best way to clean poopy vents?

[lowry075]

Hi, two of my chicks have hard poo stuck to their rear ends. I treid to wet it, but my baby brahma started PEEPING in protest. Is there a better way than wetting it and picking at it? If I do it dry, it seems like it will hurt their fluffy butts.

 

[nancypo]

I use the kitchen sink (disinfect afterwards) and rinse with plain warm, not hot, water. Rinse til clean. Sometimes, you may need to use your fingers to gently rub any tuff peices loose. Pat dry with a papertowel. Works great!

 

[lowry075]

Roger that, thanks!

 

[Nicole01]

I stick their bum under the warm running water and used hand soap to wash the poo. I gently blow dry when clean. Make sure they are 100% dry before putting back in the brooder.

 

[Barrdwing]

I take a small dish of warm water and a paper towel torn into small strips. Soak a strip of paper towel and apply it to the poo, getting it wet. It will soften after about 30 seconds. Then, using damp strips of paper towel, I work at the poo, removing bits and pieces as they soften up. I try not to get the chick wet, although it's hard not to. You want to be very gentle, because it's easy to injure their skin, but it is important to get the poo off of there so that they don't get diaper rash. Generally we'd clean our chicks once or twice a day.

Some people on the forum have recommended giving the chicks access to a little clean sand, the logic being that some small grit may help their digestion. I haven't tried this yet.

 

[RustyHen]

some of my SS chicks are having this problem also I was wondering if I could get them clean and dry and then trim some of their fluff back ?

 

[chickensinwasillaAK]

A trick I've used that worked well is after the poo is cleaned off, dip a q tip in olive oil and GENTLY swirl this around the vent. The oil gets on those vent area feathers and coats them slick, poo won't stick. Olive oil won't hurt the chicks. I just got tired of cleaning the same chicks ever days and this solved it, clean it once, use the olive oil and no more from that chick. Good luck with your chicks, take lots of pics because they grow real fast.

 

[Nicole01]

Quote:
Yes, this is what I did to prevent the poo from sticking. I tried oil, but it drove them nuts and the chicks constantly tried to get the poo off.

 

[eggscrement]

I feed mine left over mexican food . they blast themselves clean

 

[gritsar]

Quote: