Pasty Butt

We've experienced a little problem with our chicks.  Last week we had 60 meat birds shipped to us. The day old birds arrived all healthy with only one dead.  Then sickness swept through the fledgling flock of feathered fowl.  We began losing chicks.  Darn it!  Tricia did some research and diagnosed the problem - Pasty Butt.

That doesn't sound nice.  What happens is that the chicks get diarrhea and the poop gets caught in the down that is around their butts.  That poop clogs up their vent (butt), and causes a blockage and they die.  Who knew?  Chickens get constipation that is fatal.  So what are the causes?  Well, it can be caused by stress, by the chicks getting too cold when shipped through the mail, or with the chicks getting too warm under the heat lamps in the brooder.  Or it can be caused by viral/bacterial infections.  The latter, we think, is the culprit.  The chicks are comfortable in the brooder.  If they were too cold, they would be piled up in a bunch to try to stay warm.  If they were too hot, they would be away from the lamp.  The chicks are evenly dispersed and seem to be happy with the temperature.

Pasty Butt

So what can you do to combat pasty butt?  Well, you can wipe their "business end" with a Q-tip moistened with water/oil.  That will unplug things.  You can hold their bottom under running warm water and then blow dry them.

To combat the infection by helping their immune system, you can mix a little apple cider vinegar in their drinking water.  The recipe Tricia found online calls for 1 Tablespoon per gallon.  Our waterers are much smaller, so Tricia used 1/2 teaspoon in our quart sized waterer.  Is there anything Apple Cider Vinegar can't do?

Apple Cider Vinegar - a cure for pasty butt 

To help with the diarrhea, you can feed the chicks ground raw oatmeal with a little grit.  We used sand.  We began this regimen yesterday and today was the first day we didn't lose a chick.  Hopefully Tricia has put an end to the epidemic of Pasty Butt Syndrome that was running rampant in the brooder.

Get well soon, pasty butts

We will continue to keep a close eye on the chicks as we don't want to lose any more birds.  Cleaning birds' bottoms who are afflicted with Pasty Butt is not something that I look forward to.  But I'll check them out tomorrow and, if necessary, I'll do what it takes to save them.