New to chickens, please hlep crusty bumm!

[Physics Mom]

I just joined the site for answers to this same problem. My father-in-law brought 5 chicks for us to start for them on Saturday afternoon (they live up in the mountains where it's still too cold), and one of them was getting picked on and shunned by the other chicks. Yesterday (Sunday) we found the chick stuck sideways in the feeder, shivering and nearly unconsious and all pasted up on the vent. We warmed her (?) up, and isolated her from the others in a seperate box under the heat lamp. I've been cleaning her off a bit at a time, and she seems much better today (alert, eating and drinking and such) but her vent is reddish around the opening and distended still. Is there more I should be doing, or am I already doing all that can be done for her? Should I worry about the health of the others she's come in contact with? One of the other chicks from her batch has a bit of poop stuck to it's backside, although not nearly as badly as the very sick one. Is it obvious I'm terribly new at this?

 

[eggzettera]

First

Second - don't worry they be fine, happens more then you think. You may want to dab a little olive oil around the vent to help her recovery. The things we do for our babies...

 

[pookiethebear]

I got my girls cleanded up after I posted this op. I used warm water and a soft toothbrush. I did snip teh feathers of the one bird as I could not get her cleaned up totally. I put olive oil on their rumps and they recovered just fine. They never got it again, and I did not have to re-grease them. They are now 3 weeks old and you would never know anything like that happend to them (except for the slightly bare butted one that I trimmed).

Interesting - I followed my booklet and gave the RIRs sugar water when I got them home from the store for an hour or two, and 2 ended up with pasty butt. I got 7 more chicks (mixed breeds) a week later and did not give them the sugar water and they never got the pasty bottom, even through one went through serious stress and trauma.

 

[Physics Mom]

So, after you get the pasty bum cleared up, how do you re-indroduce the chick to the flock? We put ours in a box by herself for her own safety, but now that she's recovering her health, she seems traumatized by being alone. She chirps loudly, and jumps in my hand whenever I feed or water her. We make a point of cuddling her some every evening, but she clearly needs more interaction. The other chicks she came with are all much larger than her now, and peck at her mercilessly if we try to put her back with them. I have 5 Lt. Brahma chicks who are a bit smaller and very gentle, but the pasty bum chick will chase them around trying to cuddle with them in a very aggressive manner until they start pecking at her in self defence. How do we get her back with other chicks without causing harm to anybody? Will she just have to be a loner for the rest of her life?

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Glad I seen this post

This is always good info to know

 

[Physics Mom]

I think she's lost the will to live. She's not conscious. I'm holding her against my chest right now to try to warm and comfort her, but I don't thinkshe's going to make it.

 

[Chicken Cluck]

Just wipe it off with a wet towel

 

[bangor777]

What happened? I thought she was better? Oh i'm very sorry. Keep us posted!

 

[pookiethebear]

how do you re-indroduce the chick to the flock?

I did nto isolate the crusty ones. I held them over a cool whip container of water while I cleaned them and when they were all clean and oiled I just put them back in with the rest of the chicks. The others seemed to check out their bottoms to say wow that looks like it hurts...but they did not peck at them.​

 

[Physics Mom]

Thanks for the consolation... I think there might have been something wrong with her from the get go. The other chicks pushed her around and pecked at her from the get go, the pasty vent just made the problem worse. I got her cleaned off, but there was clearly some inflamation. She seemed better the last couple of days; eating, drinking, etc, but she had been getting more and more despondent. We thought she was just lonely... She never did wake up yesterday. Her breathing just got slower until it stopped. I guess sometimes it just works out that way. Focusing now on the other 17.