What are the causes of diarrhea in laying hens and the prevention and treatment methods?
Laying hens refer to chickens raised specifically to lay eggs for the supply of table eggs. Eggs are the main source of income from raising laying hens. Unlike meat chickens, the main concern in raising laying hens is improving egg quality and maintaining or increasing egg production, rather than improving meat quality. Diarrhea in laying hens has a huge impact on the benefits of laying hen farming, so let us take a look below at the causes of diarrhea in laying hens and how to treat it.
Diarrhea is a clinical symptom shown by changes in the digestive function of the body (chicken). When there is inflammation of the intestinal mucosa of the body (chicken), poor-quality feed, especially hard-to-digest crude fiber, fermentation and putrefaction products, bacteria and their toxins, histamine, 5-hydroxytryptamine and other mechanical and chemical stimuli cause the secretory function of the intestinal mucosa to strengthen, with large amounts of intestinal fluid secreted, and water and mucus in the intestinal cavity increase, forming thin or watery intestinal contents. At the same time, due to mechanical and chemical stimulation, intestinal peristalsis strengthens. The intestinal contents pass through the intestines more quickly and stay for too short a time, so full digestion and absorption cannot occur, and diarrhea develops. Under certain circumstances, diarrhea can expel harmful substances from the digestive tract and has a certain defensive effect, but prolonged diarrhea causes a large loss of water and electrolytes and can lead to dehydration and acidosis in the body. The causes and mechanisms of diarrhea are complex and multifaceted. With different causes, mechanisms, and disease durations, the symptoms, lesions, and diagnosis and treatment measures also differ. Only with a correct diagnosis and scientific and reasonable treatment can satisfactory results be achieved.
In addition to disease factors, diarrhea in laying hens also has the following factors, and the symptoms and degree of diarrhea are not all the same.
First, physiological factors. The urinary system of chickens consists of the kidneys and ureters, and it is directly connected to the rectum, opening into the cloaca. Excess water in the chicken's body is excreted together with the feces, so it is not surprising that laying hen feces are thinner than those of other poultry.
Second, climatic reasons. When the outside temperature is high, drinking water to cool down is the main means by which laying hens maintain a constant body temperature, but due to their physiological factors, after drinking water passes through the blood circulation, most of it can only be excreted from the cloaca, thus causing thin feces.
Third, feed factors. Some chicken farmers, in order to improve the palatability of the feed, enhance the chicken's appetite, and supplement salt in the body, often increase the salt content in the daily ration of laying hens. In addition, sometimes the feed itself has a relatively high salt content, and a sharp increase in water intake after the chickens eat can both lead to thin feces. In addition, a relatively high content of magnesium in dicalcium phosphate and limestone powder in the feed can also lead to thin feces. This situation rarely occurs before the laying hens' feed is changed and mostly occurs after the feed change.
The prevention and treatment methods are:
1. Oral rehydration salts. Prepare oral rehydration salts into a solution according to the instructions and let the chickens drink it freely. This is effective for supplementing the water lost from the chickens' bodies due to diarrhea, improving the body's resistance, and reducing mortality.
2. Add an appropriate amount of charcoal powder to the feed. For example, wood charcoal powder or charred steamed bread can effectively relieve diarrhea symptoms. The appropriate addition amount is 2 to 3 percent of the daily ration.
3. Feed an appropriate amount of garlic.
4. Choose appropriate antibacterial drugs. The above measures all have good therapeutic effects on diarrhea in laying hens of unknown cause and on diarrhea symptoms for which antibacterial drugs have shown no obvious effect.