Chicken diseases cause significant damage to chicken farmers. Diseases in chickens quite a lot and most of them are accompanied by intestinal upset. Based on the color of a chicken's stool, one can make an assumption about a possible disease. But in any case, such a preliminary diagnosis will have to be confirmed in the laboratory, since sometimes similar diarrhea occurs either when chickens are infected with another pathogen, or with a mixed infection. How to treat chickens should be decided after an accurate diagnosis has been established.
It is impossible to delay the treatment of diarrhea in the expectation that it will “go away on its own.” Especially when it comes to chickens. If diarrhea in chickens is not treated in the first days, there is a chance of losing 100% of the young. Chickens have a rapid metabolism and prolonged diarrhea, even of non-contagious origin, will lead to the death of the bird from dehydration.
When do chickens have white diarrhea?
White diarrhea in a chicken can be caused by both infectious diseases and non-contagious intestinal disorders. Mostly white diarrhea in chickens is a sign of pullorosis, caused by microorganisms of the genus Salmonella.
The second variant of white diarrhea in chickens can occur with a mixed infection of salmonellosis + coccidiosis. In this case, the diarrhea will be mixed blood.
The third option for white diarrhea: under stress. It is believed that when chickens are stressed, they have yellow diarrhea. But there is a known case when chickens were heated with white liquid. No treatment was carried out other than providing young chickens with high-quality feed. The reasons for this phenomenon are not exactly known. According to the owner, the purchased chickens spent the night in very cramped cages in an unheated room at an outside temperature of -10°C. All this time the birds did not receive food. Perhaps all these factors together played a role in the appearance of white feces in these chickens.
Then they use folk remedies to stop diarrhea.
Mixed infection pullorosis + coccidiosis
“Normally”, with coccidiosis, brown diarrhea is observed in chickens due to the admixture of blood in the droppings. With a mixed infection, at the very beginning of the activity of coccidia that damage the intestines, the diarrhea will be white with an admixture of blood. Later it will turn brown. If there are signs of coccidiosis, the bird should be given coccidiostats and antibacterial drugs as soon as possible. Even if chickens have coccidiosis “in its pure form,” if the intestines are damaged, the development of a secondary infection is inevitable. If a chicken is sick with both coccidiosis and pullorosis, complex treatment is used.
Signs and treatment of coccidiosis in chickens
Without laboratory tests, the owner of a sick bird has only visual observation and guesswork about the type of infection. Birds with coccidiosis have ruffled feathers. The chickens have sticky, unpleasant fluff. The chickens sit, ruffled, in one place. They try to avoid movement. It's just painful for them to move. Appetite decreases to the point of complete absence.
Treatment is carried out with coccidiostats + antibacterial drugs. Antibacterial agents include sulfadimethoxine or sulfadimezine. Coccidiostats are prescribed by a veterinarian depending on the purpose for which the bird is raised. Broilers are given coccidiostats that do not allow them to develop immunity to coccidia. Laying hens and breeding flocks are given a coccidiostat, which does not interfere with the development of immunity.
Pullorosis
The main disease that causes white diarrhea. Chickens are especially affected. Even bred at home, they can become infected from an adult bird. Chicken owners most often do not have the opportunity to keep birds separately from each other, and the chickens all walk together. Since salmonellosis in chickens is asymptomatic, young animals are allowed near healthy-looking chickens. As a result, the entire number of chickens often die.
Signs of pullorosis
In small chickens infected with pullorosis while still in the egg from a sick laying hen, the disease occurs in an acute form. The incubation period of this type of disease is from 3 to 10 days. But usually up to 5 days. The main symptoms of this type:
- the yolk is not drawn into the abdominal cavity. Usually the chicken is hatched with the yolk already drawn in;
- drooping wings;
- general weakness;
- lack of appetite;
- poor feathering;
- liquid white droppings;
- cloaca sealed with dirty fluff.
If chickens got sick immediately after hatching, they would not live longer than a day. In 3 days, the chicken manages to eat its fill and lives a little longer.
If infected immediately after hatching, which may be caused by an infected incubator or brooder with already sick chicks, the incubation period lasts 2-5 days after hatching. In this case, the disease occurs in an acute form. Signs of the postnatal type of disease are:
- breathing through an open beak;
- white mucous stool;
- diarrhea;
- cloaca blockage;
- weakness.
Usually in this case the chickens stand with their paws spread and their eyes closed.
At an older age, in 2-3 week old chickens, the disease occurs in subacute and chronic forms. The mortality rate for these forms of the disease is low.
The main signs of pullorosis in chickens older than a week, but less than a month old:
- developmental delay:
- poor feather fouling;
- diarrhea with white feces;
- In broilers, the joints of the legs become inflamed.
In adult laying hens, pullorosis is asymptomatic, but can be noticed with careful observation;
- decreased egg production;
- vitelline peritonitis;
- blue discoloration of the comb (can be confused with histomoniasis);
- indigestion;
- oophoritis/salpingitis (inflammation of the reproductive organs).
The latter can only be determined after opening a sick chicken.
What to do if chickens have white diarrhea
Treatment of white diarrhea in chickens, provided that it is pullorosis, is not carried out either in industrial or at home conditions. First of all, obviously sick chickens are isolated and examined to differentiate the disease from food poisoning, colibacillosis, coccidiosis and aspergillosis. Once the diagnosis is confirmed, chickens clearly showing signs of the disease are slaughtered. A conditionally healthy bird is given broad-spectrum antibiotics.
In industrial conditions, chickens are given tetracycline antibiotics and antimicrobials with food. The dosage and regimen of use are prescribed by a veterinarian. The instructions for veterinary drugs often already indicate the required dosage.
At home, people often try to use chloramphenicol as an antibiotic used in the treatment of salmonellosis in humans. But levomiticin does not act on all strains of salmonella. In the case of chickens, there is a high chance of not curing the infection, but of hiding the symptoms.
If a pharmacy offers another product instead of chloramphenicol, you need to pay attention to the active ingredient. Chloramphenicol can be used against microorganisms resistant to penicillin antibiotics.
Maintenance therapy
After using potent drugs, there is also no beneficial fauna left in the intestines of chickens. In this case, chickens may diarrhea due to dysbacteriosis. Diarrhea in this case is usually dark yellow or brown. But the color of the diarrhea may depend on the food eaten. If you eat a lot of greens, your feces will be dark green in color.
To stop diarrhea that has developed due to dysbacteriosis, chickens are given fixing infusions: oatmeal jelly or rice infusion.
These are disinfectants that kill microorganisms that are not in the intestines after antibiotics.
As a fixing agent, you can give a hard-boiled egg or finely crushed crackers.
Another option for a fixing folk remedy.
Other colors of stool for diarrhea
Diarrhea in chickens can be not only white. Diarrhea can also be yellow, brown, green, brown and bloody.
Bloody diarrhea means severe damage to chickens by coccidia. In this case, the entire chicken population: chicks and adult birds must be given coccidiostats as soon as possible. The type of medication and method of administration should be determined by a veterinarian, since coccidia easily adapt to medications and need to be alternated. The scheme for feeding chickens with coccidiostats is usually indicated in the instructions for a specific drug. Treatment regimens for coccidiosis are different and depend on the coccidiostat.
Yellow or brown diarrhea in chickens it can occur due to poor-quality feed, spoiled water, or a spoiled piece of food found on a walk. Chickens are omnivores and will happily eat bread that is green or black from mold. And then they will suffer from diarrhea.
With such diarrhea, the first thing to determine is why the chickens have an upset stomach. If it is due to food or water, they are replaced with benign ones. Moreover, in this case, it is better to feed the chickens with disinfectant solutions.
In case of food poisoning, these products “gently” reduce the population of pathogenic organisms to an amount that the chicken can handle on its own. Part of the beneficial microflora in the chicken’s intestines remains alive and quickly restores its numbers to the required level.
Worst case: "rainbow" diarrhea. A gradual change in the color of liquid feces indicates the disease histomonosis. Turkeys most often suffer from this disease, but chickens are not immune from it. Initially, the stool is light yellow, then greenish and brown in color, with an unpleasant odor. At the final stage of development of the disease, the head of adult birds becomes dark blue. In young individuals it is black. Due to the blueness of the feathered head in chickens, histomonosis can be confused with pullorosis, since only the blue comb remains visible to the chicken.
Chickens can become infected with protozoan organisms that cause histomoniasis by eating earthworms.
If signs of histamonosis appear, give the chickens antiprotozoal drugs. One of the most common: metronidazole. You can try to calculate the dosage yourself, but it is better to seek help from specialists.
Conclusion
Treatment of chickens for diarrhea of any kind should be started as soon as possible, since it often takes a few hours for a chicken to die from dehydration. When diarrhea appears, chickens are given fixatives and immediately contact a veterinarian. For infectious diseases, treatment of diarrhea alone is useless. Diarrhea in such cases is only a symptom.
