Common chicken diseases
Keeping and raising domestic chickens has always been a popular and profitable activity. However, diseases of young laying hens and their symptoms cause significant damage, as they have the ability to quickly spread in the hen house. At poultry farms, a special veterinary service is involved in determining the disease of laying hens and their prevention, and the enterprise strictly limits the circle of persons who have direct access to chickens.
- Common causes of morbidity in chickens
- Infectious diseases in chickens
- Several signs will tell the owner that the bird is not healthy.
- Gumboro disease
- Pasteurellosis
- Salmonellosis in chickens
- Newcastle disease
- Chicken pox
- Bird flu
- Mycoplasmosis
- Parasites and helminths
- Fleas
- Non-communicable diseases
- Gastroenteritis and dyspepsia in domestic chickens
- Cloacite
- Bronchopneumonia and keratoconjunctivitis
- Pecking feathers
- Chicken coop care
- Prevention of diseases in poultry
In a private house, the fight against chicken infections falls on their owner. What are the diseases of laying hens at home? What threatens poultry such as chickens and how to identify them in the early stages, what symptoms and treatment will be in this situation. Diseases of chickens are internal and external.
Common causes of morbidity in chickens
- Poor conditions of detention: overcrowding, insufficient cleaning, drafts or stuffiness, harmful fumes.
- Poor quality of feed (presence of toxins, pathogenic microflora, parasites in their composition).
- Penetration of infection into the chicken coop (flies, pincers, fleas) provoke chicken diseases.
The first thing to do after seeing the signs of illness in a chicken, when the bird is constantly sleeping or crumpled, is to isolate it from healthy chickens. Any diseases of chickens, that is, serious chicken diseases and their symptoms can be dangerous for other individuals, and sometimes even for humans. After isolation, you need to examine the remaining individuals to identify other cases and begin to treat. Diseases of laying hens and their treatment should be started immediately so as not to lose the livestock. If this is not done with an infectious disease, then there is a great risk of losing the entire chicken coop. Diseases of bursal chickens, smallpox and other infectious diseases of young and older birds can have serious consequences. Next, you need to try to determine the causes of the diseases as soon as possible, make a diagnosis and understand whether it is possible to help the bird or it is better to immediately destroy it.
Infectious diseases in chickens
Diseases of chickens and their effective treatment should be prescribed immediately after the diagnosis is made, since diseases of laying hens, symptoms and treatment are always close by. There are frequent cases when birds become infected with some kind of infection. To do this, you need to familiarize yourself with the description in detail, see photos of layers affected by the disease. Symptoms of an infectious disease in farmed laying hens must be recognized at the earliest stage, as they spread very quickly in the coop. What should you pay attention to during the daily preventive examination of the bird in order to identify the disease in domestic laying hens and to start their treatment urgently?
Several signs will tell the owner that the bird is not healthy.
- The chicken looks lethargic and sleepy, closes its eyes for a long time and lowers its wings. Examination of sick individuals reveals an increased temperature, more than 42 degrees, and intermittent breathing.
- Makes hoarse sounds, similar to a croak, shakes his head strongly, wipes its beak on feathers and looks dirty in the area of the cloaca and disheveled.
- Eats little, diarrhea, loses weight.
When the first signs appear that a chicken is sick and diarrhea in one or more chickens or chickens, you need to immediately quarantine them from healthy birds and begin a course of antibiotic treatment, as this is a clear sign of chicken diseases.
Gumboro disease
In chicken diseases, gumborough disease or bursal disease is quite common. It is an infectious disease that spreads to chickens up to 4 months of age. Gumborough disease affects mainly one young and chicks need to be drunk to cure them of the disease.
When chickens and chickens are sick and unwell, this manifests itself in the form of the bird not eating, eyes lowered, kidney damage, internal disorders of all organs. Diseases of poultry occur and their treatment depends entirely on the skill of the owner. In this case, the methods of exposure should be aimed at eliminating the infection. Laying hens disease and timely treatment can stop the epidemic. You can see how birds look with various diseases in a photo or video.
Pasteurellosis
This disease, like other infectious diseases of chickens, is especially dangerous for chickens under 3 months of age. Mostly chickens become ill due to improper housing conditions or due to infection from another individual. Infectious diseases in chickens occur due to the fact that they are carried by rodents. Pasteurellosis bacteria and other diseases are very tenacious; chicks can pick them up especially in manure, feed, and contaminated water.
Various diseases of poultry, both chickens and chickens, are contagious, but treatment is possible, although its effectiveness, as practice shows, is low, especially for young animals. When chickens are often sick, it is even more dangerous, since they have no immunity to fight infection. Prevention is the most effective remedy for pasteurellosis, since chicken diseases are symptoms of the disease and treatment is not always effective. There are also ways of vaccination with cholera serum, which will help protect the bird, including from pasteurellosis.
Salmonellosis in chickens
It is transmitted by air through eggs, droppings, feed, quickly spreads from a sick bird throughout the chicken coop, as well as to a person to whom it gets with the eggs and meat of infected chickens and causes severe food poisoning. According to the World Health Organization, salmonellosis is the most dangerous infection of all diseases common to humans and animals and the most diverse, since there are about 2 thousand variants of salmonella pathogens. Salmonellosis affects chickens up to 1 month of age. You can find out about these diseases of domestic chickens and their symptoms on the Internet. To all the common symptoms of infections in chickens, swelling of the joints of the paws, an increase and inflammation of the peritoneum and mucous membranes, and difficulty breathing are added. There are also types of Salmonella that do not cause symptoms. Salmonella attacks the liver and other internal organs of the bird. They treat sick chickens with drugs furazolidone, streptomycin, sulfonamide, chloramphenicol, chlotetracycline. Diseases of young and laying hens are better prevented, therefore, even healthy chickens need a course of prophylaxis with synthomycin or chloramphenicol. Salmonella bacteria are strong resistant to the external environment: in bird droppings, they remain viable for up to 4 months, in tap water - up to 2, in water bodies - up to 7, in soil - up to 1 year.
Newcastle disease
Treatment of this disease is impossible, since its causative agent causes irreparable harm to the health of the chicken, affecting the internal organs.With Newcastle disease, coordination of movements is impaired, the bird moves in a circle, becomes lethargic, mucus appears in its beak, the comb and the skin around it turns blue, the bird cannot peck and wheezes. When a dangerous diagnosis is confirmed, no matter what the reasons, all chickens are destroyed.
There is also a vaccine against this disease, so it is easier to prevent diseases of chickens and young animals and to treat them. As a preventive measure, you need to drink the birds with mineral and vitamin supplements. The additive should be intended for the given age of the bird. The dose, methods and methods of treatment are selected only by a veterinarian, taking into account all the characteristics of the chicken.
Chicken pox
A broiler rooster or chicken may become ill. When a chicken is sick with chickenpox, you need to be very careful not to spread the disease throughout the chicken coop. Chickenpox is determined by characteristic yellow, and eventually brown lesions of the crest, earrings, eyes, as well as red spots on the skin of the paws. Most often, a skin disease appears in young chickens and all young individuals are sick.
Treatment of infectious diseases in domestic chickens, like chickenpox, is possible only at the initial stage, but these methods are not very effective, therefore it is more often advised to destroy the bird in order to avoid the spread of the disease. If an outbreak of infection occurred on a private farm or on an agricultural farm, then quarantine must be declared.
Bird flu
One of the newest infections causing disease in chickens and laying hens common to poultry and humans, which comes from wild birds. This virus persists in raw laying hen eggs and meat. It is a dangerous virus that tends to mutate and is very resistant. A specific vaccine against avian influenza has not yet been developed. Avian influenza is fast and asymptomatic, but its acute form quickly leads to death. It is easy to notice by the fact that coordination problems in the bird, curvature of the neck and wings, and neurosis are immediately evident.
The bird does not eat, stops responding, tempers, the comb and earrings turn black, it is noted diarrhea, convulsions, hoarseness, everything ends with pulmonary edema and death. When diagnosed, it is recommended that the bird be destroyed as soon as possible to prevent the spread of the virus. You need to touch a sick bird with gloves and a respirator to avoid human infection. There are many video resources for working with infected birds.
Mycoplasmosis
One of the most dangerous infections of chickens, which travels in the company of several other viral and bacterial infections. It strikes those chicken coops where the owner does not take good care of cleanliness and temperature conditions. Signs of mycoplasmosis are respiratory failure, shortness of breath, wheezing, swelling of the eyelids, lacrimation, lack of appetite, and growth arrest. Lacrimation is sometimes observed.
Adult chickens with mycoplasmosis do not rush well, about 10% of them do not survive. Treat the infection antibiotics... In the industrial poultry industry, extensive preventive measures are being taken against mycoplasmosis, but in small households it is better to focus their efforts on improving the general conditions of detention.
Parasites and helminths
These are organisms that live off the chicken, attaching to it and feeding on its blood and waste. They can live inside like roundworm helminths, stomach worms, capillaria, or outside like scabies or feather mites. chicken louse... They can be harmless, or they can cause serious illness. External parasites can be seen on the bird by visual inspection.
You can notice that birds itch more often, there are foci of baldness, problems with the exit and the egg. Treatment must be started immediately, treating not only sick, but also healthy individuals, as well as disinfecting the chicken coop. Internal parasites manifest themselves primarily with diarrhea, as well as coughing and hoarseness.Also, chickens carrying parasites lag behind healthy chickens in growth and development.
Fleas
A chicken flea can easily fly into your chicken coop with sparrows, rodents or stray animals. Fleas are very dangerous for birds: reproducing rapidly, they are able to "gnaw" their host in a short period of time. A chicken infected with fleas is constantly worried, constantly itching, biting badly. Fleas can infect birds not only with helminths, which can pass to humans through meat, but also with plague, salmonellosis and brucellosis.
Fleas on the chicken are clearly visible, for this you need to take a closer look at the area around the eyes, beak and on the legs. Free-walking birds help themselves, wallowing in dust, anthills. But you should not run the problem, especially since it is easy to cope with fleas with folk remedies.
It is necessary to clean the chicken coop, as fleas like to settle in the litter. The old bedding should be burned, and the room should be treated with disinfectants. The smell of tansy and wormwood, which must be added to the bedding, drives out fleas well. Many veterinarians use the antiparasitic drug metronidazole to treat and remove parasites. Prophylaxis, such as a vitamin supplement, should be carried out after medication has been applied.
Non-communicable diseases
Basically, non-infectious diseases of domestic chickens occur in the winter, when the vitamin deficiency period begins, problems with the egg. Lack or excess of vitamins, contaminated feed can lead to disturbances in the work of the gastrointestinal tract of the chicken, in especially severe cases, the liver and respiratory organs are affected. If you run the problem, the bird may die. Irregular and unbalanced nutrition threatens laying hens obstruction of the goiter: food accumulates there and clogs the airways. You can try to drip a little vegetable oil through the probe, massage, hold the legs upside down to release the stuck food. But more often than not, these methods do not help, and the chicken dies.
Gastroenteritis and dyspepsia in domestic chickens
Errors in nutrition can also turn into intestinal flu for the chicken. Symptoms are lethargy, blue scallop, yellow-green liquid foamy feces, lack of appetite, high fever. As in humans, chicken gastroenteritis is treated with a diet that consists of easily digestible food and vitamins. They also give the birds a course of antibiotics and cleanse the intestines with a laxative.
If chickens are given coarse food or stale water too soon, they may develop indigestion or dyspepsia. Feeding sick and healthy chickens should be carried out in accordance with all the rules. In its acute form, the disease provokes inflammation of the intestines and stomach, or gives symptoms of toxic poisoning - weakness, decreased appetite, hard abdomen, diarrhea with undigested food pieces, high fever, convulsions. Dyspepsia is treated with a diet based on easily digestible food and water with potassium permanganate or baking soda.
Cloacite
If the diet of chickens is not balanced and the bird's body lacks vitamins, calcium and fluoride salts, then cloacite occurs. Its symptoms are similar to gastric upset, inflammation of the mucous membrane of the cloaca, on which hemorrhagic ulcers can be seen. Birds lose weight, stop laying, there may be problems with the egg. To accurately determine the presence or absence of such a disease, you should invite a veterinarian for consultation.
Local treatment - the affected areas are washed with rivanol, lubricated with a mixture of petroleum jelly with the addition of terramycin and anesthesin. Also, for laying hens, you need to adjust the diet and slightly change the diet. In order for the chicken to eat well, give it a variety of foods.
Bronchopneumonia and keratoconjunctivitis
Prolonged stay in a cold room or walking in the rain can result in respiratory inflammation for sick chickens.The symptoms of a bird's cold are similar to many infections and if ignored, juveniles can die. Some farmers give iodine to layers as a preventive measure.
Keratoconjunctivitis is directly related to inappropriate living conditions, which are very common on farms. A dirty uncleaned poultry house can provoke chickens eye disease - they watery, fester and cause inconvenience to the bird. In sick birds, apathy is observed, the individual does not eat anything. It is useless to give feed or mineral supplements. The methods of treatment are regular cleanliness and airing, and you also need to wash the eyes with a decoction of chamomile in sick individuals.
Pecking feathers
The most common problems in young animals are social ones. A serious sign of the unhealthy population is pecking (cannibalism) - aggression towards their fellows or the destruction of eggs. Some individuals even die from this. Why do individuals behave this way? The reasons for pecking are most often the so-called social problems - lack of food, overcrowding, conflicts between dominant individuals - roosters.
Basically, this phenomenon occurs in young animals. What to do in this case? This is a completely removable disease, so the chewing lice should be transferred to a separate chicken coop. The attacked bird should be isolated, the cause of the pecking should be determined, cured and returned to the flock completely healthy. At the same time, you need to check if everything is enough for the birds, to improve the conditions of keeping and feeding. If the problem is not resolved and the aggressor continues to terrorize, you need to raise such individuals separately.
Chicken coop care
Any treatment will only have a temporary effect if not thoroughly chicken coop treatment... The walls must be covered with lime. Before entering the premises, you need to wipe your feet. As a detergent, you can use water with vinegar, laundry soap.
Formalin, Glutex, Virocid - these products can be successfully used for the treatment and disinfection of the chicken coop. Do not forget to remove the bird before doing this and take care of the remedies for yourself.
Before planting chickens, make sure that the room for them meets all standards and that the birds will be comfortable, warm and fresh there. The light regime also plays a significant role in the well-being of chickens: the hen house should be lit 16 hours a day. If there is enough light in summer, then in winter artificial light is needed to prevent common diseases of farm chickens. Humidity should not exceed 45%, temperature 21 degrees.
Prevention of diseases in poultry
According to the recommendations, vaccination and the introduction of vitamins into the feed should be carried out. Timely supplements will provide chickens with immunity. Do not mix chickens and adult chickens together. Once a month, it is necessary to disinfect the chicken coop, which includes thorough cleaning of the floor, walls, perches, feeders and processing them with special solutions.
The coop must be ventilated daily. In order not to introduce infection into your chicken coop, it is recommended to buy eggs and chickens only from reliable suppliers, in industrial incubators or in large poultry farms. Your purchase must be accompanied by a veterinary certificate with full information about the vaccinations performed.
Set new chickens temporarily separately so that the young grow up and get stronger. Quarantine a new batch and keep it for at least 10, and preferably 14 days. During this time, any infection will certainly manifest itself. Every day it is recommended to examine a newcomer, paying attention to the appearance, general condition, appetite. If after 14 days the bird is vigorous and active, you can start it in the main composition.