White diarrhea in chickens most commonly points to one of a few causes: Pullorum disease (a Salmonella infection), excess salt intake, or kidney problems in older birds. Treatment depends entirely on what’s causing it, so the first step is figuring out whether you’re looking at actual diarrhea or normal waste, then narrowing down the trigger.
Normal White Urates vs. White Diarrhea
Before you treat anything, make sure you’re actually seeing diarrhea. Healthy chicken droppings are fairly firm, brownish or greenish, with a white cap on top. That white portion is urates, the chicken equivalent of urine, and it’s completely normal. What you’re looking for is droppings that are almost entirely white, runny, and frequent. If your chicken produces very white, watery droppings regularly, that’s a sign something is wrong.
In older birds, consistently runny white urates can signal a kidney problem rather than an infection. If the bird is otherwise eating, drinking, and acting normally, kidney trouble is worth considering, especially in hens past their peak laying years.
Pullorum Disease: The Classic Cause
When poultry keepers talk about “white diarrhea” in chickens, they’re often describing Pullorum disease, caused by the bacterium Salmonella pullorum. This is the condition historically known as “bacillary white diarrhea,” and it hits chicks hardest. Affected birds huddle near the heat source, stop eating, become weak and lethargic, and develop whitish fecal paste stuck around the vent. Some also develop breathing problems, swollen joints, or blindness.
Pullorum spreads primarily from hen to egg. An infected mother passes the bacteria through the egg before it’s even laid, so chicks can hatch already carrying the infection. It also spreads through direct contact with infected birds, contaminated feed, water, or dirty litter. This is why buying chicks from NPIP-certified (National Poultry Improvement Plan) sources matters. NPIP flocks are tested specifically for Pullorum and Typhoid.
Pullorum is a reportable disease in the United States. If a lab isolates Salmonella pullorum from your birds, the diagnostic service is required to notify your state’s poultry agency within 48 hours. An investigation follows to trace the source of infection. This isn’t meant to punish flock owners; it’s a disease control measure that has nearly eliminated Pullorum from commercial flocks in the U.S.
Treating Pullorum Disease
Antibiotics can reduce mortality in young chicks but won’t eliminate the infection entirely. Treated birds often become carriers, shedding bacteria intermittently for life. For flocks not producing eggs for human consumption, the standard first-choice treatment is a trimethoprim/sulfonamide combination given in water for 3 to 5 days. Amoxicillin in drinking water for 3 days is a second option. Both require a veterinarian’s guidance for proper dosing based on the age and weight of your birds.
Treatment of egg-laying flocks is more complicated because of food safety concerns. Antibiotics leave residues in eggs, and withdrawal periods apply. If you suspect Pullorum in laying hens, you’ll need a vet involved to navigate both the treatment and the regulatory side. In many cases, especially in small flocks, culling infected birds and disinfecting the environment is the recommended path rather than long-term antibiotic use that produces carrier birds.
Salt Toxicity
Excess salt is an underappreciated cause of watery, pale droppings in backyard chickens. It doesn’t take much. The recommended sodium level in chicken feed is around 1,500 to 2,000 parts per million depending on the bird’s age and type. Go above that, and problems start quickly.
Mildly elevated salt intake produces loose, watery droppings and increased water consumption within one to two days. Severely elevated intake leads to profuse diarrhea, dehydration, kidney damage, and death. Common sources of accidental salt poisoning include table scraps with high sodium content, improperly mixed feed, or water sources contaminated with salt (such as water softener runoff).
The fix is straightforward: remove the salt source and provide unlimited fresh, clean water. Most birds recover within a few days once the excess sodium clears their system. If birds are severely dehydrated or lethargic, they may need electrolyte support in their water, but plain fresh water is the priority.
Other Possible Causes
Infectious Bursal Disease (also called Gumboro disease) is a viral infection that causes severe watery diarrhea, soiled vent feathers, listlessness, and dehydration in young chickens, typically between 3 and 6 weeks old. The diarrhea isn’t always distinctly white, but it can appear pale and watery enough to raise concern. There’s no antibiotic treatment for this virus. Supportive care (electrolytes, warmth, keeping birds hydrated) is the main approach, and vaccination is the primary prevention tool for flocks in areas where it circulates.
Coccidiosis, while it more commonly causes bloody or brown diarrhea, can sometimes produce pale, mucousy droppings depending on the species of coccidia involved and the stage of infection. If your birds are young, lethargic, and have pale or unusual droppings, coccidiosis belongs on the list of possibilities alongside bacterial and viral causes.
Supportive Care While You Identify the Cause
Regardless of what’s causing the white diarrhea, a few steps help stabilize sick birds while you work toward a diagnosis. Isolate affected chickens from the rest of the flock to limit spread. Keep them warm, especially chicks, since sick birds lose body heat fast. Offer fresh water with electrolytes. Apple cider vinegar diluted at about 4 teaspoons per gallon of water is a common backyard poultry remedy. Mississippi State University Extension recommends this ratio, noting that the tannins help clear mucus from the digestive tract and may improve nutrient absorption. It’s not a cure for a bacterial infection, but it supports gut health during recovery.
Monitor the rest of the flock closely. If multiple birds develop white diarrhea within a short window, you’re likely dealing with an infectious cause rather than a dietary one.
Cleaning and Disinfection
Salmonella can persist in litter, on surfaces, and in crevices of your coop for weeks. After an outbreak, thorough cleaning is essential. Remove all bedding and organic material first, since disinfectants don’t work well on dirty surfaces. Wash surfaces with soap and water, then apply a disinfectant. Chlorine-based foaming cleaners or peracetic acid products are effective against Salmonella with a 10-minute contact time. After the contact period, rinse surfaces and allow the coop to dry completely before adding fresh bedding and returning birds.
Pay special attention to feeders, waterers, and any surface near the roost or brooder. Replace wooden surfaces that can’t be fully sanitized if possible, since wood absorbs bacteria in ways that make disinfection unreliable.
Preventing White Diarrhea Long-Term
The single most effective prevention for Pullorum disease is sourcing chicks from NPIP-certified hatcheries that test breeding flocks. This program has been so successful that Pullorum is now rare in the U.S. commercial poultry industry, but it still surfaces in backyard flocks that source birds from untested sellers, swap meets, or informal hatching operations.
For salt toxicity, audit your feed and water sources. Stick to commercial poultry feed formulated for your birds’ age and purpose, and limit table scraps, especially processed foods. Keep water troughs clean and free from contamination. For viral diseases like Infectious Bursal Disease, talk to a poultry vet about vaccination schedules appropriate for your area. Good biosecurity basics, like changing shoes before entering the coop, quarantining new birds for at least two weeks, and keeping wild bird access to feed and water to a minimum, reduce the risk of introducing any of these diseases to your flock.