Help! Pasty Butt

[TrishinWTN]

Thanks y'all for all the great information here! My eleven year old son has started a chicken business (named it Deluxe Clucks). We were given three chicks from Tractor Supply the other day and one had pasty butt. I appreciate all the insight and recommendations. Gage is blogging about his business and what he is learning. The Pasty butt post is here: http://liveandlearnfarm.com/pasty-butt-warning/. He even gives y'all a shout out

 

[lisa760]

OMG...I just spent days off and on staring at chick's butts. ROFL....

My mother would be proud...oh yeah, that's why I went to college.....

The things we do for our animals. I love my chickens.

Leslie,

I was thinking the same thing! I spend my days looking at chick butts and goat vaginas (she's due any day now!). They need to send kids to farms to learn about reproduction "hands on"!

 

[dennymeyrand]

I have 100 in my brooder right now and 2-3 with pasty butt. I brought the one I could catch in and gave it a warm bath to soften up it's vent. It pooped almost immediately after putting it in a box with a warm light. After about 20 minutes, it was up and chirping and ready to go. Now I just need to catch the others and do the same. I'm going to try the egg yoke too and see if that helps and maybe even the yogurt trick.

 

[Catalinda8]

Hi all - We have new chicks from MyPetChicken, and they all look great, but one seems to have a pasty butt. If they get their gut flora from their mom's poop, would it make sense to drop a little fresh chicken poop in with them from one of our hens?

 

[terischickens]

Oh my! Where should I start?
This is my first group of chicks - ever. I bought them from a local feed store two weeks ago now(April 5Th). I got 6 Cuckoo Marans (5 hens & 1 rooster) and 6 Rhode Island Reds (all hens).
Within the first week we lost 3 of the RIRs for various reasons I guess - being new at this, we expected that. One of our Marans has been smaller than the rest from the beginning. She still hasn't grown much compared to the others. I have noticed she has gotten "pasty butt". The brooder is large enough to hold probably another 6 chicks comfortably. The brooder is always around 80 degrees. Fresh water is supplied multiple times a day (they keep putting the pine shavings in it). We have been feeding them the bag of chick starter that we got from the feed store.
This hen (who we named Runt) used to sleep in the food "dish". She chirps louder than any of the other chicks - which I thought would just be her personality.
Other than her "pasty butt" she seems fine, she runs around the brooder just like the others, eats and drinks well.
I have been cleaning her toosh nearly everyday. My husband thinks all of the cleaning may be stressing her.
I noticed today that she may be loosing some feathers "back there". When I clean her, I never notice any feathers on the white towel. How often should I be cleaning her rump?
Any help and advice will be GREATLY appreciated. Doesn't really matter how many books you read, it is still overwhelming.

 

[lisa760]

Hi all - We have new chicks from MyPetChicken, and they all look great, but one seems to have a pasty butt. If they get their gut flora from their mom's poop, would it make sense to drop a little fresh chicken poop in with them from one of our hens?

That's an interesting idea, though you also hear that you are supposed to keep things free from chicken poop. Who knows with some of this stuff!

 

[lisa760]

Oh my! Where should I start?
This is my first group of chicks - ever. I bought them from a local feed store two weeks ago now(April 5Th). I got 6 Cuckoo Marans (5 hens & 1 rooster) and 6 Rhode Island Reds (all hens).
Within the first week we lost 3 of the RIRs for various reasons I guess - being new at this, we expected that. One of our Marans has been smaller than the rest from the beginning. She still hasn't grown much compared to the others. I have noticed she has gotten "pasty butt". The brooder is large enough to hold probably another 6 chicks comfortably. The brooder is always around 80 degrees. Fresh water is supplied multiple times a day (they keep putting the pine shavings in it). We have been feeding them the bag of chick starter that we got from the feed store.
This hen (who we named Runt) used to sleep in the food "dish". She chirps louder than any of the other chicks - which I thought would just be her personality.
Other than her "pasty butt" she seems fine, she runs around the brooder just like the others, eats and drinks well.
I have been cleaning her toosh nearly everyday. My husband thinks all of the cleaning may be stressing her.
I noticed today that she may be loosing some feathers "back there". When I clean her, I never notice any feathers on the white towel. How often should I be cleaning her rump?
Any help and advice will be GREATLY appreciated. Doesn't really matter how many books you read, it is still overwhelming.

I had something similar happen. I let them go a few days trying to not stress everyone out. No one died, but the pasty butt was bad. Then I cleaned them off once more and now everyone is fine. I think the key is that they not get stressed to start with, once they are, I'm not sure how to keep stress low. I know I would be stressed if I had poop stuck to my butt!

 

[peppersow]

When I have chicks that get pasty butt, I put some sand in with them, it clears the pasty butt up. I just put in a lid off of a jar and they will eat it when they want. It works great for me.........

err...they eat the sand?

 

[Vermont Mama]

Hi! I am a new chick mama from Wednesday morning.

I, too, have been staring at a chick bottom for way too long.
One of our two silkie bantams has it- she is also the smallest in the flock. She seems to be able to poop but it gets all around her vent area and the poop is not as big as the others' poop (not sure if this is b/c there is a partial blockage I can't see or just b/c she is so little.)

I am struggling with the balance of cleaning the area and over-stressing her out. She is sooo tiny and fragile. None of the other girls is picking on her, but she does self segregate for a while after I have held her to clean her out. She is eating and drinking and rejoind the flock after a while. The others do peck at her bottom (to clean it?) once in awhile, and she does the same with others (who might have a little poo but no pasty butt).

Is it ok to leave her bottom a little matted and messy if nothing is blocked and only clean 2x a day? I am patting it dry with cotton balls but not completely- as she gets pretty stressed. She is preening and the fluff is slowly returning. When should it clear up? I the yogurt all I need ? A friend said grass pieces also help. Is this ok?

THANKS SO MUCH!

UPDATE: 5pm EST: now, she has a red swollen -what I can only describe as hemmorhoid like- growth on the inside rim of her vent. I have been using QTips on the exterior -nothing abrasive. I am really worried. Am I causing more damage? What should I do?

 

[frogz]

Whenever I go to buy new chicks the first thing I do is look for pasty butt. If they have it, I pick up another chick. My magic trick for when I get the chicks home is to immediately give them water with some apple cider vinegar, let them eat a mashed, boiled egg yolk (the dogs love the whites even though chicks don't), and to top it off I check all chicks for two weeks 2-3 times a day. And if any appear to develop it, I put a few drops of dawn dish soap and hot water on a dish towel and scrub the chicks' vents and bottoms until clear of poo. Then I rinse the chicks' bottoms and give them a gentle pat down with some paper towels. I've found that my chicks don't care for yogurt or any mixture of yogurt and chick food. Also I always use nutrena medicated chick starter and give them grit the second week, dried mealworms the third week, and by the fourth week I give them live crickets. Variety is the spice of life but it also keeps chickens happy and healthy!