Diseases of the Alimentary Tract 65 



shorter time, but never becoming severe.' In either of these 

 cases the bird shows no symptoms of disease other than the 

 watery droppings. No doubt such attacks are in some de- 

 gree detrimental to the best health of the bird. In most 

 cases of this simple diarrhea the bird will recover without 

 any treatment. Nevertheless the careful poultryman will 

 watch his dropping boards for signs of " looseness." When 

 such are found in any quantity the methods of feeding and 

 housing should be carefully examined to see if the cause does 

 not lie in them. 



The normal droppings of a fowl are almost dry and retain 

 the shape in which they are voided. They are easily re- 

 moved from the dropping board and leave little or no stain. 

 About 3 of the normal dropping consists of a whitish sub- 

 stance. This is the uric acid and urates excreted by "the 

 kidneys and removed from the cloaca along with the feces. 



One not infrequently finds droppings which are more 

 watery than the normal. These have a tendency to stain 

 the dropping boards and do not retain the shape in which 

 they are voided. This condition is best described as "loose- 

 ness" and is quite different from true diarrhea. Looseness 

 is not accompanied by offensive odors. Looseness of the 

 bowels may be caused by a large number of things, such as a 

 slight change of food, an additional amount or a new kind of 

 green food, etc. Some individual birds appear to void loose, 

 slightly watery droppings throughout life. Such individual 

 differences are not uncommon among other animals. 



Looseness of the bowels is a condition which need cause 

 no alarm, but when droppings are found which are sticky 

 or liquid in consistency and have a yellow brown or greenish 

 color accompanied by an offensive odor it is time to look 

 after the cause. The evacuations described above indicate 

 some form of true diarrhea. Very often the watery evacua- 

 tions contain mucus and in the more severe cases small clots 



