Chick Care: Dealing with Pasty Butt
Not to get to graphic on you but probably one of the most common issues you will have with your chicks is pasty butt. We have found this to be an issue in the first 2 weeks and has since tapered off. If you would have told me I would be washing crusty poo off a chicks butt and then blow drying her back side a year ago, I would have probably told you no. But at that time we had laying hens and I wasn’t really in the market for getting little chicks. After our girls died in November last year, we really missed them and wanted to get more chickens. It is not just the eggs, I loved seeing them walking around outside in their outdoor area. They have so much personality and their fluffy butts really brought us all so much joy. So cut to us deciding we are getting chicks this time not hens and now we have developed a ‘chick bidet’.
Pasty butt aka Pasted Vent, cloacitis or vent gleet happens when droppings stick to the vent (where the poo and eventually the egg comes out) and without intervention can seal the vent closed causing a blockage and thus death. Most common in chicks up to 10 days old and can be due to loose dropping or sometimes over heating from a heat lamp. We learned this is something you have to check for daily and the earlier you intervene the better. We only had 2 chicks out of 10 get pasted vent and only 1 of the 2 needed more than one vent cleaning. I had seen a reel on instagram where a woman used coconut oil to clean off her chicks pasted vent so the first time we had a chick with pasted vent, I ran to get the coconut oil because she made it look so easy her reel. (Side note, I’m sure it was easy for her but not for us.) The oil did not get the crusted poo off and made a mess including matting down the chicks fluffy feathers. I quickly did what any average, non farmer, suburban woman wound do, I googled it… yeah “Dr. Google” to the rescue. I know I should have been more prepared but this is why I am writing this blog so you can avoid my mistakes. The source online said wash off with warm water them make sure to dry the feathers before putting her back in the brooder. So we took her to the sink and eventually dissolved the stuck on poo clearing her vent. Unfortunately, her vent was now bright red and the oil had slicked down her feathers around her back side so when we put her back in the brooder the other chicks immediately ran over to peck at her vent. Apparently they will immediately peck at anything the color red. So we had to take this poor chick back out and wash her with a gentle dog shampoo to get the oil off her feathers…. At this point I am having a flash back of the comercials where Dawn for dishes is used to clean oil off sea birds after an oil spill… yeah oil and feathers, why did I think this was such a good idea? We tried to re fluff the feathers by gently drying with a towel but her vent was still very exposed so another google and the plan was made to use a hair dryer on low to dry her off. The cool and low mode on my dryer worked well. You don’t want to blow cold air on the chick but you don’t want to roast her back side with hot air either. The hair dryer worked like a charm and she was dry enough to go back in the brooder without incident.
After the slightly traumatic first episode of pasted vent, I reviewed a book I bought second hand- The Chicken Health Hand Book as well as my How to Raise Chickens Book (Links Below). We developed our chick bidet and light blow dry method and for the one chick who ended up needing to have her vent cleaned every day for about 5-6 days this was our method.
Take chick to sink and run warm water gently over her vent
Gentle encourage the pasted poo to come loose with your fingers
Dry chick with a soft towel
Use blow dryer on low to gently fluff her feathers back up if needed. (Sometimes there wasn’t much there so she just needs a rinse and a quick towel dry.)
I will link a short video below as well links to the books I found helpful about raising chickens.
