Do your chickens have diarrhoea? With chickens, diarrhoea is a common indicator of health issues. While the odd “strange poo” is nothing to be concerned about, consistent diarrhoea needs investigation and treatment.
The first question to ask is 'Do my chickens have diarrhoea?'
Many new chicken keepers mistake completely normal chicken poo for diarrhoea. That is because the odd runny poo, poo-y egg or dirty butt is normal. But if runny poo occurs all the time, then you have a problem.
Diarrhoea in chickens is:
Caecal poos, however, are not diarrhoea and are completely normal. Caecal poos are pasty droppings and are usually black or brown in colour. They are sticky, smelly and more homogenous than "normal" chicken poo. Caecal poos should make up about 1/3 of droppings.
Where diarrhoea is an issue, other symptoms of illness may also appear. For example:
Diarrhoea can be problematic because it is is a symptom of many different chicken illnesses. And if, for example, the diarrhoea is a symptom of coccidiosis, then immediate treatment is essential.
In our experience, heat stress, coccidiosis and worms are the most common causes of diarrhoea in backyard chickens. But if you are unsure then seeking veterinary advice is the best way of diagnosing the cause of diarrhoea.
Be on the look-out for other symptoms of some of the most common causes of diarrhoea in chickens, such as:
In young chicks, coccidiosis is by far the most likely cause of diarrhoea. In chicks, immediate treatment for coccidiosis is recommended, even if you are not sure of the diagnosis, as they can quickly succumb to the disease.
The only way to prevent diarrhoea is to prevent the problem that is causing it. However, maintaining a clean coop and practicing good biosecurity help prevent problems from occurring. Using probiotics and ACV in drinking water has also been linked to improved immune-response to common diarrhoea-causing parasites and diseases. In hot weather, avian electrolytes can also help prevent diarrhoea caused by heat stress.
Like prevention, treatment for diarrhoea depends on the cause. And unless other clear symptoms present, it is difficult to identify the illness without veterinary testing.
However, it is important that you:
It is not recommended that antibiotics or other medications are used without conclusively diagnosing the illness and/or seeking veterinary advice. It is difficult to choose the right drug without knowing what it is fighting, and generalised antibiotic use contributes to the development of antibiotic-resistance.
Visit our Chicken Health page for more information on the symptoms of common chicken diseases.
Rachael at Dine a Chook Australia
New blogger Katherine Kretchmar comes to us from Minnesota. Happy spring! In my part of Minnesota that doesn’t mean green things yet, but it does mean that the snow is mostly gone (for now, though April can always bring more) and my chickens are venturing out of the coop. Variety of Chickens We have a variety of chickens. Our current count is 13, but that number has gone up and down over the years, never more than three of the same variety and never more than 19
Kaylee Vaugh de-mythtifies eggs for us. Over the last several decades, it has became less common for people to keep chickens and many people have become more disconnected from their food sources. Because of this, many myths have become commonly accepted. I’m sure that every chicken keeper has no doubt heard (and maybe even believed!) a myth regarding their chickens and the egg production process! Being prepared to answer questions and stop the spread of misinf
Do your chickens have names? The first of my chickens that I ever named were the original six Cornish cross meat birds we raised. As a farm kid, I’ve always known where food comes from and it didn’t bother me that we would eventually eat these chickens. So we named them Marsala, Extra Crispy, Pot Pie, and so on with the littlest one known as Popcorn Chicken. Admittedly a little twisted, but when I first got chickens, I guess I didn’t really thi
Let’s identify some plants poisonous to chickens plus the likelihood that poultry will eat toxic plants within your yard. One of the first things we heard when we started keeping chickens was that they would eat anything. We were advised to offer kitchen scraps and items cleared from the garden. They will love it, we were told. When the chicks turned into pullets, I realized the advice was inaccurate. The kitchen scrap bucket contained cucumbers, lett