A study on the back flow of urine into the ceca of chickens

A cecostomy technique was developed to quantify urine back flow into the ceca of fed and feed-deprived adult male chickens. On the two days after surgery, the tubings of cecostomized chickens were flushed with 20 ml of warm saline solution every other day for 10 days. The operated chickens were allowed for 2 more weeks for recovery without such a flush. Excreta were collected daily for the last 3 days of 4-day-fast in the fasted chickens, and for 3 days in the ad libitum-fed chickens from cecal tubings and cloaca by surgical attachment of polyethylene collection vessels to the chickens. Uric acid excretion was significantly more in fed chickens than in feed-deprived birds. Uric acid from the ceca was 7.74% and 5.3196 for fed and feed-deprived chickens, respectively. Post-mortem examinations ascertained that the ceca were intact around the Latex tubing. The results suggest that at least 5% of daily ureteral urine flow could retrograde into the ceca of roosters.