4 day old chick health

[jcreagan78]

Should I be worried? My 4 day old RIR always has poop stuck around her bottom, I picked off the old poop (against her liking) and it looks red around the opening. Is this a problem? Is it just a fuzzy bum problem? I'm assuming I should wipe it regularly with a warm towel but don't know if this may need anything else? These are my first chicks!

 

[enola]

Keep that poop wiped off so she doesn't get plugged up. If she is healthy otherwise she will out grow this problem.

 

[Blooie]

Should I be worried? My 4 day old RIR always has poop stuck around her bottom, I picked off the old poop (against her liking) and it looks red around the opening. Is this a problem? Is it just a fuzzy bum problem? I'm assuming I should wipe it regularly with a warm towel but don't know if this may need anything else? These are my first chicks!

You might also put a little oil of some kind - olive oil, Vaseline, etc. - around the vent after you clean it off. Pasty Butt hit us hard with this batch of chicks for some reason, but a couple of days of washing the poop off and a little oil took care of it until, as my friend Enola said, they outgrow it. I know some folks even cut the fuzz from around the vent so poop has nothing to stick to.

 

[enola]

Scissors and a chick's vent give me horrible visions........

So just dab on some castor oil, works like a charm! .

 

[Blooie]

Scissors and a chick's vent give me horrible visions........

So just dab on some castor oil, works like a charm! .

I agree completely - I had a hard enough time getting them to be still during the washing off process....I don't imagine they'd sit still for a hair-cut-there-cut!

 

[jcreagan78]

Thanks everyone! So I washed off her little bum and put a little Vaseline on her. She had a really hard stuck on piece of poop that took forever to get off, and when I finally got it off there is a little red open sore! Ahhhh! Now I'm totally freaked out! Will she be ok?

 

[enola]

That is just a little irritated spot. Keep it clean and she will be fine!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

One question - when you say you "picked it off" - did you pull/pick at the dried poop? If so, the redness may be not only from irritation from the poo to skin contact, but also from small tears to the delicate skin from the pulling of the dried poop. It is generally a better practice to soften the encrusted poop with the use of warm water (you can use a cotton ball soaked in warm water or even run warm water right over the chicks bum) and work to gently loosen the poop and rinse it away - then you dry the chicks bum and let it get fluffy before returning the to the brooder. The reason for the dry/fluffy bum is that an exposed vent is shiny, pink and VERY enticing to the picking of other chicks. Keep an eye on your little one for recurrence of the pasty butt and for the other chicks doing any pecking at her irritated vent area because it can go bad very quickly if they do fixate on it.

 

[jcreagan78]

I used a warm, wet wash cloth and worked and worked on it. It was really stuck! I really hope it isn't too bad! Thanks for everyone's advise!