Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract in birds are often accompanied by impaired stool. Diarrhea in chickens can occur for various reasons: from stress to infection. In the latter case, the risk of infection of the entire livestock increases. To protect the laying hens from death, you should understand the causes that cause diarrhea and be able to treat birds.
Why does diarrhea occur?
Usually, diarrhea in chickens occurs as a result of infectious pathologies or when feeding poor-quality feed. Only a doctor can determine exactly what caused the ailment. If you suspect an infection, you should be tested. After receiving the results, correction of the treatment is carried out. In some cases, diarrhea can indicate infection of birds with worms.
The danger of the disease is that the feed is not absorbed by the bird, and as a result there are dehydration, intoxication, and the body's immune defense is reduced. Without treatment, the bird dies. Everyone can make a preliminary diagnosis. To do this, just see the color of the stool.
Litter Quality Assessment
In order to recognize the occurrence of a problem in time, a daily assessment of the litter should be carried out. Normally, hens can be of two types: intestinal and fecal. The first type is a discharge that can be observed throughout the day. In a healthy bird, the droppings are neatly formed in the form of elongated granules of dark brown color. It is not liquid. The upper part of the feces has a white coating. It is excreted from the body salts that enter the cesspool with urine and exit along with feces. If the litter has no form, then this may indicate a violation of the diet, freezing layers, or infection.
Tsekalny litter is also called nightly. It has a liquid consistency and leaves the bird once a day. The fecal feces is a derivative of the blind processes of the intestine, in which food is delayed. By its consistency, the litter is liquid, has a dark brown shade, not sticky. Sometimes litter can have a light shade. This suggests that in blind processes, feed is retained in large quantities, causing fermentation. Because of this, vesicles are observed in the feces. If the color of feces changes or bubbles are visible in it, then this indicates a digestion disorder.
How to recognize diarrhea
For diarrhea, there are a number of characteristic signs that you should pay attention to. Every day, it is necessary to inspect the litter in the chicken coop, especially at the place where the bird was sleeping. This will allow you to see if the chickens have diarrhea. If liquid feces or droppings of an unusual color are detected in the total mass, then this is cause for concern.
To verify that there is a problem, a bird inspection should be performed. Each hen inspects cloaca. For those who are sick, the feather around the cloaca will be stained with feces. In laying hens, diarrhea can be said in the presence of sticky feces and blood on the eggshell. If diarrhea occurs in a chicken, the cesspool may stick together. As a result, bowel movement is difficult or impossible at all. Within a few days, the chick dies.
The violation of the nature of feces can be indicated by the behavior of a layer. She may experience depression, lethargy, increased thirst. Birds begin to eat poor food, stay away from other relatives. Such an individual must be monitored. If diarrhea is detected, then treatment should be urgently started.
Common causes of diarrhea
What are the causes of diarrhea in chickens? Most often, this condition is observed in violation of the diet and content.
- Hypothermia. Lowering the temperature causes poor digestibility. Because of this, the litter becomes watery, but its color does not change. Usually this type of disorder goes away on its own and does not require any treatment.
- Stress from moving. Transportation of chickens can cause stress, and it, in turn, leads to digestion. As a result, diarrhea is observed. As soon as the bird has mastered and gets used to the new conditions of keeping, feces will return to normal.
- Change in diet and violation of the feeding regimen. Changing the feed leads to stress, therefore, diarrhea. This is most often seen when buying a new bird from farms where it was fed with compound feed, and in the new farm they began to give it crops, mixers, corn and other feed. In order for the dietary changes to go unnoticed by the bird, it is recommended to gradually introduce new products into the laying menus. Over time, the amount of new feed is brought to 100%.
- Poor water. In the presence of nipple drinkers, problems with feces due to the consumption of poor-quality water are not observed in chickens. If the bird drinks from the tank, then the water in it may be contaminated. As a result, pathogenic microorganisms that cause diarrhea enter the chicken body with the liquid. To avoid this, the water containers must be decontaminated every three days, and the water is changed at least twice a day.
- Bowel problems, poisoning. When feeding chickens with poor-quality feed, moldy grains, infections can occur, including clostridia. As a rule, replacing feed does not improve the situation. To cope with the disease, the entire population is soldered with antibacterial drugs.
White diarrhea
If the chicken has white diarrhea, then this may indicate an infectious disease of pullorosis. It is caused by a simple bacterium from the genus Salmonella. When a bird enters the body, the pathogen affects the intestines and ovaries. In chickens, all internal organs are affected. Infection of chickens occurs from sick birds secreting a pathogen with droppings and carrying infected eggs.
In addition to white diarrhea, the following symptoms are observed in chickens:
- Rapid breathing with a slightly open beak.
- Indigestion.
- Depressed state.
- In laying hens, egg production is reduced.
If the disease affects the chicken, then it begins to lag behind in development, can stand in a corner with eyes closed and legs wide apart. It is unprofitable to treat this pathology, therefore, most often such chickens are sent for slaughter.
Yellow diarrhea
Under adverse conditions or as a result of infection, yellow diarrhea may appear in chickens. If the conditions of detention leave much to be desired, then it is urgent to fix it. In case of infection, Gamboro disease is suspected. To clarify the diagnosis, a laboratory study of feces and an autopsy of the dead bird are performed. Yellow diarrhea in chickens can occur as a result of stress. It can be observed after moving and not only. To remove this reason, apply various folk methods, eliminate the adverse factor.
Green feces
The appearance of green diarrhea in chickens may indicate malnutrition or infection, such as pasteurellosis. In the latter case, feces are given to the laboratory for analysis. Infection comes from sick chicken, mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects, rodents. If the diagnosis is confirmed by laboratory, then you need to start treatment as soon as possible. If the analysis is negative, then this indicates malnutrition. Often green diarrhea is caused by spoiled, expired or too coarse feed. In any case, treatment begins with the use of activated carbon and replacing the feed with high-quality.
Brown droppings
If brown diarrhea occurs in laying hens, this may indicate the penetration of pathogenic microorganisms into the poultry body. Most often they penetrate the intestines in the autumn and spring. Infection occurs through litter, feed, infected water.
Clinically, brown diarrhea may present with the following symptoms:
- In layers, the feather becomes tousled.
- The appetite is completely absent or reduced. Chicken is indifferent to food when other birds attack it.
- Feces are liquid, brown, with impurities of mucus.
Infected birds often sit in one place with their eyes closed. To clarify the diagnosis, a laboratory examination is performed. Brown bowel movements can cause eimeriosis or chicken coccidiosis. Coccidostatics are used to treat this pathology. This group of drugs is also used to prevent disease. Knowing how to treat brown diarrhea in chickens, you can prevent infection of the entire chicken coop.
Diarrhea with blood
Diarrhea in chickens with impurities of blood is observed with coccidiosis. The disease is caused by the simplest microorganisms - coccidia, affecting the digestive tract. Usually feces with impurities of blood is observed in young animals under the age of two months. Infection occurs through food containing a pathogenic microorganism. With the development of the disease, the chicks become lethargic, refuse to feed. They are inactive, scallops turn pale. Litter of chickens is liquid, it may contain blood, mucus. The color of feces changes - it turns brown. An admixture of blood in the feces can indicate an injury to the lower intestines or cloaca.
Diarrhea treatment
Treatment of diarrhea is carried out in several stages. At the first, it is necessary to eliminate the cause that led to the violation of the feces. Then a method for treating diarrhea is selected. Antibiotics are usually used, as most infections that cause diarrhea are caused by pathogenic bacteria.
Antibiotics are given to the bird with food or water for five days. One of the most commonly used drugs is Biseptolum. The price of the tablet depends on the package. The dosage is from 30 to 50 mg per kilogram of bird weight. When dissolved in water, one tablet for ten to twelve individuals is enough.
You can use other drugs for diarrhea in chickens. How to treat with other drugs, and which ones are best used to treat diarrhea in birds?
- The preparations Enrofloxacin, Norfloxacin are used at the rate of 10 mg per kilogram of weight. When using solutions of these drugs, one milliliter is taken and dissolved in a liter of water.
- "Tetracycline", "Biomycin" is given at a dose of 10 mg per adult. For chickens, the dosage is half as much.
- Instructions for use of the tablet "Levomycetin" allows you to use the drug in chickens. The dosage for poultry is 4 ml per liter of water.
Be sure to include vitamin complexes in the treatment. It is best to dissolve tablets in water or add aqueous solutions to it, such as Trisulfone, Dolink, Hydrotriprim, and Aquaprim. To restore intestinal microflora, poultry is given to the bird. It can be yogurt, whey or Kolibacterin, Monosporin, Bifidumbacterin.
The most common drugs
For the treatment of chickens, Biseptol tablets are most often used. The price is low. It is only about 50 rubles. Also often used tablets "Chloramphenicol". The instruction for use states that this antibiotic has a wide spectrum of action and is active against most types of pathogenic microorganisms.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that a daily examination of the litter, daily litter of chickens will allow you to see the pathology in a timely manner and cure the laying hen. And in order not to encounter diarrhea, it is necessary to change the water in time, feed the birds only with high-quality feed and monitor their conditions.