The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Jewelwing]

One of my new chicks has pasty butt.

I haven't faced this problem before. The chicks were hatched on Monday, and I received them Tuesday. No one seemed to have any problems until last night, when one of them had a lot of butt fluff stuck together. I cleaned off around her vent, but this morning she's not eating, and had more stuck feathers. I cleaned her off better under warm running water, dried as best I could with a paper towel, and put her back. She immediately tried to squirt out some poo, but it wasn't very much, and it was all white and sticky, kind of like marshmallow creme. As she walked away from the pile, it stuck to her in a long skinny string for a while before it finally snapped. I cleaned her butt again very briefly with a damp paper towel and put her right back.

I have them in a large Rubbermaid container with an open top, and a heat lamp shines on one side. The food & water is on the other side. The chicks sleep in twos or threes under the heat lamp, so I figured the heat is about right for them.

I've been feeding them fermented chick grower that I've ground finer in a food processor. But they didn't seem to like the taste very much, so I've also been feeding them scrambled egg, which they just love! I finally remembered yesterday to get them some chick grit (I wasn't as prepared as I should have been - I expected them to be raised by a broody hen), so since yesterday they've had free choice chick grit.

Their water is plain with nothing added.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[FridayYet]

Jewelwing - you might want to try a little plain yoghurt. It wouldn't hurt. (Hope those with more experience chime in.)

I need some help as well. This morning I found one of my 5 week olds lying in the brooder box, (out in the coop) fairly cold and stiff. Thought he was dead, but he turned his head when I picked him up. Rushed inside, warmed him with the hairdryer and wrapped him in a warm towel. Gave him a couple droppers of warm water with honey and electrolytes, which he swallowed without choking or dripping. He's laying in a dog crate under the eco-glow in the back room. I'm letting him rest, but he still hasn't moved or opened his eyes. Every half hour I'm giving a few more droppers of liquid, last one had a bit of yogurt in the solution.

No signs of injury that I could see.

Last night we had a severe thunderstorm. Could they have freaked out and he got injured, then didn't make it back into the chick pile? Everyone else is fine, running around acting normal.

Hope he makes it, suggestions appreciated.

 

[Jewelwing]

I just gave the chick some egg yolk (used a dropper & squirted it in her beak). She swallowed it without choking. I also smeared some vaseline on her vent and then put her back.

The rest of the chicks were sleeping at the edge of the heat lamp circle, instead of right under it, so I moved it up a little.

 

[FridayYet]

Hope that helps.

Sorry to report that my chick "Baseball" died a few minutes ago. Really wish I knew what happened, but couldn't bring myself to necropsy him.

 

[Jewelwing]

I just checked all my nine chicks, and two others also had dried poo stuck to their butt feathers. But theirs wasn't white, and they were running around and acting normal. I cleaned them off and put vaseline on.

I did mix some plain yogurt with scrambled egg & put it in with their ff, and most of the chicks seemed to like it ok (no one liked the yogurt plain!).

The one I posted about first just stands in a corner and sleeps. Should I try giving her some sugar water, or maybe some sugar water mixed with yogurt?

 

[Jewelwing]

Hope that helps.

Sorry to report that my chick "Baseball" died a few minutes ago. Really wish I knew what happened, but couldn't bring myself to necropsy him.

I'm so sorry, FridayYet. I hope someone else on here with more experience has some ideas for you. In two years, I've lost three chickens - one to a predator, but the others just died and I don't know why. The first was a week-old chick, but the other was a six month old pullet and I did a necropsy but didn't find anything that looked wrong.

 

[slordaz]

well we found our mystery rooster today when we got older 11 week old barred rock cockerel this morning. it's the odd astrolop that the original sales receipt was for a buffington , we had bought 2 but the other one died about 3 days old from playing duck in the middle of the night. We have already found a new home for the astrolop though as it's not something we want and the person was more than happy to let us have a choice of hen in trade for him. Ane here I thought my friend was just having hallucinations about one of the black ones being a rooster lol.

Your humor for the day: astrolops are amazingly fast and agile lol only took us 3 rounds in the coop with 2 people in there after we got him outta the run and in there lol

 

[slordaz]

Jewelwing, I found with mine that veggies are the best way to see if they will eat or not, they loved lettuce in the brooder as that was ducky's favorite, now it's more like small pieces of tomato, sweet pepper or watermelon or boiled egg, if they don't come to that need to start investigating what is wrong with them as usually i get run over when I bring that out. If they are in the brooder still it might be they are just getting to hot too and can't find enough space to get out of the heat which will dehydrate them and can cause the pasty butt

 

[Lacy Blues]

I just gave the chick some egg yolk (used a dropper & squirted it in her beak). She swallowed it without choking. I also smeared some vaseline on her vent and then put her back.

The rest of the chicks were sleeping at the edge of the heat lamp circle, instead of right under it, so I moved it up a little.

Your heat lamp was at the perfect level. Sleeping on the edge of the circle is where you want them. If you raise it too high, they'll be piled all over each other trying to get warm. I'd put it back down where you had it.

Last year I had chicks with pasty butt that had a broody taking care of them. I don't know what causes it actually but trying to keep them clean and dry may help.

They will learn to like the yogurt, honest. At first they don't want it because its wet... they start shaking their little heads as soon as they see it, as if they already know! So funny to watch!

Question about the white diarrhea one... does they chick cry out as if in pain when it goes?

 

[slordaz]

i noticed it more in brooding pen, and after cleaning it off they started drinking a lot more I noticed so maybe they weren't drinking enough, and getting butt cleaned up made em drink enough so it didn't happen again because didn't have them get it more than once.