Chick with really bad pasty butt, very sore, can I use ointment?

[flyinghoofs]

I have a one week old chick who had a bad case of pasting up - husband didn't catch it while I was out of town for work. Once discovered, we cleaned her off really well and her vent was very red and very swollen. Quite frankly, I am surprised she made it. Now she has crusty stuff all over her sore backside and if you try to pick it off, it is like scabs, exposing raw skin. I feel really bad for her and was wondering if I can put Neosporin or Desitin on her to help alleviate the redness and soreness. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[tnchickenut]

i wouldn't do any ointment... them little one's will pick at it and eat it.

 

[NoSkiveez]

I dont know if this is the right way to go, but I had 4 of 5 chicks that had that happen a month ago or so. I used an eye dropper with warm water (in a warm bathroom) and a clean soft rag under the crust. I applied a drop of water to the under side of the crust and kept the rag under to catch any run off drops of water. It took a while but it softened up the crusty and it was able to be removed easily. We had one chick that was so crusty that it lost a patch of fur on her butt and it looked very sore. It all grew back but I dont look forward to that ever happening again.

 

[The Chicken People]

Seperate her from the others and use that search bar on the right corner to type in pasty butt you will find many threads and good advice on here! Good luck!

 

[NoSkiveez]

...and thinking about it. I think I did put a very thin dab of ointment on their butt to keep poo from sticking and I checked them alot and cleaned them up if needed. They were quite young and I didnt have any pecking going on prior to it and didnt notice anything new going on afterwards. Im sure they would peck eachother if they had any cream on now tho.

 

[teach1rusl]

If you're sure that the crusts are scabs, I would put a wire divider in the brooder to keep the chick separated from the others so nobody picks at them. I think a really mild ointment would be okay IMO if she's apart from the others. But be sure they're not poop/feather crusts. When one of mine had pasty butt as a chick, I had to bathe her in warm water in the sink, and had to keep her in there for a while working at getting it all off (and still had to trim part of it off). Good luck with the poor, sore little thing.