Can a pasty butt kill a chick?

[ChcknLady]

My girls started out with pasty butt too! Be careful putting anything shiny on their butts the others may peck at it. If it starts to bleed get it away from the others immediately.
I found wiping like the others said works good and then starting giving them vitamins and electrolytes in their water (instead of sugar) helped to ease stress and perk them up and it cleared up!
Good Luck!

 

[addicted2chicks]

I have only had my chicks a couple of days but with the couple that have had pasty butts I run them under warm water and kind of wipe a bit with a papertowel. More of a dab then a wipe. Once off, I grab another paper towel and dry off as much as possible and then put them under the light in the brooder. I haven't lost one yet out of 104. I have had a couple go on the paper towel right after cleaning them so I then knew I cleaned it good.

 

[I'vegotchickenfever]

You need to check all their bottoms every day (I do several times a day) until they get a little bigger.

At what age is this no longer a problem?

 

[Colonel]

I have lost chicks in previous batches, but this time around, it's really bad. They hatched 5 days ago. Out of a batch of 11 chicks, I am down to 7 and still several of them look pasted up but still doing quite well so far. They have been badly pasted up and no amount of warm water has helped. Even using tweezers to tug on it after trying to soften it up with warm water hasn't worked (I'm afraid of doing serious damage if I pull too hard on it). Admittedly, I haven't been watching them as closely as I have previous batches (these had the misfortune of hatching right at one of the busiest times of the year for my business), but it is still way out of the "normal" range.

I sure wish I knew what causes it and a good way to prevent/fix it.