Pashu Sandesh, 22 Feb 2021
Dr Naresh Singh Kuntal1*, Dr Kuldeep Singh2 and Preeti Singh3
A normal bird dropping should be firm and brown with a white part on the top which is chicken urine (urates) as chickens urinate and defecate in one motion. A healthy bird also passes a caecal dropping (runny, foul-smelling and caramel colour) usually every 10th dropping. Caecal droppings are different in appearance because they are passing from the caeca instead of the large intestine. Any change in droppings like yellow foamy droppings or bloody droppings represent abnormal.
There are several various causes for diarrhoea in poultry. Some of the causes are fairly normal and will resolve on their own, while others can be problematic.
Coccidiosis: it is a protozoan disease that causes bloody diarrhoea in poultry (
Parasitic infestation: parasites rarely cause diarrhoea in chickens but if they present in huge numbers they harm to gut and cause secondary bacterial diarrhoea by irritating the gut.
Viruses: There are a lot of viruses (mainly Rotavirus and Adenovirus) that can damage the gut and causing diarrhoea in birds. Virus infection may lead to secondary bacterial diarrhoea by damaging the bird’s intestine and then allows harmful bacteria to grow out of control in the intestine.
Bacteria: When there is a misbalance in useful and harmful bacteria in the intestine, diarrhoea occurs. It is thought that there are a number of reasons for this misbalance such as:
Kidney Damage: A number of causes like Mycotoxins, viral diseases (infectious bronchitis), a diet too high in calcium and low in phosphorus and decreased water intake can result in kidney damage. Signs are depression, dehydration, pale combs, emaciation with loss of muscle mass and diarrhoea. A bird with a damaged kidney can produce urine in excessive quantity which mixes with the droppings before defecation. This made droppings to be more watery which causes owners to report diarrhoea.
Very high protein diet: There is malpractice to give a high protein diet (more than required) to chickens in an attempt to grow better. Using a feed having excessive levels of protein which is converted into urates and compel the bird to drink more and urinate more. It causes wetter droppings and leading to damp bedding which further gave rise to many problems.
Indulgence (Excess Food): excess food in poultry lead to diarrhoea but it should stop of its own accord after 24-36 hours.
Heat stress: in the summer season birds will decrease appetite and drink much more water than normal so they will likely develop diarrhoea.
Antibiotics: If birds are given antibiotics for any infection, birds will likely get diarrhoea. Antibiotics kill off the good bacteria along with the bad in the gut, so the gut will be depleted of useful bacteria.
Toxic Ingestion: birds are curious about most things, so they may take toxins along with their feed. Birds are susceptible to Mycotoxins (produced by mouldy feed or wet bedding), a wide range of plants and other toxins.
Egg Yolk Peritonitis and Prolapsed Vent: Egg Yolk Peritonitis is occurred due to malfunction in the transfer of the egg from the ovary to the infundibulum. The yolk goes into the peritoneum and becomes infected causing septicaemia. Prolapsed of Vent occurred due to an overly large egg among other things. Egg Yolk Peritonitis and Prolapsed Vent may lead to severe diarrhoea hence, need a veterinarian intervention.
Harmful effects of diarrhoea
Irrespective of the cause there are numbers of harmful effects of diarrhoea:
Treatment of diarrhoea in poultry
When birds have diarrhoea there are two important things to determine. Is the bird otherwise well apart from diarrhoea or not?
After recovery from diarrhoea bird will have lost a lot of weight so Chicken Vet Amino+ (a multivitamin product containing amino acids) and B vitamins can be given in water for at least five days.
Bird’s appetite can be stimulated by using Chicken Vet Energy (contains L-Carnitine) in water daily for five days.
Prevention of diarrhoea
There are a number of simple steps that can be taken by poultry owners to prevent diarrhoea in their birds:
Dr Naresh Singh Kuntal1*, Dr Kuldeep Singh2 and Preeti Singh3
1. Teaching Associate, VCC, CVAS, Navania, Udaipur, RAJUVAS, Bikaner, Rajasthan
2. Teaching Associate, Department of Veterinary Parasitology, PGIVER, Jaipur, RAJUVAS, Bikaner, Rajasthan
3. PhD Scholar, Department of Veterinary Pharmacology, LUVAS, Haryana