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Poultry farmers who are seriously involved in farming closely monitor the condition of their pets. One of the important indicators is the quality of the litter. Diarrhea in chickens, regardless of consistency and color, should cause alarm. Experienced owners are able to determine from the droppings what diseases the birds are suffering from and take measures to improve the health of the flock. When the first symptoms appear, it is necessary to treat the chickens.
Why do chickens get sick?
Liquid stool is commonly called diarrhea. There can be many reasons for its occurrence. In some cases this is due to poor-quality food, in others it is caused by serious infectious diseases. If in doubt, it is best to seek the help of specialists and do tests. After this, you can already decide how to treat your pets.
Diarrhea in chickens is a dangerous disease that leads to dehydration, intoxication, but, most importantly, reduces the body’s protective functions. If you do not give chickens special medications, the entire flock may die as a result.
How to evaluate a litter
A good owner will never wait for the chickens to start diarrhea. He monitors the bird's excrement and the condition of the litter daily.
There are two types of excretions in chickens: day and night litter:
- During the day, healthy adult hens and chicks poop as elongated, dark brown pellets. They don't stick to your hand, they roll around like plasticine. The presence of white deposits is quite natural. These are salts of uric acid. If the shape of the feces has changed, the reason may be hypothermia or poor quality food.
- Nighttime bowel movements are called cecal bowel movements. They are liquid, brown, but not sticky. This is the kind of feces a chicken comes out in the morning. Discharge from a healthy bird should not contain gas bubbles, mucus, or blood discharge.
The presence of diarrhea in a laying hen is easiest to control: if the eggs are clean, then the digestive system is working normally.
How to recognize diarrhea
Diarrhea in chickens can be recognized by its characteristic symptoms. First of all, you need to monitor the litter. If liquid stool appears or the color of the stool changes, you need to be concerned.
After diarrhea, the chicken will have noticeable dirt on its cloaca. In addition, diarrhea leads to inflammation of the cloaca. In laying hens, feces and sometimes blood clots stick to the eggs. At the first sign of sick birds, they are removed from the general flock to a separate room for observation and treatment. If measures are not taken in a timely manner, more than one bird will die.
You can tell that something is wrong with the chicken by its behavior. The presence of diarrhea in laying hens leads to lethargy, the birds are thirsty, but they refuse food.
Non-infectious causes
If a chicken has diarrhea, you first need to find out why it occurred.
Hypothermia
If the air temperature drops sharply, the bird digests feed worse. Because of this, a lot of liquid appears in the stool, or, as experts say, it becomes watery. But the color remains natural. In this case, no treatment is required.
Shock from a change of place
Any movement of a chicken to a new place of residence is associated with a stressful state, and this negatively affects the digestive process. A chicken's diarrhea goes away quickly after it adapts to new conditions.
Power change
When chickens are switched to a new diet, they become stressed, causing diarrhea. What to do in this case? First, they give the old food again, and gradually transfer it to the new one so that the chicken’s stomach gets used to it.
Dirty water
If nipple drinkers are installed in the chicken coop, then the chicken will not develop diarrhea unless it is infected. When water is in a common drinking bowl and birds step into it, they can introduce pathogenic microorganisms. In this case, the disease in chickens can become widespread and it will be difficult to stop. Poultry should be given disinfected water and changed twice a day.
Poisoning
Diarrhea in chickens can be caused by unsuitable food. It is impossible to get rid of poisoning only by replacing the food. How to treat sick chickens in such a situation? To treat diarrhea, it is necessary to give antibacterial drugs to all birds (both sick and healthy for prevention). They can be added to the mash.
Diarrhea caused by infections
Diarrhea often leads to a change in the color of the droppings, and this is already dangerous. The color of stool varies and the most common cause is infection.
White diarrhea
This color of stool most often appears with pullorosis caused by Salmonella. In poultry, not only the intestines are affected, but also the ovaries. White diarrhea noticed in chickens, can affect all organs, which leads to death. Chickens become infected from sick individuals through droppings and infected eggs.
Sick chickens can also be identified by external signs:
- the beak is constantly open, breathing is heavy;
- the chickens are lethargic, almost do not move, they sit ruffled;
- digestion is disrupted;
- Laying hens stop laying eggs.
Chickens suffering from white diarrhea do not grow well and mostly stand with their legs spread wide apart. The eyes are tightly closed. It is almost impossible to cure chickens from pullorosis, so they are slaughtered.
Yellow diarrhea
If birds are kept in unfavorable conditions, or stress is the cause, they may develop yellow diarrhea. In this case, it is enough to give the chickens potassium permanganate and put the room in order.
But if the cause of yellow diarrhea is an infection, and this is usually Gumboro disease, then you will have to conduct an examination of the feces or the dead bird. The veterinarian will prescribe the appropriate treatment.
Greens in the droppings
If the contents of the droppings are green, then a study needs to be done to see if the diarrhea is caused by paterellosis. If the tests are good, then the cause is non-infectious. The doctor will prescribe treatment with special medications.
The green color of feces often appears in the first spring months, when birds are transferred to pasture. Overeating fresh grass can cause green diarrhea. In this case, you will not need medications; you can use folk remedies.For example, give sick chickens a solution of potassium permanganate, an infusion of chamomile or other herbs that have a tanning effect.
Brown diarrhea
Liquid stool of this color is associated only with infection. Most often, chickens get sick in the fall and spring. The cause of infection is bedding, food, and water.
When a bird develops brown diarrhea, the following symptoms appear:
- chickens walk around disheveled;
- they become indifferent to food;
- mucus can be seen in liquid stool;
- birds lose activity, most often sit in a corner, spreading their wings and closing their eyes;
As a rule, brown diarrhea is caused by eimeriosis or coccidiosis. Veterinarians prescribe for treatment of chickens coccidostatics. Since these diseases are serious, to prevent them, such drugs can be given to the rest of the birds to prevent illness in the flock.
Bloody stool
The cause of blood in the liquid feces of chickens is coccidiosis. It is caused by tiny microorganisms called coccidia. They attack the digestive system of poultry. Bloody diarrhea most often affects young chicks under two months of age.
Sick birds mostly sit and do not approach the feeder. One of the symptoms is blanching of the scallops. First, blood appears in the stool, and then it turns brown.
Common infections
Disease | Stool color | Cause |
Newcastle disease | Mucus is visible in brown droppings. |
|
Colibacillosis | The stools are yellow, and blood is often visible. | The liver is affected. |
Coccidiosis | The stool is brown or chocolate brown. | Intestinal parasite infestation. |
Pasteurellosis | Green stool with mucus. |
|
Clostridiosis | Gas bubbles are visible in black diarrhea and there is a foul odor. |
|
Features of treatment
To rid chickens of diarrhea, treatment must be started immediately, otherwise the disease can lead to dehydration and death of the bird. At the initial stage of treatment, the cause is established, that is, they find out why the chickens have diarrhea. If diarrhea is not caused by infections, you can use folk remedies.
Funds from the people
Since poultry breeding has been practiced for a long time, our ancestors invented means to rid chickens of diarrhea.
So, how to treat:
- As soon as liquid feces, including black ones, are noticed, clay is added to the water in the drinking bowl.
- Boil rice or oats and drink the thick liquid instead of water. Chickens are also given thin oatmeal.
- If you have pomegranate peels, you can boil them and use them as an astringent and antibacterial agent.
- For green and dark brown diarrhea, it is useful to give chamomile infusion to your poultry.
Diarrhea remedy from the chickens themselves:
Drug treatment
Most often, antibacterial drugs are prescribed to treat diarrhea of various colors caused by infections:
- Biseptol;
- Enrofloxacin and Norfloxacin;
- Tetracycline and Biomycin.
If liquid Levomycetin is used as a medicine, then 4 ml of the drug is dissolved in a liter of boiled water.
In addition to medication, chickens must be given vitamin complexes during treatment, for example: Trisulfone, Dolink, Hydrotriprim and others. The tablets are dissolved in water, and the solution is poured into the drinking bowl. To consolidate the results, you cannot do without pribiotics during the treatment process: yogurt, whey, Monosporin, Bifidumbacterin.
Let's sum it up
In any case, when choosing drugs for treating poultry, it is better to consult with specialists. They will help you figure out the dosage.
To prevent poultry from getting sick, it is necessary to create comfortable conditions for them, comply with sanitary standards, and provide them with high-quality feed.
