You can tell what disease a chicken has just by looking at its droppings

Chicken droppings are the end product of digestion in chickens, and many diseases produce characteristic changes in the color and shape of the droppings. Observing changes in chicken droppings is one of the methods for diagnosing disease. If keepers can recognize the abnormal reactions of chicken droppings, they can promptly spot abnormalities in the flock and take measures as early as possible to prevent and treat disease. Veterinarians can also infer the type of disease from changes in chicken droppings, providing a basis for disease diagnosis.

Normal chicken droppings are strip-shaped or form a pile when they land, contain a small amount of moisture, have normal white urates at the upper end, and show normal color and shape at the lower end, with scattered dark brown oily cecal droppings mixed in, and no particularly foul odor.

Abnormal droppings are mostly caused by invasion and infection by pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites, which trigger intestinal inflammation and lead to changes,

with a fishy foul odor, showing characteristic colors such as red, green, black, white, and yellow, while the shape also changes: they do not form a pile when they land, scatter, are incompletely digested, and contain feed particles and so on. Classifying common lesions by color change helps in judging and distinguishing diseases.

1. Droppings appear as red watery feces:

1. Coccidiosis: Small intestinal coccidiosis generally presents as watery feces, reddish or with a dark bloody tinge, and in mild cases grayish white; cecal coccidiosis generally causes bloody droppings or blood in the feces; both involve indigestion.

2. Colibacillosis complicated by enteritis: because intestinal bleeding mixes with the feces, it looks like rotten tomatoes.

3. Ulcerative enteritis: besides red feces, there is also a special foul odor.

4. Histomoniasis: severe infection causes bloody droppings.

2. Yellow-green or green watery feces:

1. Newcastle disease: with a foul odor, the feces are unformed, scatter when they land, and show indigestion with feed-like material.

2. Colibacillosis, septicemic type: in the late stage of infection, yellow-green watery feces with white viscous material are passed.

3. Fowl typhoid: adult chickens pass pale green watery feces that soil the feathers around the vent.

4. Chicken chlamydiosis, fowl cholera, ulcerative enteritis, salt poisoning, and others can all cause yellow-green or green watery droppings.