she has ducks running with her goats. I thought well that could explain why as I am walking around out here you have 4 dead goats the 5 goats I checked eye lids on were white as snow and you are having such a hard time with disease in your heard. But of course I simply tried to politly suggest if nothing else to feed the goats chewing tobaco preferbly Green without being processed and pine trees. Does anyone know anything about ducks eating paracitic worms? if so how does this controll the worms? She says that ducks grind there food and that kills the worms. Now I could kinda see this but I just dont see them eating enough of the worms to do much good. I would deffinetly get a few runner ducks to run loose with the goats if they ate them but I thought you had to worm ducks also. She has 3 goats that I wanted to buy but they would be recue cases. Well maybe not rescue persay but she is kind of doing a kiko experment using Nigerians fainter lamanchas and pygmies. She claims she does not have any issues with worms because her goats dont have bottle Jaw........ I have half a notion to do fecal samples on her goats and show her the issue she is haveing. I dont understand the reasoning for not medicating or worming. They do not milk,  eat the meat, or sell goats as meat or milk goat. Thanks for any inputt.


----------



## Straw Hat Kikos (Sep 22, 2012)

That is crazy. Ducks eating worms? Wow, ok then.

btw we have ducks here and they don't grind their food. They swallow things whole and if not do a quick chew and swallow. They have beaks (or bills) so it is hard for them to chew and grind food. I think this lady has no idea what she is talking about and her goats will have to foot that bill.


----------



## Catahoula (Sep 23, 2012)

Ducks can eat worms...but I don't think they are the worms this lady is referring to. They also swallow sand and gravel and maybe swallowing microscopic worms that are in the feces of the goats. They probable contribute to the worm populations more than rid of it.


----------



## elevan (Sep 23, 2012)

Um...no.  If they accidentally ingest them then yes, but as to purposefully eating them and controlling the populations of them then the answer is no.

She needs to do fecals on her goats and learn the truth about internal parasites.  And bottle jaw doesn't happen in all cases of internal parasites.

I wouldn't buy from her herd as it is, you'll be buying more trouble than you want imo.


----------



## Stacykins (Sep 23, 2012)

Ducks can eat slugs and snails, which are part of the lifecycle of meningeal worm and liver flukes. So they can sort of reduce incidence of those two worms.

 BUT considering that goats shed microscopic oocytes (eggs) of worms in their feces, rather than adult worms, the ducks cannot reduce a parasite problem for every other parasite in existence.


----------



## heathen (Sep 23, 2012)

Thanks all!! Well this wont help my convince the other half we should get a few ducks to run around with everything but hey good to know I was not alone in thinking she was off her rocker.  Some of the things I hear people say I am just like and the cow jumped over the moon to....... My friend that went with me thought I was crazy because I sprayed both our shoes down when we got in the car with a clorox sprayl. I was like what no telling what all she has over hear and I aint bringing it home. I have started keeping a bottle of antivirus bacterial killer in the car so that when we go places we dont accidently bring it back to the farm.


----------



## secuono (Sep 23, 2012)

She needs real de-wormers for her animals. No other animal, in nature or domestication, can help with parasite worms.


----------



## SkyWarrior (Sep 24, 2012)

I have ducks and geese in with my goats and llama, but for another reason-- they get rid of the poo.  Seriously.  I discovered this quite by accident when I just had Sid the llama and thought he was lonely and threw the ducks and geese in there for him to guard.  The birds clean up the pen, despite their tendency to muck up the water.

But parasite control?  I don't think so.  I worm my critters.


----------



## Southern by choice (Sep 24, 2012)

@sky  are you serious? We have Toulouse, Brown Chinese, Runners, and we had Pekins and none of our geese or ducks eat poo. I have never seen this. Ours are open ranged and only eat forage (especially my hostas,and pretty plants) I wonder if penning had something to do with it. Our old pekins were pen raised for a short time (until they were fully feathered) but they didn't do that either.

sad about the lady with the goats.


----------



## Hickoryneck (Sep 24, 2012)

Ducks are good to have around they eat slugs grubs and I have heard they also eat liver flukes plus Muscovy ducks love flys and will eat every fly they can find ducks are like all birds as they too have gizzards which with the help of bits of gravel and grit they can grind up their food so yes any large worms they can eat and will grind it up and digest it BUT they can't eat and grind up what they can't see so worm eggs and microscopic worms they can't help you with I have lots of ducks and a pair of geese they are a great help on the farm but I still worm my goats! I have never wormed my ducks, ducks are the healthiest easy to care for fowl you can raise as long as they have water and are well feed/grazed they never need any sort of health care.

I would not buy any goats from her but I would try and talk the hubby into some ducks for your farm if I were you but I do love my ducks


----------

