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Diseases of chickens cause significant damage to chicken breeders. There are quite a few diseases in chickens, and most of them are accompanied by intestinal upset. By the color of the feces in a chicken, one can make an assumption about a possible disease. But in any case, such a preliminary diagnosis will have to be confirmed by a laboratory, since sometimes a similar diarrhea occurs either when chickens are infected with another pathogen, or when a mixed infection occurs. 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 “pass by itself”. Especially when it comes to chickens. If diarrhea in chickens is not cured in the first days, there is a chance of losing 100% of the young. In chickens, a fast metabolism and prolonged diarrhea, even of non-contagious origin, will lead to the death of the bird from dehydration.
When do chicks have white diarrhea?
White diarrhea in a chicken can be both with infectious diseases and with non-contagious intestinal disorders. Basically, 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 be with a mixed infection of salmonellosis + coccidiosis. In this case, diarrhea will be mixed with blood.
The third variant of white diarrhea: under stress. It is believed that under stress in chickens diarrhea is yellow. But a case is known when chickens were heated with a white liquid. Treatment, except for the issuance of high-quality compound feed to young chickens, was not carried out. 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 a temperature outside of -10°C. All this time the birds did not receive food. It is possible that all these factors together played a role in the appearance of white feces in these chickens.
Then use folk remedies to stop diarrhea.
Mixed infection pullorosis + coccidiosis
“Normal” with coccidiosis due to the admixture of blood to the litter in chickens, brown diarrhea is observed. With a mixed infection, at the very beginning of the activity of coccidia that damage the intestines, diarrhea will be white with an admixture of blood. It will turn brown later. With signs of coccidiosis, the bird should be drunk with coccidiostats and antibacterial drugs as soon as possible. Even if chickens have “pure” coccidiosis, if the intestines are damaged, the development of a secondary infection is inevitable. If the chicken fell ill with coccidiosis and pullorosis at the same time, complex treatment is used.
Signs and treatment of coccidiosis in chickens
Without laboratory tests, the owner of a sick bird can only visually observe and speculate about the type of infection. With coccidiosis in birds, a ruffled feather. Chickens have sticky, unpleasant fluff. The chickens are sitting, fluffed up, in one place. Trying to avoid movement. They just hurt to move. Appetite is reduced until the complete absence.
The treatment is carried out with coccidiostats + antibacterial drugs. From antibacterial apply sulfadimetoksin or sulfadimesin. Coccidiostatics are prescribed by a veterinarian, depending on the purpose for which the bird is grown. Broilers are soldered with coccidiostats, which do not allow developing immunity to coccidia. Laying hens and the breeding herd are given coccidiostatics to drink, which does not interfere with the development of immunity.
Pulloroz
The main disease in which white diarrhea appears. 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 chickens walk all together. Since salmonellosis in chickens is asymptomatic, young animals are allowed to look healthy. As a result, the death of the entire population of chickens is often obtained.
Signs of pullorosis
In small chickens infected with pullorosis while still in the egg from a sick laying hen, the disease proceeds in an acute form. The incubation period for this type of disease is 3 to 10 days. But usually up to 5 days. The main symptoms of this type are:
- the yolk is not retracted into the abdominal cavity. The chick usually hatches with the yolk already drawn in;
- lowered wings;
- general weakness;
- lack of appetite;
- poor feathering;
- liquid white litter;
- cloaca sealed with dirty fluff.
If the chicks got sick right after they hatched, they wouldn’t live longer than a day. For 3 days, the chicken manages to eat and lives a little longer.
When infected immediately after hatching, which can be caused by an infected incubator or brooder with already sick chickens, the incubation period lasts 2-5 days after hatching. The disease proceeds in this case in an acute form. Signs of the postnatal type of the disease are:
- breathing through an open beak;
- white mucous stools;
- diarrhea;
- clogging of the cloaca;
- weakness.
Usually in this case, the chickens stand with their legs apart and their eyes closed.
At an older age, in 2-3-week-old chickens, the disease occurs in a subacute and chronic form. Mortality in these forms of the disease is low.
The main signs of pullorosis in chickens older than a week old, but younger 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 with careful observation it can be seen;
- decreased egg production;
- yolk peritonitis;
- blue ridge (can be confused with histomonosis);
- indigestion;
- oovaritis / salpingitis (inflammation of the reproductive organs).
The latter can be found out only 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 industrially or at home. First of all, obviously sick chickens are isolated and a study is carried out in order to differentiate the disease from food poisoning, colibacillosis, coccidiosis and aspergillosis. When the diagnosis is confirmed, chickens that clearly show signs of the disease are slaughtered. Conditionally healthy birds are given broad-spectrum antibiotics.
In industrial conditions, chickens are given tetracycline antibiotics and antimicrobials with feed. Dosage and regimen prescribed by a veterinarian. The instructions for veterinary drugs often already indicate the desired dosage.
At home, they 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, the chances are high not to cure the infection, but to hide the symptoms.
If the pharmacy offers another product instead of chloramphenicol, you need to pay attention to the active substance. Chloramphenicol can be used against microorganisms resistant to antibiotics of the penicillin group.
Supportive therapy
After the use of potent drugs, no useful fauna remains in the intestines of chickens either. In this case, chickens can vilify due to dysbacteriosis. The diarrhea in this case is usually dark yellow or brown. But the color of diarrhea may depend on the food eaten. When eating a lot of greens, the feces will be dark green in color.
To stop diarrhea that has developed due to dysbacteriosis, chickens are given fixative decoctions: oatmeal jelly or rice water.
These are disinfectants that kill microorganisms that are not present in the intestines after antibiotics.
As a fixing agent, you can give a hard-boiled egg or finely crushed crackers.
Another version of a fixing folk remedy.
Other colors of bowel movements for diarrhea
Diarrhea in chickens can be not only white. Diarrhea is also yellow, brown, green, brown and bloody.
Bloody diarrhea indicates a severe infection of chickens with coccidia. In this case, the entire population of chickens – chickens and adult birds – should be given coccidiostatics as soon as possible. The type of medicine and method of application should be determined by a veterinarian, since coccidia easily adapt to drugs and must be alternated. According to what scheme to give coccidiostatics to chickens, it is usually indicated in the instructions for a particular 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, they will gladly eat green or black bread from mold. And then they will suffer from diarrhea.
With such diarrhea, first of all, it is determined why the stomach of the chickens is upset. If this is due to food or water, they are replaced with benign ones. And in this case, it is better to water the chickens with disinfectant solutions.
For food poisoning, these remedies “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 intestine remains alive and quickly restores the number to the required level.
Worst option: “rainbow” diarrhea. A gradual change in the color of liquid feces indicates a disease with histomonosis. More often, turkeys suffer from this disease, but chickens are not immune from it either. Initially, the stools are light yellow, then greenish and brown in color, with an unpleasant odor. At the final stage of the development of the disease, the head of adult birds becomes dark blue. Juveniles are black. Due to the blueness of the feathered head in chickens, histomonosis can be confused with pullorosis, since only a blue comb remains in sight of the chicken.
Chickens can become infected with protozoan organisms that cause histomonosis 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 chicks for diarrhea of any kind should be started as soon as possible, as several hours are often enough for a chick to die from dehydration. When diarrhea occurs, chickens are given fixing agents and immediately contact the veterinarian. In infectious diseases, the treatment of diarrhea alone is useless. Diarrhea in such cases is only a symptom.