Seabright chicks two weeks old just dying...

[MiniBeesKnees]

I just checked on my five Silver Seabright two week old chicks and one had pasty butt...dried poop sticking to it. It is being raised outside by the good mommy hen that hatched it. I brought it in the house and washed it off, and put it in the broody box with the light on with four chicks about it's age.

Questions...
Is pasty but contagious?
Is there a treatment other than just washing it off?
Is it common to get pasty butt that old? Two weeks?
Is it possibly something else?

Thanks for the help....

 

[Skyesrocket]

Is it possibly something else?

It could be that some poop stuck to it's feathers and just started collecting there. I raise silkies and check them for that. Usually I only have to pull it off once on a chick and it doesn't happen again.​

 

[PunkinPeep]

A little poop sticking to his tush isn't necessarily a concern, as long as it isn't blocking his vent.

I have had a lot of success with using a little vaseline on the feathers below the vent. This keeps it from sticking.

If i were you, i would vaseline him and get him back to mama asap.

It's not normal to have pasty butt at that age. It's probably just a little stickiness. No, pasty butt isn't contagious.

If he isn't showing signs of sickness other than the poop on his tush, i wouldn't be concerned that there's anything really wrong.

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

It is acting like it doesn't feel well which is something I can't really explain. He is hunched up, his wings are spread out and hanging a bit (which may be him trying to dry out) and he seems 'sickly' to me.

Momma took the others into another pen on an adventure and he was in the pen alone...she does not realize he is gone and she is too far away from him to hear him peep. I don't think she would realize it if I didn't bring him back at all, and just left him with the four others hatched out of the incubator. I figured I'd let him dry out and bring him back...

...but question...is returning him to his mom a critical thing and why?

 

[PunkinPeep]

No, returning him to his mama is not critical if you are going to raise him separately. But if you were going to let her continue to raise him, i would be concerned about too much separation.

If you think he's acting sickly, that's a little different also. At two weeks, i think i would give him a boiled egg yolk and some vitamin water and keep him separated and keep watching him.

Did the mama have her chicks on the ground since day one?

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

Well, actually...they are not on the ground. They are in individual pens where I keep moms with chicks and sitting hens separated. The pen is four feet high, and covered to keep out rain, and provide shade. There is a roost in each one, and a rubbermaid tub on it's side with a hole cut in the top filled with pine shavings. I put that up on cement blocks. There is food and water in each one too. In most cases one or two sides are also covered with tarps in the rain and wind directions. Those pens are five by six feet and I put shavings in the end with the tub in it to give them something to scratch around in besides the dirt on the other end.

I looked at the other chicks...the hatch has five seabrights and four d'uccles...and all the seabrights wings are like that...apparently that is how those chicks look. I've never had any before.

I think I'm going to keep the sick chick...who is eating and drinking...in with the four in the broody tub. No one is picking on him, and he isn't picking on anyone else. He is only a week older then they are and he is small...one of the others is smaller than he is. He isn't peeping anymore, he seems to fit right in with the four strangers. The hen never did notice he was gone...she never acted like she was looking for anyone. He wasn't peeping when I carried him off so she didn't notice...and all he did was peep for awhile when I put him in the tub which may have been because he was damp. He isn't peeping now...so he is not calling for his mother...so I'm just going to let well enough alone. He seems much better since his bath, and going into the tub.

 

[chikkinlittlesc]

Sometimes my newly hatched chicks get pasty butt. It is best to clean their little butts and I usually give them a little oatmeal mixed with chick starter. This seems to firm up the poop a bit and takes care of the problem.

 

[crystalchik]

From what Ive heard, as stated in the earlier posts, pasty butts arent really a problem till they clog the vent, and then thats a big problem. Now, on the other hand, pasty butts can be a symptom of something. My chicks are going through a "pasty butt situation" right now, and I am trying to figure out what it is...I will give you my situation so that you can base yours off of it if needed:

Symptoms of chicks 4 days- 2 weeks: Chronic, reoccuring pasty butts (once I clean them within a few hours even with a bare butt they have it again). It is anywhere from a dark brown to a creamy brown to white, and it smells absolutely putrid...similar to the brown "ceacal" poops, but worse! Chicks become droopy and lethargic
Within a about 24 hours to around 3 days from coming down with these symptoms, they die.

Possible origination: outside, they were hatched under a broody hen

Treatment: I am still not entirely sure what it is, and I have contacted everyone I know including a licensed "chicken doctor", done tons of research, and depleted just about every source available except the vets, which I cannot afford. At first "we" thought it was cocci (even though no blood in stool, which i questioned that...), but they were on medicated food. I went ahead and treated them with Albon and Sulmet, but on the third day of treatment, 2 more died. After cocci was ruled out, I was told to go ahead and put them on antibiotics. I went ahead and did so, and so far I havent lost any (been 3 days). However, the real test is now because I have 3 chicks with the same thing and they are brand new, so we will see if it works. But to me it does sound like an infection of some sort, and these 3 days, the putrid smell stopped. So if you think you need to treat him and if he has similar symptoms, i suggest try antibiotics. I have them on 1/10 cc of oral Neomycin a day.
I also ordered some Oxine and have them on [3 cc per gal] of drinking water and I am spraying them with [6 1/2 oz per gal 3] times a day. So far, things seem to be working!!

Good luck!!

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

The little guy started complaining come roosting or going to the nest time last night so I took him out and put him with his family. He was doing fine, eating, drinking, and hanging with the four chicks in the brooder. He ran over to his hatchmates and mom and she took him right back. But the bad news is I just came in from letting everyone out of their coops and two were dead of the five seabright chicks.

They all look alike so I can't tell if the one I cleaned off was one who died. One chick was in the nest where it appears he died overnight while under his mom, and the other was outside the little coop in the chicky run. One had a dirty butt, the other didn't and there was no blood. Neither one showed any injury of any sort. One had died during the night...he was stiff...the other died more recently as he was still pretty limp but not warm. The one with poop on it did not smell really bad...there was no putrid smell, it did not really 'smell' at all. The rest of the chicks have no symptoms. They all ran to their scratch feed I put out first thing in the AM and are acting 'normal'.

Thanks everyone for your information and crystalchik for the results of your research. The rest of the chicks show no symptoms, so I'll just wait and see.

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

This morning there was another Seabright chick dead. It was still pretty limp, had no poop on it, or injuries visible...it was just dead. It was near the water dish, half buried by the pine shavings that are in that big pen...that big pen is six by twelve feet. The chicks are about two and a half weeks old.

I had five in that hatch, now I have two and I took them both and put them in my broody tub with four that are the same size although younger. One Seabright is puffed up, and its eyes look sick....it isn't moving around or anything, it just stands there. I expect it to die too. The other one is just fine, flying up on the branches in there, eating, drinking, and complaining. I have no idea what to do for them other than to make sure they are warm, fed and have water.