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Wanting to get 2-3 kg of "chicken meat without antibiotics" from each chicken, the owners of private farmsteads buy themselves broiler crosses in order to grow ecologically clean meat-producing chickens. Most often they will be disappointed.
Not a single manufacturer will simply increase the cost of production. Poultry farm owners are no exception. Private traders very quickly find out that diarrhea in broilers is almost inevitable. And without the use of antibiotics and coccidiostatics, it is hardly possible to get homemade meat from chickens. Either broilers are reared commercially, or only half of the target weight is obtained. And sometimes they get nothing at all if the chickens become infected with a disease with a high percentage of deaths.
The weak point of broiler chickens is the gastrointestinal tract. Chicks are born sterile and under sterile conditions. At poultry farms, from the first day, chickens are fed with coccidiostatics from the group that prevents the development of immunity to coccidia.
Private traders try to avoid the use of medicines, although it is very difficult to maintain the necessary sterility at home. Broiler chicks are more likely to become infected with coccidial oocysts, which are found in abundance in chicken coops and on paddocks.
Brown diarrhea
Brown diarrhea is a sure symptom of eimeriosis (coccidiosis) of chickens. Eimeria parasitizing chickens are localized mainly in the intestines. Damaging the walls of the gastrointestinal tract in the course of their activity, eimeria cause multiple minor bleeding. The coagulated blood, mixing with the "yellow" compound feed, gives the broiler feces a brown color.
The development of diarrhea before there is clear blood in the feces means that the coccidia have caused very serious damage to the intestines of the chick.
Other signs of chicken coccidiosis: lethargy, dirty ruffled feathers, unwillingness to move.
If chickens show signs of eimeriosis of chickens, broilers should be drunk with coccidiostatics as soon as possible. But a veterinarian should prescribe treatment for chickens, since coccidiosis must be differentiated from diseases that require other medications.
Dark brown diarrhea
With the intestinal form of pasteurellosis, proceeding in an acute form, diarrhea in chickens is dark brown in color, sometimes mixed with blood. In addition to diarrhea, chickens suffering from pasteurellosis produce mucus from the nasal openings. Difficulty breathing. The ridges turn blue. Apathy is observed.
Chickens suffering from pasteurellosis are not treated, they are immediately sent to slaughter at the first signs of the disease.
White diarrhea
The appearance of white diarrhea in broilers is highly likely to indicate pullorosis. The chicks could have arrived from the hatchery already infected or infected by the new owner. If the chicks are infected while still in the egg or become infected immediately after hatching, they have little chance of survival.
Private traders feel sorry for losing money and they are trying to cure sick broilers. Very small chickens will die. If the broiler becomes infected from the owner's chicken at about one month of age, the chances of survival are quite high.But such chickens by the time of slaughter will be 2 times smaller than healthy broilers.
Since apparently sick chickens are slaughtered, treatment is carried out for conditionally healthy chickens. The veterinarian, after establishing an accurate diagnosis, prescribes a course of treatment with tetracycline antibiotics. Depending on the type of drug, the treatment regimen may differ. Antibiotics are given along with food. The dosage is assigned as a percentage in relation to the feed given.
Green diarrhea
In broilers, green diarrhea is more likely to occur due to poor quality feed. Two other reasons: disease with histomoniasis or overfeeding with green fodder.
With histomonosis at the middle stage of the development of the disease, the feces of chickens acquire a greenish tint. But it is relatively difficult for broilers to contract this disease, as histomonosus are transmitted through nematodes or earthworms. If broilers are fattening in cages, they are unlikely to come into contact with possible sources of contamination.
The easiest type of diarrhea for a private trader is non-infectious stomach upset. This type of diarrhea can be successfully treated at home by the broiler owner himself. When diarrhea occurs, they find out why the chicks have a bowel disorder. This usually happens if the owner has moved the chicks too abruptly from grain feed to green. In this case, the chick will have a dark green feces.
Second option: poor quality feed. Depending on the type of feed, diarrhea can be light green (wet mash with mold) or light yellow (grain feed).
Non-infectious diarrhea in broilers, how to treat at home
This is the easiest option for the farmer. He himself can determine what to do when his chickens suddenly have an upset stomach.
Diarrhea in chickens can begin if, after a long winter break, you immediately give them a lot of grass. In this case, the chickens are again transferred to grain feed, and instead of water, a decoction of rice or oat jelly is poured into the drinkers.
Whether to give chloramphenicol in this case, look according to the circumstances. Again, green forage is introduced into the chicks' diet gradually, starting at very low doses.
In case of diarrhea due to poor-quality feed, first of all, they find out which component of the diet could cause diarrhea in chickens and remove it from the broiler menu. Chickens are fed chloramphenicol with food to destroy the pathogenic microflora that has developed in the intestines. In this case, you can also drink disinfectant solutions of potassium permanganate or furacilin.
To get rid of diarrhea, you can give broilers a fixing decoction, hard-boiled egg, or baked potatoes.
Prevention of diseases in broilers in private households
Broilers are not raised on subsidiary plots. These chickens are intended for slaughter at 3 months, otherwise broilers die from an excess of muscle mass. To feed broilers for meat, they buy either directly from poultry farms, or from the hands of second-hand dealers. The second option is worse, since the probability of buying already sick chickens is higher.
Before purchasing broilers, it is necessary to disinfect the premises in which the chickens, cages and equipment will live. Many of the pathogens in chickens are resistant to either disinfectants or high temperatures. Therefore, complex disinfection is often used, annealing walls, cells and equipment with a blowtorch, and then spraying them with a disinfectant solution. If an object cannot be treated with a lamp (for example, a plastic drinker), it is immersed in a strong solution with a disinfectant for at least 30 minutes.
The brought chickens are kept separately from adult chickens. Broilers are well suited for cage rearing. They were withdrawn for this. Broilers gain weight better without movement.Therefore, it makes no sense to provide broilers with walking with the risk that chickens will become infected with worms and histomonosis. In addition, when kept in disinfected cells, there are chances to really do without the use of antibiotics and coccidiostatics.
Conclusion
When chickens develop diarrhea, do not self-medicate alone. It is imperative to invite a veterinarian to establish an accurate diagnosis. Sometimes, after buying infected chickens, the infection began to "walk" throughout the village. This happened due to the fact that the owner of chickens infected with a serious infection (pullorosis or pasteurellosis) regretted slaughtering them immediately and tried to treat them with folk remedies.
In a personal subsidiary farm, it is necessary to try to comply with the standards for keeping broilers and monitor the quality of feed.
