Still pasty/poopie butt at 5 weeks - help!

[Hummingbird Hollow]

It's me and my poopie butted chick again. My 8 chicks will be 5 weeks old on Monday 7/18 and my one White Plymouth Rock is still in need of a bottom cleaning at least twice, usually three times a day. At the advice of various folks on this forum I've tried oatmeal (which they love) adding apple cider vinegar to their water (which they don't seem to mind). On one person's advice I tried a dab of olive oil on the vent (although stopped after a week at the advice of another person). Same thing with yogurt, tried it once but then was told not to and since they mostly walked in it anyway, didn't try again.

The affected chick seems lively and energetic but is now about a third of the size of her age-mates and while she has a few pathetic looking tail feathers, her poor little backside is mostly bald. As her wing feathers are growing quite long and wrap around her backside, they are now getting soiled with poop as well.

So here are my questions: 1) Have any of you had pasty butt go on this long? 2) Tell me more about this pro-biotics I've heard mentioned and do I have to give it to all the chicks or somehow isolate this one? 3) Do I continue to drop the temperature in the brooder? It gets pretty cool here at night in the Colorado mountains and while most of the girls are up on roosts at night on the far side of the brooder, my little poopie-butted one seems to stay under the heat lamp. 4) Along those lines, I'm hoping to move the girls outside to their coop next weekend...should I wait until the little one's tail is recovered with feathers?

Any other words of advice or encouragement?

 

[FriendlyFlyer]

1) No, I had one case at a few days old, that's it.

2) Don't worry about treatment you can prevent it. What kind of bedding do you use?

3) After your chicks are fully feathered (about 4 weeks) you don't need the lamp anymore, you can however keep it on at night, for peace of mind.

4) Go ahead and moves the chicks! The tail feathers shouldn't be a problem, they'll grow back. If it would make you feel better than go ahead and wait until they grow in.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Quote:
For the first three weeks or so I used layers of paper-towels on the bottom of the brooder for bedding. I changed at least the top layer twice a day, doing the whole brooder every few days. Then I switched to a thick layer of pine shavings over brown paper.

Any suggestions for preventing it would be greatly appreciated. The only one more tired of the bottom cleaning process than me is this poor little chick. A few of the other eight had issues for a day or two but nothing since.

 

[dianaross77]

From what I've read on here, chicks aren't fully feathered until 8 weeks and some take a little longer than that. I wish I could help with the pasty butt, the only thing I've heard that you haven't tried is giving some play sand to eat.

 

[FriendlyFlyer]

Sorry, I appologize for saying it takes about 4 weeks for chicks to fully feather, but that's how long it took all of mine to feather so I was just speaking from experience.

Ok, as far as preventing pasty butt; if your pine shavings have tiny pieces, such as sawdust size, than you need a new bedding material until your poor chick learns not to eat the tiny pieces of sawdust. what pasty butt is is a build-up if that sawdust in their poo which makes it clump together and stick to their vent area.
I start all my chicks out with pine shavings also, but special ones made for small mammals and reptiles (yes they come in smaller bags and are more expensive, but it lacks tiny pieces that regular pine shavings have). I used the larger shavings for about 3 weeks and then switched over to regular shavings.
What some birds do, is realize they can eat the tiny pieces so they keep doing it.

I hope this helps you.

 

[Mtn Margie]

I would try the probiotics. It comes in a powdered form. Just sprinkle it on their food and you don't have to worry about over-dosing or it hurting the other chicks. I would also move them to their coop. Maybe you can give them some supervised free-ranging time outside and if the chick is needing something like grit or whatever, instincts will usually guide them to get what they need. I don't know what wattage bulb you are using in your heat lamp, but it will be safer to put in a normal light bulb if you think the chick still needs heat. Personally, I would just put down lots of shavings and some hay or straw in one little area and call it good. How high up are you and where? We are at 8600' and the chicks are fine at 4 weeks in the coop. Just make sure the wind doesn't blow through the coop. Good Luck. If you are near Boulder, I have probiotics.

The previous poster makes a good point about the chick not eating properly. That can also be an issue.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Thanks for the advice folks. I have noticed that my problem chick has drier poop than the shiny/runny offerings of the other chicks. The sawdust acting like binder and making her constipated makes sense...other than the fact that I didn't use it for most of the first month and she had problems all that time...I guess she could have been nipping off pieces of paper toweling for a similar effect. I've also noticed that when I clean out and refill their water (usually three times a day) most of the other chicks go right over and take several big drinks but I almost never see the problem one drinking. Any advice on how to make sure she stays well-hydrated when she doesn't seem as interested in the water as her sisters?

Mtn. Margie, - We live right at the 8,000ft line in the mountains West of Colorado Springs. Because our soil is primarily decomposed granite with gravel ranging from walnut sized down to very fine grit I'm figuring that by taking my chicks to an enclosed outside run on nice days (I'm using a 2.5'X 5' puppy play pen with a screen fastened over the top) or putting a baking sheet full of gravel/grit in their inside the garage run they should have plenty of grit to choose from. I was using canary/parakeet gravel in the beginning but was warned away from it because of the calcium content.

I did find a pretty cool dimmer-switch mechanism for my heat lamp. It plugs in between the lamp cord and the extension cord and has a dimmer switch on it. I have a thermometer in the brooder where the chicks spend the night and can dial the heat lamp down in gradual stages.

 

[TheJuan-n-Only]

I had one with that issue.....I was advised that she may not be getting sufficient water, so i added an etra watering station and mnually fed her water 3 times a day, I was advise to feed this and that...I did this and that....nothing really seem to work.

I did put vaseline around her vent to prevent it and it worked. I had to re apply every 3 days or so. Now she is 5 week and it's out in the coop. I'm still feeding the same and have one less watering station and I'm happy to report NO MORE pasty butt!!!

It could be that she is bigger now and can hold her own against the 6, 7 and 8 weeks old at feed and drink time...who knows....


Def try vaseline to prevent the poop from sticking...

Good luck!

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Quote:
Thanks, I'll try that. By the way, how do you manually give water to a chick? Eye dropper?

 

[TheJuan-n-Only]

Quote:
Thanks, I'll try that. By the way, how do you manually give water to a chick? Eye dropper?

Just dunked her beek on the water plate or the water bottle 5 to 10 times...you can actually fee her drinking....

vaseline worked like a charm..aply it where ever the poop is sticking, just dont get lazy on the re-application or you will be cleaning chicken butt again! lol

I was telling my DW that with my luck after all that work with this chick it will end up being a roo! lol