This might be a question for the chick raising thread, but it has to do with my broody momma behavior as well so I thought I'd pose it here first.
Up until this morning, so far so good with the six chicks and new mom. But this morning while she was running the wee ones through a Scratching 101 workshop, I noticed the tiniest/weakest/runt one had a pasty butt. Well, poop (so to speak). This wee one has from the get go not appeared as thriving or thrifty as it's siblings, and it always one step behind. When the group finally left the nest yesterday, this wee one was left behind. My bf found it alone in the nest box peeping away and put it down with the rest.
When I saw the pasty butt, I cleaned it off with warm water, dried it as best I could, and used a cotton bud to dab a small amount of olive oil on that adorable little frowning vent. When I put the chick down, it wobbled and hobbledy-hopped over to mom. I figured the walking problems was from the weight/sensation of the dampness/oil on it's bum. Mom investigated her bum, picked off a little bit of poo that still remained and nudged the chick underneath her. I let my bf know to keep an eye on the situation as I had to go to work and he is working from home.
My boyfriend had gone out to the coop and noticed mom was holding another workshop, and the five healthy chicks were dutifully scratching like obedient pupils, and the wee one was sitting alone and peeping. So he now has it in a box under a lamp with it's own food/water (administered some water via a dropper), but he said it doesn't seem like it is going to make it. I guess I put this down to failure to thrive, and mom has to do what she has to do with the other thriving chicks.
My question is, should I have left momma to take care of the pasty butt herself - pick the poo off the chicks bottom?? The poop was completely covering her vent. I felt like I couldn't leave the chick's bum in the state it was in, but I feel like my meddling may made the situation worse. If I had left the pasty butt alone, would mom have taken care of it??
On the positive side - the five other chicks are absolutely thriving and Weezy seems to enjoy being a mom.