- Aug 4, 2014
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- I have been searching and reading for a couple of hours, looking for an answer, have called the two people we know that have chickens, but still haven't found any consistency or answer for the issue we think we have. We're new to chickens so i hope you guys can help! My wife just got 4 chicks last Tuesday and yesterday we noticed one of them, "Oyster," has a swollen vent. It is not what I'm understanding "pasty butt" to be, or at least not completely. She is pooping regularly (minus one stream/squirt of diahrea literally 5 seconds after a healthy poop, which is how/when I noticed the swollen vent), eating and drinking like normal, and has as much or more energy than the others. So yesterday we soaked her rear in warm water for 15 minutes, while my wife massaged her rear. During this Oyster went three times, all normal. Below is a pic of her vent after soaking, and as you can tell right after she pooped. As you can see, it looks very swollen.
It seemed a little beetter last night before we went to bed, but that could have been because she was all dry. This morning we checked her and her vent was still swollen and looked what I would describe as a little crusty. She had a little, not a lot, of a dried Yellow ish crust at the seam of her vent, and it looked like there was a little blood. So we soaked her again and cleaned her with a warm/wet qtip. When she would pulsate her vent, it looked like red irritation inside. There was no running blood at any time, but it looked like her inside had blood red parts (sorry not really sure how to describe it).
From what we have observed, she is not being pecked by any of the chicks, but she does peck or prune her rear herself, mainly after we cleaned her or after she has pooped.
From what I've read, I don't think this is prolapse since she's a 6day old chick; and I don't think it's pasty butt because she's pooping regularly and does not have blockage on the outside. And she has normal energy which further confuses us. But thats as far as I know. We read about people putting prep H or neosporin on them, feeding them a little veggie oil, or baking soda/water, and weve read a little about giving them Corid, but we don't know what is the right thing to do.
So after soaking her this morning, we sectioned off part of the brooder with cardboard, put screen windows and roof so she could see others but not jump over, replaced with new food/water/pine shavings, then I put a little neosporin on her vent and put her back in the brooder.
Our brooder is a big plastic bin inside a wire dog crate; heat lamp creates temp between 90-95, we have been feeding them chick starter (un-medicated), and we have been putting "vital pack" (vitamins and electrolytes) in their water since we got them.
Does anyone here know what the issue is and what we need to do? I know these little guys are fragile so I assume we need to do something sooner than later. ANY help would be much appreciated!!
Thanks for y'all's time!
- I have been searching and reading for a couple of hours, looking for an answer, have called the two people we know that have chickens, but still haven't found any consistency or answer for the issue we think we have. We're new to chickens so i hope you guys can help! My wife just got 4 chicks last Tuesday and yesterday we noticed one of them, "Oyster," has a swollen vent. It is not what I'm understanding "pasty butt" to be, or at least not completely. She is pooping regularly (minus one stream/squirt of diahrea literally 5 seconds after a healthy poop, which is how/when I noticed the swollen vent), eating and drinking like normal, and has as much or more energy than the others. So yesterday we soaked her rear in warm water for 15 minutes, while my wife massaged her rear. During this Oyster went three times, all normal. Below is a pic of her vent after soaking, and as you can tell right after she pooped. As you can see, it looks very swollen.