Is It Worth It To Try To Save A Chick With Pasty Butt?

[rhondapiper]

Both of my buff orpingtons had pasty but for a few days their first week. I cleaned them up by hanging their little buns under warm running water and then crumbling off the now mushy dried poo. At about a week old they got a clue about how to clean themselves up and I haven't had any issues since. It was well worth the few frantic chick washings to save them. They are the biggest chicks in the brooder now.

 

[NancyDz]

Yea I've had many with pasty butt, never lost one. I think your chicks had something else going on.


Good luck!

Nancy

 

[The Monkey Mama]

UPDATE:

I had originally posted this many months ago, so I thought I'd update since the thread has been resurrected.

The Auracana chick hung on for 10 weeks, with me pampering her and doing everything I possibly could to keep her alive [including of course cleaning her bum, to her great displeasure]. We had named her "Wonder chicken" and gotten really attached. She never did grow well like the others from that hatch. Then one day I went out to the coop and she was just dead.

The Leghorn chick I was worried about DID survive - it is the only "Pasty Butt Survivor" I've ever had. He was a roo [of course] so he went to live with my friend out in the country and is doing very well.

Kelly

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Awww, I'm sorry for the loss, especially after all the care & attention you gave to her. I think she must have had other health issues which contributed to her pasty butt, however it wasn't just the pasty butt which led to her demise. I've treated a lot of chicks with pasty butt -- usually by carefully trimming the dried poop & a bit of the butt fluff with good manicure scissors -- and never had one die just from that.

I wish you & the rest of your flock all the very best!

 

[Teresaann24]

I raise silkies and they are very bad for pasty butt babies or adult. I have had my fair share of pasty butt chicks and have never lost one and never had one that had pasty butt to get sick later on and die from pasty butt.

I feel everything deserves a fighting chance at life and if I can do somthing to keep it fighting I do so and never question it once. I would only put down one that was suffering but I would never just leave it be.

 

[rufus]

I am with Sunny Side on this. We always started our chicks on the ground. Give them some dirt to scratch in. There is something in the soil, either an organism or element that chicks need to keep from getting pasty butt. Try it, what have you got to lose?

Rufus