NEED SUGGESTIONS CHICKS WITH PASTY BUTT

[azygous]

Dave, if your babies are caking and clogging up on the outside, they are probably also clogging inside the intestines, too. That's what's killing the chicks. I recommend you give solid coconut oil, about a teaspoon, to each chick that comes up with pasty butt, and smooth a bit of the oil on the vent after you clean them off.

The cause of pasty butt can be several things. One is they aren't drinking enough water. Another is that the brooder is too small to permit the chicks from accessing cool spaces in which to shed excess body heat. In tropical climes, it's going to be a challenge to provide cooling off space, but you might consider using a very low-wattage bulb as a heat source instead of one that is capable of cooking meat.

 

[Sunshine Mesa Farm]

I know this thread is a little old but wanted to share my experience. We had this problem when we got our first batch of 90 chicks (in July), and man was it looking daunting to clean all those butts! I talked to the breeder, who said it was almost certainly due to dehydration. They had plenty of water, but what finally worked was mixing their food with water. Cleared it up within days and we later added another 70 chicks without issue. In fact, I became so convinced about adding water to the food that we never feed dry pellets/mash anymore. Out of 165 birds (now 7 months old and laying) we have had ZERO issues with crops, egg binding, or poopy butts. Plus, we have no waste, and the songbirds don't eat the feed (and subsequently share mites and lice). Maybe we're just fortunate but I'm really convinced that making mash is a good way to go.

 

[losttexan]

After cleaning, smear the vents and the surrounding area with a liberal coating of petroleum jelly.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I tried making mash last winter, I thought the warm food would be nice for them. My chickens wouldn't eat it. After 2 days of throwing out wasted feed, I gave up trying.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I don't know what is killing your flock but there is an awful chick disease known by at least three names that could be the problem. The names are White Bacillus Diarrhea, Typhoid, and Pullorum disease. The NPIP or National Poultry Improvement Program was established almost 90 years ago to combat this scourge. Commercial poultry flocks have largely been Pullorum free for decades but Pullorum occasionally crops up in backyard flocks. Whatever you want to call this disease it is bad news for both you and your flock. I assume that mandatory culling of the entire flock is still called for with the SWAT team showing up at your front door if you try to defy the destruction order. There is a blood test that will almost instantly diagnose Pullorum but that does little for your birds because the death rate is from 80 to 100% and there is no cure and any survivor birds are lifetime carriers of the Pullorum bacteria. In fact Pullorum is so dangerous to poultry that it is illegal in the US to develop a vaccine against Pullorum because then the blood test for Pullorum would become useless because the blood test looks for Antibodies and Antibodies are what vaccines produce.

 

[Sunshine Mesa Farm]

I tried making mash last winter, I thought the warm food would be nice for them. My chickens wouldn't eat it. After 2 days of throwing out wasted feed, I gave up trying.

Yeah, I think the trick was feeding it them them when they were babies. It took my older girls a little getting used to, and even then they were pretty young when I started them on it. We feed a lot of baled alfalfa in the winter too, and I'm glad I got them used to that at an early age because it sure makes for better winter eggs.