Starmeyer Chicks
Hatching
- Apr 2, 2018
- 3
- 3
- 6
Hi, we are new chicken people and need some advice from those of you who are experienced.
We have a 2 week old silkie, Sylvie. She's been having trouble with pasty butt, so I've been giving her warm water baths once every 36 hours or so to keep her unblocked and relatively clean. Other than the pasty butt, she seems to be doing just fine for the week that we have had her.
I cleaned her off earlier this evening and blew her dry, putting vaseline around her vent area after. Later, she seemed to be struggling to pass a poo and --since I'd just finished reading this site's thread on pasty butt -- I used some warm water to clean her off again and massaged her below the vent to help her pass a bit of poo. Then I blow dryed her again and this time put Preparation H on her.
We've been keeping an eye on Sylvie and shortly after I did this, her butt ballooned up. Then, after a time, it calmed down. Later my husband said that it was ballooned back up again and than she's now laying down with her butt in the air, breathing heavily and that it seemed like she was bearing down to pass something.
She was standing up a few minutes later, still breathing heavily. My husband reached in the box and massaged her a bit below the vent and got a bit of poo out and she hopped away, but still seems to be having trouble. Throughout all this, she's been trying to peck at her bum to clear it away.
Like some of the other folks in the pasty butt thread, we can see her vent anatomy with the swell at times. The red flesh inside with a white something-or-another at the center, it sometimes pulsates, and so on.
Our other 2 chicks, an Easter Egger and a Black Copper Maran, are doing just fine--but are about 3x as big as the Silkie. We assume this is a breed/size difference. We did have a second Silkie, but the poor little gal passed away Friday night. We thought it was a failure to thrive situation, but are concerned that --because she was even smaller than Sylvie -- she was maybe too cold (as we just realized that Sylvie has been too chilly even though our other 2 have been fine. Of course they've been fine, they're way bigger! We didn't take the size difference into account for temp regulation, so now we feel like dumb awful jerks). All that being said, none of the other chicks are having pasty butt.
Sylvie seems to be eating and drinking like normal. We're just giving her regular water and Country Companion chick starter feed, occasionally a bit of grit mixed in the feed.
The chicks are housed in a plastic storage container with a screen on top, a 150 watt heat lamp dropped a bit below the top, water, feed, and paper bedding. We put a couple of rocks in for interest/entertainment.
So, the pasty butt thread said that chicks usually grow out of this if they survive. But, we are understandably concerned about the "if they survive" part. What advice do you have?
We have a 2 week old silkie, Sylvie. She's been having trouble with pasty butt, so I've been giving her warm water baths once every 36 hours or so to keep her unblocked and relatively clean. Other than the pasty butt, she seems to be doing just fine for the week that we have had her.
I cleaned her off earlier this evening and blew her dry, putting vaseline around her vent area after. Later, she seemed to be struggling to pass a poo and --since I'd just finished reading this site's thread on pasty butt -- I used some warm water to clean her off again and massaged her below the vent to help her pass a bit of poo. Then I blow dryed her again and this time put Preparation H on her.
We've been keeping an eye on Sylvie and shortly after I did this, her butt ballooned up. Then, after a time, it calmed down. Later my husband said that it was ballooned back up again and than she's now laying down with her butt in the air, breathing heavily and that it seemed like she was bearing down to pass something.
She was standing up a few minutes later, still breathing heavily. My husband reached in the box and massaged her a bit below the vent and got a bit of poo out and she hopped away, but still seems to be having trouble. Throughout all this, she's been trying to peck at her bum to clear it away.
Like some of the other folks in the pasty butt thread, we can see her vent anatomy with the swell at times. The red flesh inside with a white something-or-another at the center, it sometimes pulsates, and so on.
Our other 2 chicks, an Easter Egger and a Black Copper Maran, are doing just fine--but are about 3x as big as the Silkie. We assume this is a breed/size difference. We did have a second Silkie, but the poor little gal passed away Friday night. We thought it was a failure to thrive situation, but are concerned that --because she was even smaller than Sylvie -- she was maybe too cold (as we just realized that Sylvie has been too chilly even though our other 2 have been fine. Of course they've been fine, they're way bigger! We didn't take the size difference into account for temp regulation, so now we feel like dumb awful jerks). All that being said, none of the other chicks are having pasty butt.
Sylvie seems to be eating and drinking like normal. We're just giving her regular water and Country Companion chick starter feed, occasionally a bit of grit mixed in the feed.
The chicks are housed in a plastic storage container with a screen on top, a 150 watt heat lamp dropped a bit below the top, water, feed, and paper bedding. We put a couple of rocks in for interest/entertainment.
So, the pasty butt thread said that chicks usually grow out of this if they survive. But, we are understandably concerned about the "if they survive" part. What advice do you have?
