pasting up. from a newbie chicken owner & board member.

[12toomany]

Hello. I am very new to these boards (just received a link to check it out a few minutes ago).


My question is this: we have a problem with pasting up. We lost a bird over the night because we could not get it's little behind clean & we may have chilled it.

I am feeling very inadequate here & need some real advice- what do I do to:
A. keep the birds I have left alive. B. prevent this form happening again?

We bought the birds from mypetchicken.com- what a nightmare, you can only get someone on the phone when you want to buy something!
I spent 4 hours and 15 minutes (cumulatively) on hold to have the woman laugh when I told her the bird had died while we were on the phone. We emailed yesterday morning during one of our extended holds, I just heard back from MPC.com by email (32 hours later) and they were no help other than to say that it is because homeowners are concerned about swine flu. I have not received the follow-up call I was promised last night for this morning.... please any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Renee']

You need to do a rear end check every morning and every night, check every chick. If a chick has any poop stuck back there take a paper towel that's rather saturated with very warm water and grab the poop with the wet paper towel and hold until the poop softens and lets go of the chicks down. You may need to reheat the paper towel a time or two. Try only to touch the poo with the wet towel, not the chick. Following the poo removal, some folks will dip a Q-tip in vaseline and wipe the down around the vent to prevent the poo from sticking.

 

[TrixiePA]

I've only been through 24 chickie butts so I'm new too but here's what I learned here.

Pick gently, don't pull though b/c you can pull their little insides out. If it doesn't come off dab with warm water. Apply an oil. I used vaseline and even when they didn't have the pasty I applied for a few days. What I couldn't remove the vasaline softened up and I could remove it all after a while. The vasaline also prevented any more poop from sticking.

I also learned that just because the books say 95+ degrees that's not entirely what worked for us. I lowered by a degree or two and they seemed happier and the pasty stopped.

Some claim it's the shavings, and it may be but I did 4 on puppy pads for a straight week and 2 had the pasties anyway... was still playing with the heat at that point.

Good Luck and someone with more butt exp will chime in I know. This board is great about helping.

T

 

[UT Hobby Farmer]

First, just curious...board member of what?

As for pasting up here is the way I do it.

You will need a bowl of warm water to soak, drip, and dab onto the chicks hiney.

You will need to carefully pull/pick the dried poop from the chick. This is harder than you think because it is usually dried onto both skin and down. If you are cautious you will be able to tell if skin is dried into the poop...do not pull or pick so hastily that you remove skin.

If you are patient and are willing to work at it you will eventually have a clean bottomed chick (likely with a puckering vent) that, in most cases, will make a huge poop soon after you put it down.

Don't forget to continually moisten and soften the pasted poop throughout the whole process.

Good luck.

 

[TrixiePA]

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[TrixiePA]

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[UT Hobby Farmer]

Uhhh...

Butt exp?

That sounds like a little more than the poster was asking about.

 

[12toomany]

Are you referring to the title- I meant here.
We have 9 clean hineys & DH is working on the vaseline now. Thank you all so much! It's nice to have found such great help so quickly!
I will write more later.
Sincere thanks.

 

[TrixiePA]

...

 

[rufus]

We always put our new chicks out on the ground in a tractor. That said, we live in a very warm climate.

They never have pasty butt. There is something in the soil they need. It might be a mineral or an organism. Try putting some soil in the brooder for them to scratch around in. Sure, they will make a mess with it, but it is easier to clean up than a bunch of crusty hinnies.

Rufus