Vet on call: With chicken diseases, familiarity breeds cure

In the last one month, a number of chicken farmers have asked me whether there is universal treatment for poultry diseases.

One farmer from Mombasa asked if I thought it is profitable for one to call a veterinary doctor or a paravet every time her birds ruffled their feathers.

She noted that sometimes a few of her chickens have a feather coat resembling unkempt hair but the next minute some will completely revert to normal, but a few will die.

In other cases, the ruffling of the feathers is followed by explosive disease and stormy mortality of the birds.

I was impressed by the farmer’s observations because it is a common occurrence in poultry farming. Unfortunately, feather ruffling is often seen in many unrelated illnesses of chicken. It is like a headache or stomach ache in humans.

It is normally never the main issue but just a sign of ill-health caused by a serious ongoing disease process.

Consequently, the treatment for ruffled feathers must follow a medical investigation that diagnoses the underlying disease.

The animal health service provider then treats the real cause of feather ruffling and the feathers return to their normal lay.

Another farmer from Thika talked about sporadic single bird deaths mostly at night. Some days had no deaths at all but there was a general upward trend as time passed from the first death.

She had not treated the birds because they generally appeared healthy. She wondered why the birds died at night. The farmer requested I visit her farm to help her solve the increasing mortality.

Kioko from Makueni, on the other hand, wished to know why his free-range chickens would sometimes produce slightly brown-coloured droppings.

The brown colour kept increasing in intensity and the spread over the chicken dung. Eventually, it turned to brown diarrhoea with blood and some of the chicken died.

MANIFESTATIONS OF UNKNOWN DISEASES

The farmers’ observations were accurate in describing manifestations of unknown disease processes going on in the chicken’s body but initially not severe enough to cause death. However, it was clear that the diseases eventually built-up and caused severe illness and large mortality in the birds.

Kioko’s case is the easiest to deal with. The disease pattern he explained is characteristic of one of the most common forms of intestinal coccidiosis that affects the caecum of the chicken. The disease is caused by parasites called coccidia.

When the droppings turn into bloody diarrhoea, it means the parasites have caused ulcers and other tissue damage in the wall of the caecum resulting in bleeding.

The caecum is a paired pocket-like protrusion attached to the chicken’s small intestine. The damage to the organ also facilitates infection by intestinal bacteria and absorption of intestinal toxins.

Some birds may just die suddenly while others will show twisted necks due to poisoning by intestinal toxins.
I advised Kioko to treat his birds with anti-coccidia which he could obtain from an agrovet shop. He should always do treatment of all the chicken the moment he observed the chocolate brown cover on the droppings. He later confirmed his chicken had recovered and had normal dung.

The case for Susan, the farmer from Thika, was more complex. Sudden death of birds may occur due to a variety of reasons such as coccidiosis, sudden massive respiratory infections and egg peritonitis, among others.

A visit to the farm showed the birds had other signs of disease including white diarrhoea, various degrees of chocolate brown colouring of the droppings and some brown diarrhoea.

The birds appeared to be in good health but the colour, consistency and frequency of the droppings indicated there was both bacterial and coccidia infections occurring in the birds at sub-lethal level.

I treated all the birds with a product that acts on most chicken intestinal bacterial infections and coccidiosis. In a situation like Susan’s, it is always good for the doctor or paravet to use a product that is effective against intestinal coccidiosis, diarrhoea, enteritis, pullorum disease and fowl typhoid.

FAMILIARISE ONESELF WITH THE CHARACTERISTICS

Products that are highly broad spectrum are a combination of different medical substances. For instance, a combination of four active antibacterial and anti-coccidial chemicals and two vitamins.

Single chemical products are not suitable for chicken because in most cases, the diarrhoea or ruffling of the feathers is caused by multiple infections, many of which may be resistant to one chemical. Susan birds have since fully recovered.

I could not deal with the Mombasa case on phone or visit due to its complexity and distance. I advised the farmer to report to a veterinary doctor near her.

Since she was keeping about 500 broiler chickens, it was definitely not profitable to call in an animal health service provider every time the birds showed signs of illness.

This applies to any other small-scale farmer. The best thing is to gain good knowledge on chicken diseases and their management so that the farmer can buy medicines from the agrovet shop when they see disease signs.

Many farmers leave the training to their workers but that is not a good strategy. Workers may leave at any time and go with the knowledge. Get the knowledge yourself and train workers. This ensures the knowledge on chicken farming remains on the farm.

Diseases of chickens are mainly caused by parasites, bacteria, viruses and fungi. Poor nutrition and management are additional disease-causing factors.

A farmer should fully familiarise herself with the characteristics of each group of diseases, the available remedy and who should deliver the remedy.

Farmers must always remember that sporadic single bird deaths, ruffled feathers and