4. Poo - The Chicken Keeper's Guide

[Aunt Sally]

Below are pictures of Chicken Droppings kindly donated by our members (the pictures not the poo).


Normal

 



These two pictures have shed intestinal lining in them - quite normal, not a cause for concern.


Coral coloured Urates



These are frequently deposited overnight and are quite normal

Oily and Foamy



The range of "Normal" is huge  :shock:

Ceacal

 

These are produced from the caecum of the chicken and are mustard to dark brown froth. They are expelled every 8 to 10 droppings.

Fly Maggots


(picture curtesy of Vember)

Flies will lay their eggs on moist chicken poo and in warm weather they will very quickly hatch into small maggots.

Watery



Watery droppings can be produced by hens which are too hot.  It can be a way for them to cool down by drinking a lot and losing some of their heat in frequent wet droppings.  It can also be a sign that the hens are not eating enough too.

Abnormal poos



Coccidiosis produces blood in faeces.



The hen who produced this specimen was an older bird who became very thirsty.
She is producing a large amount of watery urates the cause of which is unknown, but could possibly be a kidney problem.



The hen who produced this specimen was about 25 weeks old. She went off her food and ate so little she became underweight. She held her tail down and was tired. She may have had worms and/or egg peritonitis.


Worms


picture taken by smiler43

Sulphur yellow, foamy dropping can bea sign of Blackhead (Histamonosis) which is caused by a protozoan parasite infecting the gut.  It is however rare in back yard hens !


This picture was taken after 2 days treatment with flubenvet.  The worms are probably Ascaridia galli, they don't cause much harm to the birds unless they are present in large numbers.  It is not unkown for them to enter the reproductive tract from the digestive tract via the vent and be found inside an egg  :shock:

Please feel free to comment on these pictures and post any you may want to know about or think would be good to add to this album.

[babe]

woo hoo aunty, queen of poop's  

an odd but super helpful selection of photo's.

im sure this will help prevent alot of panic for us chicken huggers  

thanky yooooo

[Wildeone]

perfect!

[shaun]

i'm stuck for words  :roll:

[Brambles]

Thank you, thank you, thank you Aunt Sally...  Not had much of a problem yet in the 5 years that I have had chooks...  but the pics have helped me sort out a few queries that I have had over the time...

[smiler43]

Brill Aunty, it will help a lot for us newbie chicken keepers, think one on there is mine too!!  woohooo

How sad recognising your own chickens poo!!!!

[Aunt Sally]

   

How must this topic look to the outside world  :shock:  :wink:

[shaun]

   

How must this topic look to the outside world  :shock:  :wink:

hideous ?  :wink:

[babe]

   

How must this topic look to the outside world  :shock:  :wink:

hideous ?  :wink:

we still on about poo......or shauny's legs in pink lycra???

[Bigbadfrankie]

Oh Aunty what a load of S***

[Aunt Sally]

Thank you Frankie, I knew you'd have a valuable contribution to make  :wink:

[azubah]

See white watery picture in gallery above.

I am now convinced that poops like these are caused by bad diet, if there are no other symptoms. Mine do them if they steal cat food or if I give them too much bread.

[Aunt Sally]

Goodness me tell me about the chook  !

Was it a hot day ?

[azubah]

Hi Aunty. She was about 2 years old when I got her in September 2007. I was told that she was a Warren. I think an ex bat, but not totally sure. Around the end of February she started drinking enormous quantities of water but was still laying. Eventually her eggs (which were brown) became white. She started to look unhappy and lethargic and stopped laying so I had to terminate her at the end of April. I was not at all happy about this as I had never killed a pet before, but felt that I had no choice. Any ideas on what was the trouble?

[Aunt Sally]

Just a guess but I'd say a kidney problem.  Hence the drinking a lot and passing a lot of water out in her urates.  

She'd had a hard life and you gave her a happy and descent end to it  

Can I put the picture in the galery please ?