White Poos

poultry passion · **Joined:** Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:26 pm **Posts:** 5

Hi all. I have a mix of hens inc Isa and island red and yesterday I noticed a lot of white poo with streaks of mustard colour stripes. Their poos are normally brownish or all mustard colour but I have never seen white poos before. Could it be worms or something?

parvo · **Joined:** Sat Jan 02, 2010 7:39 pm **Posts:** 735

Hi Poultry Passion

White poos mean that you are just seeing the urate & no faeces. In a normal bird dropping you have the dark faeces ( or real poo), the white urate (which is a nitrogen waste product- the mammalian equivalent is urea), and clear urine which evaporates after a short period of time.

It sounds like some of your birds' droppings has lots of urea and the mustard streaks are the tiny amounts of faeces coming out. This may be because they are not eating a lot, or have undergone a period of dehydration.

Keep an eye on them and make sure they all look healthy. Watch them especially at feeding time to ensure that they're all eating. Adding some greens may help to increase the water content.

In summary, if they all appear to be healthy, don't worry too much. The droppings should return back to normal within a few days. If some look fluffed, isolate them, give them plenty of food and water & watch their behaviour & droppings. If they don't improve within 24-48 hours or start to deteriorate you may need to see the vet.

Hope this helps

Parvo

poultry passion · **Joined:** Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:26 pm **Posts:** 5

Yes it helped HEAPS THANK YOU very much parvo. They are all healthy looking and are eating but maybe not as much as they should I will give them a bit more greens and see if they eat more

Thank you again VERY helpful

tribeofchickens · **Joined:** Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:30 am **Posts:** 7

Have you wormed them that is one thing the seller of my barred rocks went on and on about but I guess it is important

Krystal · **Joined:** Thu Sep 02, 2010 8:52 am **Posts:** 2

Sorry to interrupt your topic but how often do you have to de worm chooks

tribeofchickens · **Joined:** Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:30 am **Posts:** 7

I do mine twice a year but it depend if you let them out or not

Krystal · **Joined:** Thu Sep 02, 2010 8:52 am **Posts:** 2

Ok thank you

CHOOKHOTEL · **Posted:** Fri Sep 10, 2010 3:54 pm

White runny poo with white lines usually means worms or their castings so yes worm them asap

parvo · **Joined:** Sat Jan 02, 2010 7:39 pm **Posts:** 735

If there are worms in the droppings it is usually the roundworms which are the ones large enough to see. They are pale and either straight or coiled with a circular cross section and pointed ends.. If you break the dropping up the worm should remain intact.
Having said that, it is not often that you find adult worms in droppings unless the worm burden is high or you've just treated the birds for worms.
They don't actually have castings- this is what earthworms shed, not intestinal worms.
As I said above most of the white seen in birds' droppings is due to urates.
If you want to know if the birds have worms the best way is to do a faecal floatation on the droppings.

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