When to medicate new chicks, and pasting questions

[plantguy90]

Just got 7 Silkie chicks from MPC, sadly I ordered 12 but 5 came DOA, looked like the trip through the USPS was very rough. But the 7 are doing well. They are in a rabbit cage in the house, the cage has housed sick chickens before but has been washed out and its been dry and unoccupied for 4 weeks. Do you medicate chicks automatically or do you wait until you see problems? My local feed store guy is saying he puts antibiotics (tetracyclene) in the water for all new chicks. Also do you wait for cocci to appear or again do you medicate the water more on a schedule?

Also, the chicks all have some poop on their butts. Even though when they poop it seems liquid, a couple have poop stuck. Its hard to remove with a wet paper towel, its pretty hard and stuck pretty good, and I dont want to risk injuring <week-olds by pulling that hard on the poop to get it off, it seems to be on the feathers and not sure if its blocking vents. Question is how often do chicks develop pasting issues? Is it common?

 

[alabamachick]

I had one chick with pasty bum...
I tried to get it all off with just a warm paper towel... and couldnt...I ended up just getting scissors and cutting just enough of the surrounding feathers to get it off.

He/She does have a naked Bum now though...

I didnt medicate the water... If I see a problem, I will, but as of now I have 6 very happy healthy chicks and see no need to administer antibiotics

 

[plantguy90]

I almost resorted to the scissors, but then I thought, if its that far away from the actual vent, then its ok, right?

 

[blueskylen]

try oiling their butts with a qtip and olive oil - then the wet paper towel. - the oil will help keep the pooh from sticking again

 

[chicmom]

I would not use any antibiotics on new chicks that are doing fine, and I'll tell ya why......it's because if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

If you give chickens antibiotics when they really don't need them, then when they do get sick, they've built up a tolerance towards that antibiotic and you have to get an even stronger antibiotic in order to help them.

When I first got chicks, my feed store didn't sell medicated chick starter, so I've never used that either, and my chicks are just fine. I do keep their brooder pretty clean though. Cocci.... is from being exposed to way too much fecal matter (poo), so if you clean up after your chicks, you should have no problem.

And pasty butt is often caused by chicks being a bit chilly. Now, for some reason, I always seem to get one chick in the batch that seems to get pasty butt. So if all your chicks have pasty butt, you might want to maybe see how warm the brooder is. Put a thermometer directly under your brooder light, and it should read 99 at first....and you drop that 5 degrees each week. You really do have to clean that off because the poor dears will get stopped up and can die from that. It is hard to get off.

I have a trick for that....I use toe nail clippers, and if the poo is dried, I just sort of crush it with the nail clippers and it comes right off. No cutting off their fuzz, and no wetting them either.

Good luck to you!
Sharon