Pasty Butt in Baby Chicks: How to Prevent and Treat

Pasty butt, also called pasted vent, is a condition that commonly affects baby chicks, especially those hatched and shipped commercially. It occurs when a baby chick’s vent gets clogged with dried feces. The dried feces prevents the baby chick from defecating normally, and it can be life-threatening if not treated immediately.

Pasty butt is the most common reason why you have a sick baby chick. So, let’s look at what it is, how to spot it, and how to treat it so your baby chick can go on to live a long, happy life.

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What Is Pasty Butt?

Pasty butt occurs when a chick’s feces gets stuck to the downy fluff around their vent. The feces hardens and gets stuck, clogging the vent and preventing the chick from defecating normally.

Chicks poop around 14 times per day. So the feces begins to build up inside the chick fairly quickly, literally sending poison throughout their system, and the chick will die within 24 hours if not treated. Chicks can die even after treatment, if you don’t catch the condition early enough.

I had this happen in our very first flock of chicks. One of the chicks developed pasty butt, and although I treated it as soon as I saw it she just failed to thrive. She didn’t grow like the other chicks, and ended up dying several days later.

What Causes Pasty Butt?

Although any chick can develop pasty butt, the condition is most common in chicks that are hatched and shipped from commercial hatcheries. And, it typically only occurs in chicks within their first week of life.

Pasty butt is caused by the following conditions:

• Stress
• Becoming too hot or too cold
• Dehydration
• Viral or bacterial infection
• Chicks that drink too-cold water
• Giving an excessive amount of electrolytes to dehydrated baby chicks

How to Identify Pasty Butt

You should check your baby chicks for pasty butt twice a day, for at least the first week after you bring them home. So, what are you looking for?

Gently pick up your baby chick and turn her over, so that her head is facing downward. Her vent is located just below her little tail. In a normal, healthy chick, all you’ll see back here is fluffy down. However, if a chick has pasty butt you will see runny or dried feces stuck to the down.

Chicks with pasty butt will also look and act sick. Signs of a sick chick include:

• Lethargy
• Eyes closed
• Panting
• Weak
• Unsteady on its feet
• Not eating or drinking
• Staying off by itself

Treatment for Pasty Butt

If you do spot one of your chicks with this condition, don’t panic. Pasty butt is really easy to treat, and you can totally do this.

Materials Needed:

• A bowl
• Warm water
• Gloves (optional)
• A Q-Tip
• Vegetable or olive oil
• A dry towel
• A hair dryer (optional)

Tip: Lay all the materials out on the kitchen counter before you go get your chick, so that everything is in place and the treatment goes quickly.

Step 1: Grab a Bowl of Warm Water

Fill a small mixing bowl with an inch or two of warm (not hot!) water. Test the water with your hand before putting your chick in to make sure it’s not too hot.

Let your chick stand in this water for at least a minute. Make sure her vent is completely submerged so that the feces will soften. However, don’t get her entire body wet. Remember, chicks chill very easily, so all you want is her back end submerged while the rest of her body stays dry.

Step 2: Gently Rub the Feces out of the Down

After the feces has softened in the warm water, gently rub the feces between your fingers so that it dissolves in the water.

DO NOT pull on the feces or the downy fluff! A chick’s skin is very thin, and you can easily pull it off and cause bleeding if you pull on the feces.

Tip: If you do accidentally cause bleeding, wrap the chick’s body in a towel so it doesn’t get cold. Apply pressure to the wound with a paper towel for several minutes. This should stop the bleeding, however, if it persists, you will need to apply a styptic (blood stopping) powder like powdered yarrow, fresh or dried plantain, or even cornstarch.

You may want to hold the chick under warm, running water while you rub the feces off.

Step 3: Apply Oil

When all the feces is gone, dip the Q-Tip in the oil and gently dab some on and around the vent. This will help prevent future build-ups.

Step 4: Dry the Chick

Next, wrap the chick in a towel and gently dry her off. If you have a hair dryer, use it on the warm (NOT HOT) setting to dry off the chick. Keep the hair drying moving so the chick doesn’t overheat. Chances are your chick will REALLY like this, and start to go to sleep.

Make sure she is completely dry before you set her back in the brooder.

Before you release the chick, inspect her vent area carefully. Make sure there are no signs of redness, and that the vent area is completely clean and dry. If the other chicks see any signs of abnormality, especially redness or blood, they will peck her.

Step 5: Monitor Closely

Keep a close eye on the chick with pasty butt for the next several days. If she is weakened from pasty butt, the other chicks may bully her, and she may need to be isolated. You might also need to give her dosages of Nutridrench, and high-protein foods like Greek yogurt mixed with chick starter, or scrambled eggs, to perk her back up.

How to Prevent Pasty Butt

There are several things you can do to prevent pasty butt.

Use ACV or Probiotics

One easy way to prevent pasty butt is to put apple cider vinegar (ACV) into your chick’s water. This will give them a healthy dose of probiotics, and make the water more palatable.

Put 1 tablespoon of ACV into each gallon of room temperature water.

You can also add powdered probiotics to their water with Sav-A-Chick.

Maintain Proper Temperature in the Brooder

Baby chicks need a steady temperature of 90 to 95 degrees F during their first week of life.

Heat lamps are an inexpensive option for the brooder. However, it’s easy for chicks to get overheated with heat lamps if they are placed too close to the chicks, and it’s easy for them to get chilled if it’s placed too far away.

A better option is the Brinsea EcoGlow Safety Brooder. The Brinsea makes it easy for chicks to self-regulate the temperature they need, because the heat is focused solely under the heating plates. When chicks are warm enough they can walk out from under the plates to cool off, and walk back in when they’re chilled.

The Brinsea is also much safer than a traditional heat lamp. You don’t have to worry about starting a fire with this heater. It also uses a lot less energy, so it definitely saves you money over time.

We use the Brinsea safety brooder on our homestead and I can tell you it’s been worth every penny. Because it uses so little energy, we can keep our brooder out in the coop, and power with Brinsea with our solar panel. I love having chicks, but I do NOT love having them in the house!

Feed High Quality Starter

Chicks can develop pasty butt if they eat low-quality starter that contains soybeans. If you’re using a low-quality starter, switch to a better brand, like Purina or Manna Pro.

Keep the Brooder Clean

When you have a lot of chicks, poop is going to build up fast. However, it’s important to keep the brooder as clean as you can, in order to prevent bacterial build-up.

Tip: To save time and bedding, use a kitty litter scoop to scoop out poop instead if changing all the bedding out every day.

Last Word

When I first started raising chickens, I had NO IDEA I was supposed to look out for pasty butt. And, I lost a chick because of it.

This is why it’s so important to check your chicks for pasty butt several times a day. You want to catch and treat this condition as early as possible so that your chick has the best chance of survival. Thankfully, pasty butt is really easy to treat. You’ve got this!

I’d love to hear back from you. Have you treated pasty butt in any of your chicks? Do you have any questions?