Help! Pasty Butt

[Lily Dean]

Hi everyone,

I am so glad I found this forum. I just ordered 50 chickens from Mt. Healthy Hatchery and we have lost 10 to pasty butt or some other illness. The brooder is at 95 which is the tempt they told us the chicks needed to stay at and we have been washing bottoms but still seem to lose at least 1 chick per night. Going to try the yogurt and boiled egg to see if that helps any other suggestions?

Thanks
Lily

 

[mycitychicks]

I raised my chicks on organic feed while a friend of mine raised chicks on regular medicated feed. We bought bought our chicks from the same place and they all had pasty butt the first day. My friend's chicks continued to have pasty butt but mine never had it again after I cleaned them off the very first day and started them on organic chick starter feed. They are 6 months old now and my chicks grew up healthy and filled out much quicker than my friend's chicks. After the first 2 months they went outside to the coop and were able to eat fresh grass along with their organic feed. In my opinion organic feed is worth the extra cost. Good luck!

 

[BooBear]

Question:

Does the yogurt idea have to be just plain yogurt or can you give them some regular flavored type yogurt?

 

[Lily Dean]

Our feed is organic crumbles for starting chickens we were sugaring the water but stopped after a few days. We had them in a larger brooder that was 4ft by 10ft but we still were losing chickens daily and before they died they seemed to be straining and uncomfortable and then just failed to thrive. When I contacted the hatchery they told me that for 50 chicks my brooder should only be about 2ft by 4ft so that they were encouraged to stay close enough together to keep each other warmer. We made these changes to our brooder but then lost 4 more chicks. The last of these we found dead with a little poop behind its bottom and a yellowish ooze as well.

This is our first batch of chickens and we are definitely not expert chicken raisers. They are 10 days old today and I wish I had found this site on the first day we had trouble as I think it might have saved us some chicks. We put yogurt in their feed tonight and all the chicks so far seem lively and healthy although some have bare bottoms from us having to remove poo from them.

Do you feed the yogurt to them every day or just once to give them healthy bacteria?

Thanks
Lily

 

[lungewhipqueen]

My sister got chicks from Orscheln's a few days ago and she just texted and asked me if I wanted a couple pasty butt chicks. She HATES having chicks at all, so certainly doesn't want to deal with special needs chicks! I told her I'd take them... of course. She knows I'm a sucker. So I'll be picking up a Silver Laced Wyandotte and a RIR in a couple hours and begin the process. Was so glad to find this thread with all the different suggestions. I guess I've been VERY lucky. Over the years I've never had a chick with this problem... and I used to have a LOT of chicks!

Teresa

A Blue Orpington roo and hen, 1 Light Brahma, 1 Polish, 1 red mystery chicken, 2 Muscovy hens... and soon a SLW and RIR! Not to mention the 9 horses/ponies, 5 goats (+kids), 3 cats, 2 dogs, 1 rabbit and 1 Cockatiel.

 

[lungewhipqueen]

So I'll be picking up a Silver Laced Wyandotte and a RIR in a couple hours and begin the process.

So... two chicks turned into TEN chicks! 7 RIRs and 3 SLWs. I ground up their feed, added yogurt, cleaned their little tushes (which are finally fuzzy again) and put them in the back room. I checked them one last time before bed and they were all active... eating and drinking and luckily, most of them still have clean bottoms. I think constipation is our problem. Poor babies.

Teresa

 

[britlitgal]

Hi, everyone! This is my first post after lurking for over a year in preparation for getting chicks (can you believe that I researched for a year? Yes, I am a dork!). I have a pasty butt question and I can't seem to find the answer anywhere. I have 5 hatchery chicks: 4 Barred Rocks and a RIR. Two of the Barred Rocks and the Rhodie have a bit of poo stuck to their rears, BUT (no pun intended) their vents are clear. They poop normally, it just seems that they have a bit of mess in the fuzz underneath the vent. Is it still considered pasty butt if their vents are clear, or should I still clean them up anyway?

I have tried the warm, moist paper towel method and it doesn't seem to be very effective. Not only that, but their brooder is located in my basement, which is quite chilly at the moment. They hate when I remove them from the brooder (they are very happy and content and warm inside) and I worry about chilling them from the damp towel. They are two days old, and I don't want to stress them any more than they already are after a two hour drive from the hatchery.

They are on unmedicated crumbles and straight water (no sugar since yesterday, when I brought them home), no gro-gel or electrolytes/vitamins. I am going to try the yogurt idea tonight, just to see if it helps. I guess my main question is about whether or not the butt-cleaning is necessary if the vent itself is clear and they are pooping.

Thanks, everyone! Sorry for the dissertation

 

[lungewhipqueen]

Hi Britlitgal,
I would clean them up if they were mine. Only one of my babies actually had their vents blocked when I brought them home, but my sister had two die before she gave them to me. It won't take any time at all for the poo to build up and completely cap off their vents. Once it has nowhere to go, it won't take much longer to kill them. The first chick I cleaned up when I brought them home needed to poo so badly that it barely made it back to the brooder where it dumped the biggest poo I've ever seen a chick make! I'm surprised it wasn't visibly smaller after that! (only half kidding here.)

I found that the easiest, quickest method for cleaning them was to hold them in one hand over the sink with a slow trickle of warm water running. I just stuck their hineys under the running water and pinched the crusty poo a bit at a time. Once the water got in, it softened up real quick and came right off. The chicks fluffed themselves back up in no time in their warm brooder. They didn't seem terribly stressed by it either. They made a lot of noise as I caught them, but none made a sound while I cleaned them and put them back. After the washing, I dabbed their bottoms with a paper towel to absorb any excess moisture. Surprisingly, it didn't get them wet all over or down their legs... just their little bottoms.

They all came through it in a few days and are now in a cage out in the shed with a heat lamp.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have a question for lugewhipqueen, why would your sister order chicks if she doesn't like them?or doesn't want them, you don't have to answer, but I thought that kinda peculiar.

 

[britlitgal]

Thank you for the reply, lungewhipqueen! I will try the faucet method. For one, it will probably be more thorough, and two, it's warmer in my kitchen than in the basement!