Excessive drinking/can this be a habit

[LaurelRidgeDreams]

Has anyone ever heard of chickens developing a habit of drinking excessive amounts of water?

 

[7L Farm]

I have 10 hens that drink 2 and a half gallons every 2 days. Chickens drink alot of water.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Can you tell us why you think it's excessive?

 

[chickendude]

2 and1/2 gallons seems like way too much. It sounds like your water fount has a possible leak. Is it bone dry when you go to refill it?

 

[rancher hicks]

I've read a lot about chickens but never excessive drinking. Now I do know mine drink a lot when it's hot. Is there a source of salt somewhere? Maybe a horse block? Are you feeding them alot of household scraps? Most foods people eat contain enough sodium with out added sodium (salt). Check your feed. Is this sudden? Since you've bought this bag of feed? Is there a source of food or something they're getting into that might be the culprit?

Hope things work out

Rancher

 

[chickendude]

Quote:
Sorry I misread your post. I thought it read every day.

I guess I need a second cup of joe

I also should have noticed you are in the Texas heat.

 

[Judy]

Lots of people give their chickens cat food, which is not good for them for a couple of reasons, one of which is that it has too much salt for them.

 

[karmical]

Hi again, Laurel Ridge Still no answers! My girl "seems" to have resolved her crop issue and I'm not seeing quite as much excessive drinking. Still not sure if it's related though. Curious to see what others post...

 

[LaurelRidgeDreams]

Okay, here goes as best I can explain it.

I have a 9 month old BA who had an impacted crop in October. It took about three weeks for this to "disappear". I messaged her crop and fed her a little bread soaked in olive oil. At that time she began to drink much more water than usual. Her crop made a sloshing sound when she shook herself. She visited the waterer much more often than the others and drank much more while there. I assumed she was drinking more because she was impacted. She also began to have very mushy poop which has slowly become projectile water and is almost clear at times.

First part of November she stopped laying and began to have a mini molt. She was not eating as much at that time. My vet did a fecal exam, found lots of parasites and a few cocci. I've wormed with Wazine and followed that with fenbendazole. Also have given them 5 days of Corid. At the end of the Corid treatment she had stopped molting and started laying again, regularly.

Today was day 5 of meds designed to attack bacteria. I got these from Peter Brown. So far there has been no change in the amount of water she consumes or the projectile poop.

To complicate this just a little more, I now have two other pullets drinking more than usual and starting to have mushy poop. All of my six chickens seem energetic and are eating much better than before the worming.

My question about excessive water drinking was to see if anyone else has experienced this and to learn if chickens can develop a habit of drinking too much water.

 

[janinepeters]

Maybe the excessive drinking is secondary to the loose poop: If you are losing a lot of fluid through the GI tract, you need to drink more to replace it. It might take a while for the loose poop to clear up after completing the course of antibiotics. Then perhaps the excessive drinking will stop. Not sure about all this - just a thought.