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Hi all - I have a little chick who's about 5 days old and has a very pooey bottom which I can't seem to clear. The fluff that surrounds the bottoms of the other chicks is absent on this one. It seems otherwise healthy and the fluff is fine and the little wing feathers developing fine. Does anyone know anything about this? The chicks aren't with a hen, they were incubated. Any help very welcome, thanks :)

Hi Peasey.

This is not really an unusual problem, so is nothing to worry about. You can often get one amongst a batch of chicks.

Try taking some kitchen roll or cotton buds and soaking in some warm water and gently 'dabbing around the area' to soften 'the pooh' and hopefully you can gently ease it off.

Maybe another member will have some further tips on what they do, but for the moment I would suggest this. As I said, don't worry, it's generally not down to poor care and it's good you have picked up on this.

Kind regards.
Jamie.

Hi Jamie

There is nothing internally wrong, this is normal within a newly hatched chick.

You need to check your day olds at least twice a day, ie - when feeding. If you see a build up of poo
as it collects on the outside due to the soft feathers, remove gently, each time.
If you fail to do this, the poo can not be expelled & the chick will BUNG up - hence death.

With all due respect, we are experienced in keeping chicks, and as the chick in question was in our care, and not yours, Click Cluck, I don't appreciate the tone of your message, suggesting that we didn't do all we could for this animal. We have care of sheep, cattle and poultry and anyone with any element of realism to their outlook in the care of livestock will understand there where there is 'live stock' there is 'dead stock.' We all try our best for the animals in our care, and your insinuation is unfounded, arrogant, based on nothing and frankly completely out of order.

Thought click clucks reply was good advice for a novice, think you took it the wrong way, If you are experienced live stock keeper, don,t think any need to post your question, as you say when you keep livestock you get dead stock, and you can recognise when your stock is abnormal or sick.

The first thing I learnt on my farm is - where you have live stock - you have dead stock.
Only a farmer would say that? - but I have farmers around me who bring their cockerels
to me to be culled.
I don't take offence about your remark , but if you were new to poultry keeping, would you not
gladly take advice from some-one who has keep poultry a long time, seen it first hand,&learnt from
their own experiances.
All people make mistakes, it's as long as we don't repeat them, that makes the difference.
Sarah,B4P

Sometimes its hard to tell on here who,s a newbie and who,s an old hand if they dont say anything about themselves in there profile, People post question,s and if someone has an answer from there own experiances they can answer it, then the poster can choose to take the advice or not. New keepers should know that there are no hard and fast rules about keeping poultry, what works for some will not work for others ie. breeds,feeds,treatments etc, its mainly common sence, no one is to old to learn something new.Agree with what you say about learn by other peoples mistakes, saves you making them yourself. The bit about the dead stock, sadley is true sometimes no matter what we do, its part of keeping livestock. All the best. By the way i,m not a farmer,