Opposite of Pasty Butt... Hard crusty butt. Normal?

[Jessika]

Baking soda...baking soda...baking soda...

Put just a pinch in their watering dish and no more pasty butt. Last batch of chicks I skipped the Baking soda because I hadn't had an issue with it for a long time. By the time they were a week old...pasty butt. Cleaned them off....put a little Arm & Hammer Baking soda in...I haven't seen pasty butt again. I promise it works wonders!!

 

[debilorrah]

Thanks for that idea!!!!! It goes in the water tonight....

 

[MichiganWoods]

I'll be adding some to my water tonight too. Between that and the oatmeal... hopefully it clears up.

 

[Jessika]

When I first got my chickens an "old timer" (guy wouldn't tell me his age when joked about it...just said his 90th b-day was a while ago..ya and he is still kicking and farming chickens!) told me about the baking soda. I was hesitant...I try to not add anything to my chicks...Vitamins if I have to or on hot days I add them...but I am a skeptic when it comes to "wives tales". Well they got pasty butt....I put it in ...not a ton but a good pinch in my water container (mine is quart sizes) and I never had it again...until recently when I thought maybe it was a coincidence...so I tested it out and skipped the B.S. thing...and guess what? I had pasty butt within a week. So much for that theory.

I am really surprised that no one else has heard of this. It was a great tip from a guy that's been around for a while! Guess he would know after 70 some years of raising chickens.

 

[priszilla]

the hard crusty variety is easier to clean off IMO- and the chicks seem healthier to me than the ones with a big glob of wet gooey poo. I use ACV in the water and it helps,also a bit of DE and oatmeal, chickgrains and use warm water for babies. It is odd how one batch will have a problem and then another group won't at all .I have proabbaly raised over 200 chicks this year and only lost 5 or 6 to pasty butt. I have lsot more to blown heat bulbs

 

[77horses]

we had the same problem with our buff cochin chick. She's really fuzzy and her feathers on her butt hang down, easily picking up poop and it gets tangled and hardened. By the time we noticed the small ball of poop dangling from her feathers, it was already rock hard!(literally) and so we took a wet cloth and tried to make it wet, which didn't really work well. Then, we tried to pull it off. But it was sorta dried to her skin on the butt! So we couldn't pull it off. ouch that would hurt! So, we got out the scissors.

We trimmed the little bits that were dangling, and after trimming away the access fluff feathers, we began cutting at the big rock hard ball of poop. Slowly and carefully, we cut at the little strands of feathers that were stuff to it. Then, it finally wasn't attached to her skin, and it came off! yay! her butt was clean!

Now, she hasn't had any dirty butt since then. I think it was just from her feathers hanging down and catching poop pieces.

good luck

 

[debilorrah]

No more pasty butt tonight....

 

[Jessika]

Be careful if you decide to pull it off....you can pull their inside outside that way...

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I had the same thing and I clipped it off too. Now the feathers have grown back and you can't tell who I clipped and who I didn't.

 

[gotweim]

Quote:
Sorry! I know this is a really old thread but I found it searching around to educate myself on pasty butt before our chicks come this week! I love your idea of baking soda! I am going to use it but I also read that raw apple cider vinegar was also good to add to their water. Is it okay to add the vinegar and the baking soda...I don't want a science experiment or chemical reaction!!!