Different Coloured Droppings

victorias poultry

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I thought this maybe of help to some people as listed in the Poultry and Waterfowl Problems book.

One of the best indications to chickens state of health is from their droppings, below is a rough guide as to what illness they may have:

Droppings with blood = Coccidiosis
Greenish droppings = Late stages of worms
White, milky runny droppings = Worms, Coccidiosis, Gumboro
Brown runny droppings = E-Coli
Clear or watery runny droppings = Stress & I.B.
Yellow and foamy droppings = Coccidiosis
Bright yellow and runny = Blackhead
Greyish white & running continuously = Vent Gleet
White pasty material = Uric Acid which is urine (normal)
Red or Orange matter seen in the droppings = part of the stomach lining which is shed sometimes (normal)

The best droppings are dark and firm with a white tip at the end. Droppings will change according to their food.
 
Could you add some pooh pictures to go with the descriptions please :D .
 
You could start the ball(pooh) rolling with pics of healthy poohs ;) .
 
Thank you for that info, very helpful.

I've been looking for info myself as two of mine have done strange poos over the last few days :o :oops: Normally it would have gone unnoticed but its only because I've been home over Christmas & been able to spend more time with my chooks that I've actually seen this as it happened!! :lol: None of my books are so detailed.

Only other chickies would understand this conversation :lol:
 
Lydia said:
Could you add some pooh pictures to go with the descriptions please :D .

Actually some pics would be great for me.

Greenish, brown or reddy orange all looks the same when you're colourblind!

Osric who has a red settee with blueish cushions, does that clash? It's my settee so I'm not bothered!
 
Osric said:
Lydia said:
Could you add some pooh pictures to go with the descriptions please :D .

Actually some pics would be great for me.

Greenish, brown or reddy orange all looks the same when you're colourblind!

Osric who has a red settee with blueish cushions, does that clash? It's my settee so I'm not bothered!

No,that wont clash,bet it looks great ;) .
 
Yes, good post... it's something I keep thinking I should do (take photos of chicken poo) but I just can't talk to anyone about this.... I'm so pleased you all understand :oops:

I have a couple of shots but wanted to get some 'bad' ones too and I haven't seen any poorly chooks for a while.

Please post any you feel are of interest!
 
Tim said:
Yes, good post... it's something I keep thinking I should do (take photos of chicken poo) but I just can't talk to anyone about this.... I'm so pleased you all understand :oops:

I have a couple of shots but wanted to get some 'bad' ones too and I haven't seen any poorly chooks for a while.

Please post any you feel are of interest!

No-one would take me serious in work!!!
Am due to give my birds a good dose of ACV at the weekend, so lets see what is deposited.
 
I have..... hmmn....taken a couple of photo's. So glad no-one saw me :lol:

The colour isn't perfect, but the basic is all there.
 
I have an old edition of a poultry mag and it has an entire article devoted to the subject with pics. If I can find it I shall scan it and post it here.
 
That would be brilliant,we would find it really usefull.Hope you can find it.
 
One of my hens has had very runny white droppings (consistency of water) with some normal consistency droppings mixed in, but the normal consistency droppings are bright green (almost flourescent). Does anyone know what this could be? They have all been wormed recently and they were tested for coccidiosis a month ago and were clear. The hen in question is not displaying any signs of ill health...
 
I will have a flick through my 'desease' book later although from memory, there are usually many things that it 'could' be. Sounds like somethings not right though...

The white parts to droppings are the urates and lots of it would I guess imply the bird was drinking alot more?
 
Tim you are right - she has been drinking lots in the last week. I have put some pro-biotics in the water and have sent the droppings off to be tested so will let you know what comes back.
 
Got the results back and they were all clear... So I don't know what was wrong with her.
 
Back on this subject again! :)

I've read through VP's list again as I still have undesirable droppings being deposited! :o

I only have 6 chooks but cannot discover which one or maybe more are leaving the offending poo's. I have discounted 1 as she did a normal one in front of me ;) There are some which are perfectly normal but some very light brown/tan coloured & wrong consistencey & this morning found one with very small blood spots in it.

I wormed them about a month ago & thought this would sort it out but doesn't seem to have. All other aspects seem normal, eating, drinking, red combs, no weight loss, no runny eyes etc etc

Is it possible it could be the food she is eating that's giving her what amounts to a tummy upset? and anyone have any ideas how I can work out who's doing what? :?

Thanks everyone.
 
Hi Lucylou,
as to droppings being brown/tan and runny,my hens that do round grey ones with mr whippy urates on top also do the brown/tan runny ones.I assume it is where they have dispelled their lining from gut that they dispel,sometimes with small amounts of blood/clotting type stuff in.
As to a lot of blood,i.e. teaspoon,maybe slightly more just pure blood.On 2 occasions I have had this,with pol,who have then within a few days started to lay.
The first time it really scared me,checked every hen/cockerel for injury,it was pure blood,no poo.Couldn't find any injury,and the hens were fine.
I rang another poultry keeper,whose experience I've found invaluable(Thanks Sue :D ),she told me some of her's have done this,and is due to the laying starting,and not to worry.
I don't believe all hens do do this,but,I've had 2 pullets do it this year.1 back pekin,and,my columbian wyandotte bantie.
 
It's a really difficult one to 'classify' some good or bad poos because some can in fact be normal. Cabbage for example can cause pretty bad looking diarrhoea.

I sometimes see the odd 'Oh that can't be right' poo but life goes on and nobody gets sick...

There is one poo you should be aware of and that's the old french mustard poo as I call it :roll: This comes from the Caeca and will be discharged once a day and looks well :oops: like french mustard.... it's perfectly normal but gets some people worried there is one bird with a problem.

Check out the digestive system of a chicken (last paragraph) if you want to know about the Caeca. You also get a chance to see the cool drawing of a chicken I spent 3 hours doing with my daughters colouring pencils!! :lol:
 
Added the poo pics link here as well!

http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

Osric
 

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