Pasty Butt in Chicks
Pasty butt in chicks is fairly common with new chicken owners, so if you're seeing it, don’t beat your self up over it. Let’s see what causes pasty butt and then you won’t have this problem again (hopefully).
First, pasty butt looks like poop stuck to a chicks rear end. That is literally all it is. As it comes out, it gets hung up on the down and dries out and can seal off the vent. Think about a strawberry milkshake when the strawberry gets stuck in the straw. Nothing can go up or down, same concept.
Now that you know what it is, let’s talk about what causes pasty butt. A young chick cannot regulate its body temp at all for a couple weeks. They need a warm, draft free brooder and room temperature water. What you want to do is have everything a constant warm temp, much like a human infant, check the milk bottle temp and the bassinet has solid sides to stop a cold draft. If your birds were hatched on the property you shouldn’t have much of a problem. IF you buy chicks, there is no telling how much of a temperature swing they have had in transit. You cannot change how they were treated before you, all you can do is watch them and do best you can now.
The sooner you can catch it, the better it will be to treat pasty butt. You need to watch for it a couple times a day for the first week. If you see any dingleberries, pull them off. Owning livestock can be tough love and you're not gonna like what I am fixing to say. A mild case of pasty butt, which means it has started today, in the last few hours, pull it off. Down and all. Now before you click off, think back to the first paragraph and the poo is grabbing the down. You need to remove the problem to prevent it again. It’s like pulling a bandaid off a hairy arm, hurts for a second. If its more advanced, then it’s like an ice burg and there is more you can’t see than you can. Unfortunaly, chances are high that the chick won’t make it, but we still want to give it a chance. Take a warm, damp paper towel and gently pull it off. The goal is to pull any obstruction off and out to allow the chick to poo normally. I do not recommend a bath as this defeats the purpose of keeping a constant temperature.
When I was a beginner, I put vaseline on butts but it doesn’t really do much except catch dust and debris from the brooder. The best things to do is to keep them dry and warm. Try to remember that in nature it is survival of the fittest. It is entirely possible that there is something going on internally that is preventing the chick’s system from working exactly right. If you have done everything right in the brooder, then look to the breeder’s nutrition and overall health. In the beginning, the chick is only as strong as its genetic potential and its egg yolk.