I suggest everyone, whether you're old or new at raising chickens, to get all of Gail Damerow's books and read, reread, and read again. I hear so many misconceptions in these forums and too many people trying to diagnose issues without having the necessary information to diagnose correctly. An easy answer is to always blame the hatchery (sometimes that is the case, though, but rarely). Pasty Butt and chick deaths can be caused by an awful lot of things. For one, Pollorum can cause diarrhea, which can lead to pasty butt, but that's not very common. When the chicks are in the incubator one egg or when in the brooder one chick could have a bacteria or virus that can spread to the others causing death, and it's very difficult to trace it back to the source. Pasty Butt is thought to come from "improper consistency of droppings caused by rations or chilling," or "hereditary weakness". Too much sugar can cause loose droppings, which can lead to Pasty Butt. But food/water and cold aren't the ONLY things that can cause Pasty Butt. Anything that leads to diarrhea can cause Pasty Butt, and lots of diseases, bacteria, and management practices can lead to diarrhea in chicks up to about 10 days old. You can even get an older chicken with Pasty Butt, but it's not as common as with chicks. I for one have never had a chick that I incubated myself come down with Pasty Butt but have had plenty of shipped chicks from hatcheries get it. Some worse than others. The stress of shipping, getting chilled, and especially not being able to drink water for a couple days could cause it. I've never had one with Pasty Butt so bad that it died, so I would suggest something else is the cause of so many chick deaths. Granted they might have Pasty Butt, but I think that might be a symptom of something else. Think about this: When a human has diarrhea what causes it? Too many things that if you told me you had it, I could not possibly tell you what caused it. There are just way too many things that can cause diarrhea that causes Pasty Butt that causes lots of chick deaths, and I suggest to anyone experiencing massive losses to read Gail Damerow's books to try to diagnose and correct any problem that might possibly be management practices or to at least ease your mind knowing that sometimes things are beyond your control. I felt bad (that's an understatement) when I killed half of my very first chicks, because I had no clue coccidiosis existed, and I vowed I'd never be at fault for killing my chicks again (with the exception of the day 18 incubating egg I dropped a few days ago). Ever since, I have read and researched everything chicken and have had a much better success rate, and I also know that sometimes things happen in the chicken world that only God can control.
