How to cure diarrhea in chickens
All novice poultry farmers who want to start breeding and raising chickens should learn more about the peculiarities of caring for a bird, understand whether the chick belongs to the broiler category, how this will change nutrition and living conditions. Along with this, you need to know what diseases can appear in chickens, how they can be prevented and what should be the treatment.
Diarrhea in broiler chickens
More often than other ailments of small chickens, diarrhea is affected, diarrhea is especially characteristic in broiler chickens. Further, we will talk about just such a bird ailment, about what causes frequent loose stools, what diseases it can signal and what treatment should be.
Why does diarrhea occur in chickens?
What causes diarrhea in chickens? Most often, the cause is poor quality feed or the development of infection in the bird's body. If the cause of diarrhea is an infectious disease, do not hesitate, you should contact your veterinarian, only he will be able to prescribe adequate treatment and save the chicks from imminent death. If the digestive upset occurred due to the fact that a mistake was made in the diet, you can use folk remedies.
Why is diarrhea in broilers so dangerous? Due to the low weight of the chicks, dehydration occurs extremely quickly, the process of assimilation of nutrients stops in the intestines, as a result of which the bird is not able to fight external irritants, it may even die. It is the secondary infection that is most often the direct cause of death.
The list of measures that should be taken first of all if diarrhea is diagnosed in poultry:
- Checking whether the sanitary condition of the hen house or poultry house complies with the standards.
- Checking that the bird is receiving fresh feed and how the feeding is on schedule.
- Does the amount of vitamins exceed the maximum permissible norm?
- Is the poultry house and the surrounding area periodically disinfected?
First aid
How can you help a chicken with diarrhea on your own at home? First of all, you can try to cure the chicken yourself, without seeking help from a veterinarian. To do this, use a special solution for drinking chicks. Baking soda is added to ordinary drinking water in a ratio of ½ per 1 liter. This should be done for at least 5-7 days, this is the only way the results will be. If there is no positive dynamics, you need to immediately call a veterinarian, who, with the help of an external examination and laboratory tests, will identify the cause of the digestive upset and prescribe the necessary treatment.
To prevent further spread of the disease, quarantine should be immediately organized for sick birds to prevent further spread of possible infectious disease. There are many videos about how quickly pathogens spread and about the need for quarantine.
Diarrhea with gastritis
Let's figure out which bird diseases can provoke a disorder of the digestive system, cause frequent stools in birds. Most often it is gastritis.
If the chicken has become noticeable transparent diarrhea, while he flatly refuses to eat and at the same time is constantly thirsty, you can suspect the presence of gastritis. In this case, it is not necessary to contact a veterinarian, most likely it will be possible to defeat the disease on your own, using the usual folk remedies. As food, you need to give the chicken a hard-boiled chicken egg, only the yolk. If possible, it is advisable to add hemp flour to it.
White diarrhea
If the diarrhea in a bird has a characteristic white color, then, most likely, the disease that struck the bird is pullorosis... The pathogen belongs to the Salmonella family of bacteria. Pullorosis quickly begins to manifest itself. In this case, the following symptoms arise:
- the beak is almost always open;
- the eyes rarely open completely, are covered with a film;
- the head is constantly tilting down;
- breathing becomes hoarse;
- chickens make an unpleasant squeak;
- diarrhea is strictly white, putrid smell.
in order to cure chicks from white carry, you need to revise their diet, most likely there are too few fermented milk products in it, or they are completely absent. It is necessary to start feeding young animals (one month or two months of age) with low-fat homemade kefir or yogurt. It is also worth taking some organizational measures:
- conduct a full disinfection of chicken dwellings;
- lay a new litter, change it as often as possible, while the chicks vilify;
- check if the bird is too densely planted, it may be necessary to expand the area of the house
- establish a good ventilation;
- try to avoid drafts; there should not be a sharp temperature drop either.
Medication for white diarrhea involves the use of antibiotics, which target bacteria in the digestive tract. Most often, preference is given to furazolidone or chloramphenicol.
Chicks that have shown no outward signs of disease may be carriers and continue to infect the rest of the poultry population. For this reason, it is recommended to conduct a clinical examination of each hen to prevent further outbreaks of pullorosis.
Brown diarrhea
What if the chicks have brown, black or dark yellow diarrhea? Most likely, a microorganism called Aymeria entered the body of birds, which is the cause of the development coccidiosis... This disease spreads extremely quickly throughout the house, and the source of infection can be the sick bird itself, its feces, and even food or water.
External signs of coccidiosis, except for black diarrhea:
- feathers become disheveled, as if a chicken dries them;
- appetite worsens or disappears altogether after stomach dysfunction develops;
- birds stop walking, prefer not to get up, while their eyes are almost completely closed;
- eyes become yellow or gray due to simultaneous liver damage.
Before starting the treatment of coccidiosis, it is necessary to confirm it clinically and only then begin drug treatment with antibiotics for the stomach. Most often, the veterinarian prescribes to take drugs such as:
- Suldimethoxin;
- Koktsidiovitis;
- Rehycoccin, etc.
In addition to direct treatment, you should pour hot water on the drinking bowls of food containers every day, and clean the room with birds in a timely manner.
Why do chickens have green diarrhea?
Why did the chickens grow green? Day-old chicks may have green feces, often of a frothy consistency, while the smell is sharply unpleasant and sour. When measuring the body temperature of the winged, one can find that the indicators are increased. First of all, you need to check if this is a symptom of severe poisoning.To find out, you need to pass certain tests.
If the veterinarian confirms the presence of an intestinal infection with green diarrhea, antibiotic treatment should be given to the bird immediately. The duration of treatment is usually about a week, but may vary depending on the severity of the disease and the age of the bird. The farmer, in turn, must prevent further spread of the infection in order to protect healthy birds.
If the result is negative, the chick has simply eaten the herbs, and the diarrhea will go away on its own. A person is only required to revise the diet and approach this issue more responsibly.
Bloody diarrhea
This type of diarrhea is the most dangerous for chickens. If an admixture of blood in the stool has become noticeable, you need to act immediately, as time often goes by the clock. First of all, you need to take the feces for laboratory research in order to find out which microorganism caused such deviations in the life of the bird.
Diarrhea with blood can be observed when young animals are infected with coccidia, which adversely affect the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines, provoke the development of ulcers and wounds on the surface of internal organs. Coccidiosis with bloody diarrhea is treated with antibiotics, and the drug must be prescribed by a doctor. He also prescribes the dosage. In order for the treatment to work, it is necessary not only to follow all the doctor's recommendations, but also to make every effort to destroy the pathogen in the external environment: to completely disinfect the poultry house.
Traditional methods of treatment
Whatever methods are chosen for the treatment of diarrhea, you need to start the fight against the disease as early as possible. Traditional medicine often turns out to be just as effective as traditional methods of treatment. The same applies to the treatment of diarrhea in layers, chickens and other poultry. Let's find out what folk remedies can be used to stop diarrhea:
- Water mixed with clay. As soon as the first symptoms of diarrhea become noticeable, you need to replace ordinary water with clay. You need to solder for at least 2 days.
- Rice broth. It is a well-known fact that rice and its infusion have a strengthening effect.
- Wine water. To stop diarrhea in chickens, you can add a little red dry wine to the water, this will have the desired astringent effect.
- A decoction of pomegranate or quince crusts. Its effect is similar to that of red wine.
- Chamomile broth. This method can be used for non-infectious diarrhea. The minimum application time is 2 days.
- A weak solution of potassium permanganate. They can cure non-infectious diarrhea, the remedy is often used as a prophylaxis for infection of broilers.
First aid kit
How to treat diarrhea? Any self-respecting poultry farmer should have medicines in their medicine cabinet that can be helpful in treating broiler diarrhea. Usually, their list is agreed with the veterinarian: he is able to suggest which drugs are most effective, in what dosage they can be taken. Here is a list of the most commonly used drugs that are indicated for the treatment of diarrhea in broiler chicks:
- Levomycetin. The medicine must be dissolved in water at room temperature, the proportion is 3-4 tablets per 0.5 l of water. The minimum treatment period is 2-3 days, but it can take a month.
- Biseptol (children's dosage). The dose of the drug is calculated individually for each chick, as a standard 1/15 part of one tablet is taken for one head of young animals. If an adult suffers from diarrhea, the dose can be at least doubled. In this case, the course of treatment lasts about 5 days.
- You may also need loperamide, metronidazole.
Now you know what types of diarrhea can occur in poultry (chickens), you know how to deal with this or that type of diarrhea, for what symptoms you need to urgently seek help from a veterinarian.