Cure for pasty butt bad hair doos

[beausonge]

My neighbor and I are raising some chickens together at her place. Even though we have acreage my husband will not let me have chickens. So, I am brooding our replacement batch at my house for the first two weeks and after that they go to my neighbor's house.

So yesterday I had some pasty butts to clean up. However, after I put them in the brooder box they looked so pathetic with their wet hineys.

I couldn't stand it and got a bright idea.

I took them back out and blow dried them until they were all pretty and fluffy again. They fell asleep in my hands and didn't seem to mind at all.

My neighbor laughed herself silly when I told her what I had done.

Vickie
Kelso, WA

 

[magicpigeon]

Quote:

I feel bad for mine too. When they get wet in the rain I always give them a quick towel-dry

 

[FarmerDenise]

I have had occasion to bathe my chickens, on chilly days I will use a blow drier set on low on them. I try not ot bathe them on chilly days, but sometimes you have to

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

I thought everybody blew dry their chicks

 

[ScotianChick]

I blowdried a chicken once and she didn't mind at all! I mix my chicks feed with a little bit of cornmeal and that keeps the pasty butt away!

 

[bluere11e]

I had a problem with pasty butt a long time ago with some very stressed chicks..poor little guys peeping like crazy while I was wiping and tugging. little red bottoms and some very unhappy chicks made me think about there should be a way to break it down and make removal easier on me and th chicks. I dipped the pasty in a capfull of hydrogen peroxide and it foamed and softened everything and made it far easier to remove. The blow dry thing is fairly common. especially I think when you own silkies..

 

[beausonge]

I used to breed and show toy poodles so the first thing I thought of was a blow dryer. My neighbor thinks of chickens as purely livestock so that is why she thought it was so funny.

Yesterday, I heard one of the chicks screaming it's head off and I went in there and one side of of a chick's body was wet - must have biffed it in the water. I took her out and blow dryed her and she was just so happy to lay their and enjoy the warmth.

I have been reading about pasty butt on this site and there were several things that could have caused it: 1) very stressful cross country trip and 2) I added extra sugar to their water the first two days to help them overcome that stress. I stopped the sugar water as soon as I read about pasty butt. I got some rooster booster that has those beneficial gut bacteria and added it to the water and I mixed chick grit in with the egg yolks. Those measures seem to have cleared up the pasty butt.

After the first fiasco with the warm washcloth, I used q-tips. It was amazing how a wet q-tip loosens that poop. You can get it under the poop and then turn the q-tip and that loosens it quite quickly. I then applied vaseline to their vents. The q-tips are also great for fluffing the feathers so they can blow dry properly.

Thanks for everybody for their input! All of the information on this site has been sooooooo helpful to me.

IF I ever figure out how to transfer my photos from my camera to my computer, I will share the broods pictures.

Vickie
Kelso, Wa.