Feathers and Pasty Butt...

[Year of the Rooster]

I've been seeing some poop stuck(I know it's Pasty Butt) to the butt feathers of my chicks. It's small enough to pick off with my fingers but sometimes I pull a few feathers off, will these grow back when they feather in? One of them has a partially bald area around its poop hole. Could this be from pecking or removing poop? I've seen a few other chicks try to get the poop off of their feathers too as if it's irritating them. Is this normal? Should I wet their bottoms down before removing the poop?

 

[PoultryPedia]

Some people wet and gently pull off the poop. I much prefer to take little fingernail scissors and carefully trim the fluff off right around the vent so that no more poop can get stuck there. The chick will soon replace the fluff with real feathers and by then will no longer be in danger of pasty butt problems.
Do take treating pasty butt seriously! This summer, I didn't get around to doing something about poop I'd noticed on 1 chick's bottom and soon found her dead

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Quote:
Awww I'm sorry to hear that

, but thanks for the warning. I'm doing my best to keep them all clean. Most of them hardly have it, but the ones that do I keep an eye on.