4 day old Cochin hard poop help

[feather16]

This is their brooder. It’s nice and warm on the floor but doesn’t by any means feel too warm. The larger of the two started having hard poop dried on its butt. I was able to pull some of it off yesterday, the vent still clear. Today it’s a little more crusty.. when I lift up it’s tail I can still see the vent, but it’s not as clear as yesterday. Do I use a warm rag to soften and try to get it off? Anything I can change to their set up? The smaller one doesn’t have any mess on it’s butt.

 

[SueT]

Yes you must clean it off, this is pasty butt and can be fatal if not attended. I am guessing your setup is too warm. Put the heat source at one end and use a thermometer to verify they can get to a cooler (room temperature) area. You could use a smaller bulb, just a normal incandescent bulb, say 75 watt for just 2 chicks. It would need to be lower, in that case.
I used a ceramic heat emitter, (reptile bulb) in my clamp light fixture and liked that a lot.

 

[feather16]

Wonderful, thank you! I just moved the light to one end, and it’s noticeably cooler on the other end. Just cleaned it up, and if it gets pasty again I’ll change out the light.

 

[Kes]

Be careful when picking at it when it's dry since the vent area can be easily torn. One of mine had this when I brought it home and I ran let warm water from the faucet run slowly over only that area until it was soft enough to come off easily. The chick kinda seemed to like it too.

 

[feather16]

Thank you, good points! I only pulled off what came off easily, didn’t want to hurt or pull any fluff out. Thanks for the tips! I hope I don’t have to keep doing this... the other chick seems to be a runt and is only interested in sleeping. Oof. I’m a little stressed out with these two.

 

[Stephine]

Yes you must clean it off, this is pasty butt and can be fatal if not attended. I am guessing your setup is too warm. Put the heat source at one end and use a thermometer to verify they can get to a cooler (room temperature) area. You could use a smaller bulb, just a normal incandescent bulb, say 75 watt for just 2 chicks. It would need to be lower, in that case.
I used a ceramic heat emitter, (reptile bulb) in my clamp light fixture and liked that a lot.

Agreed in everything - and I, too, prefer the ceramic heat emitter...
You can make it work with a heat lamp, just put it at the very edge on one side - they need to have plenty of room to escape the heat...