"Pasty butt" question

[hillfloweranch]

before now I've never had a problem with pasty butt. but I've lost two babies to it so far...not sure whats going on but only change was with my shipped chicks I gave them brown sugar water when they first arrived then switched it out with fresh water. they get the same chick starter I've fed all my babies and this is the first time I've had losses over it. So Q-tip and Olive oil, hard boiled egg and lowered the heat lamp again. I added some electrolytes to their water hoping that will help. only change with this batch was the brown sugar water...I won't be doing that again.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

The amount of stress they went through for shipping can cause it too. You never know how much that one driver didn't care.

Hope they get better soon.

 

[my little peeps]

I'm having trouble getting it off. It just gets so hard, it's like concrete. They still have me worried. I've actually considered getting a nosehair trimmer and trimming the fuzz off chicks' butts, in the future. A couple of them seemed to be straining to poop. I assume this is because they were blocked off? Strange subject, but a viable one, to us "chicken raisers", I guess.

Being new to the chicken world this stressed me out when I noticed a few of mine with pasty butt. I would use a q-tip and nice warm water, roll the q-tip around the area, it takes a bit but does work. I would let them rest since it was stressful to the both if us. After a few days of checking them it did stop.

 

[hillfloweranch]

I lost 3 more babies ...2 this morning and 1 last night!! last couple of days I've spent checking their butts cleaned them all with olive oil and warm cloth. added electrolytes to the water and put them in the bigger brooder. it's devastating....after I tried to save one this morning to no avail, I went to work then my daughter called me and said we lost another one. So I had her do the 4 Tbsp of Apple cider vinegar in their gallon waterer and came home tonight ....so far no more losses!! I'm really distressed over it because I thought I had been watching them so carefully and not stressing them but I don't know...I feel so bad..poor little things.

Anyway I would like to give my daughter credit for taking care of them today, she's 14 and so amazing!! she mixed the ACV and kept watch over them!! Alex you are a gem! but you still gotta do homework!! LOL

 

[chickengeorgeto]

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/diseases-of-poultry/179/salmonelloses

I am afraid that this is not a simple problem that can be "cured" with Q-tips and a little warm water.

pul·lo·rum disease (p

-lôr

m, -l

r

-) n.

A contagious, often fatal diarrheal disease of young poultry, caused by the bacterium Salmonella pullorum and usually transmitted by infected hens through their eggs.

Here is another one.


pullorum disease [pʊˈlɔːrəm] n.

(Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Veterinary Science) an acute serious bacterial disease of very young birds, esp chickens, characterized by a whitish diarrhoea: caused by Salmonella pullorum, transmitted during egg production Also called bacillary white diarrhoea

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged

HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

Never, never, never, and I repeat never buy chicks, hatching eggs, or breeder fowl from a hatchery or a breeding farm that does not have a current as well as past years pullorum free certificates on hand, and insist on either seeing the certificates or having copies of the certificates mailed, e-mailed, or FAX-ed to you before any money, eggs, or birds change hands. Also don't "adopt" chickens whose health history in reguards to pollorum disease is unknown. There is a quick and easy test for pollorum but it isn't cheap.

PS: there is nothing that will "cure" pullorum disease. Any chicken that survives pullorum disease in the short term will remain a pullorum Marry or pullorum disease carrier for the rest of that chicken's life. Count on it!

 

[hillfloweranch]

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/diseases-of-poultry/179/salmonelloses

I am afraid that this is not a simple problem that can be "cured" with Q-tips and a little warm water.

pul·lo·rum disease (p

-lôr

m, -l

r

-) n.

A contagious, often fatal diarrheal disease of young poultry, caused by the bacterium Salmonella pullorum and usually transmitted by infected hens through their eggs.

Here is another one.


pullorum disease [pʊˈlɔːrəm] n.

(Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Veterinary Science) an acute serious bacterial disease of very young birds, esp chickens, characterized by a whitish diarrhoea: caused by Salmonella pullorum, transmitted during egg production Also called bacillary white diarrhoea

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged

HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

Never, never, never, and I repeat never buy chicks, hatching eggs, or breeder fowl from a hatchery or a breeding farm that does not have a current as well as past years pullorum free certificates on hand, and insist on either seeing the certificates or having copies of the certificates mailed, e-mailed, or FAX-ed to you before any money, eggs, or birds change hands. Also don't "adopt" chickens whose health history in reguards to pollorum disease is unknown. There is a quick and easy test for pollorum but it isn't cheap.

PS: there is nothing that will "cure" pullorum disease. Any chicken that survives pullorum disease in the short term will remain a pullorum Marry or pullorum disease carrier for the rest of that chicken's life. Count on it!

I have a pullorum certificate from McMurray...the chicks were also vaccinated...
update; I lost another just now...I don't know what to do. none of the ones that have died in the last 2 days had pasty butt

 

[wayne hulgan]

Why try to treat pasty butt? try to prevent it. We have always supplied our new chicks with grit from day one. dirt from the yard or best yet sand from the creek. We have had one case of pasty butt, this was before we started giving them grit. After we started supplying our chicks with gritt, pasty butt went away. Do not use the play sand from the building supply stores. This is our 4th time raising chicks, btw they all came from TSC. If y'all are having a pasty butt problem, try giving them some grit. Seems to work for me. After all if they were with Mom, she would be giving them grit. Chicks, all need grit.

 

[Eggcessive]

Pullorum is salmonella, and that doesn't cause pasty butt. Naturally raised chicks that are with a broody hen don't get it. It is caused by dehydration, stress in shipping, or too hot of a brooder. It is easily cleaned off by just using a little soapy warm water and your fingers rubbing it off. Then look to see if the vent is open. Many chicks have messy bottoms, but if the vent is open, they are all right. Most persistant cases are gone within a week.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I have a pullorum certificate from McMurray...the chicks were also vaccinated...
update; I lost another just now...

Part 1.

Part 2.
Either part 1 or part 2 are good videos.
Part 2 however is geared more to BYC breeders.

Participation in NPIP is voluntary.

Vaccinations are good, especially if you are a chicken because chickens fall prey to many different disease organisms. However there is no vaccination that will protect even one chick or egg from pullorum disease and once present it is incurable. If you have a chick with it you are only hurting yourself and harming your future chickens by nursing a chick with pullorum back to supposed health..

I don't know about the hatchery that you ordered your fowl from. I can tell you this from past personal experience. It is almost humanly impossible to maintain as many different strains, breeds, families or brood pens of chickens that many hatcheries offer for sale. The way around this is to subcontract some part of the egg or chick production out to other breeders. This is, or I may should say this was once commonly done, to shorten the time chicks spent in transit when shipped long distances.

Think about it. If you live in California and ordered day old chicks from a hatchery in Georgia I bet most of them would be dead by the time they arrived. If on the other hand your chicks were hatched and shipped from Oregon most of them should arrive in good condition. In cases like this the selling breeder is at the mercy of the producing breeders ethics.

Most Land Grant colleges and universities have a poultry department. I know that my local Land Grant University offers or offered free or low cost expert necropolises to determine the cause of death or to confirm the presents of diseases of poultry. Call yours and find out.

The good thing about pullorum disease is that the organisms that cause it do not live very long in the enviroment. Without its host (poultry) pullorum bacteria quickly dies off.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

I have a pullorum certificate from McMurray...the chicks were also vaccinated...
update; I lost another just now...I don't know what to do. none of the ones that have died in the last 2 days had pasty butt

What other symptoms do they have? If it isn't pasty butt it could be failure to thrive which is a result of bad breeding in most cases. Especially loosing as many as you have! I lost six chicks from an order of 25 once, all due to failure to thrive, all chicks were smaller than their sisters and refused to eat. All the same breed too and most of the losses were from the same color group.