[Womble]

No, not the latest all-girl band from Sunderland......

We have a batch of chicks at about a week old. Several of them have significant er, klingons around Uranus (please see delightful photo attached). They're living in clean conditions and seem well in every other respect.

Can anybody tell me:

• What causes this?
• If I should try to remove it (I'm guessing yes, but what on earth would you do if you had 5,000 of them?)
• How best to do it without hurting the chicks?

Thanks folks!

[Marches Farmer]

I see they're just beginning to feather up.  Are they in a draught?  Is there ad lib water available at room temperature?  Is their infra red lamp or brooder at the correct height?  Is the parent stock your own or are they from bought-in hatching eggs?  I'd be more worried if the muck was runny or the wrong colour but suggest holding an old washing up sponge or similar soaked with warm water against the claggy bit where it meets the down until that bit softens enough to ease it off.  It will be a problem if it blocks things up.

[Anke]

Warm water and washing up-liquid as suggested above. We have had this on occasion in the past.

[in the hills]

I was led to believe that it was caused by the chicks being in a draught.


You do need to clean them up. I read that if left it would cause a blockage as they would be unable to pass motions and death would occur.


We've had it with the odd chick reared in a brooder .... They didn't seem to be in a draught???

[Womble]

> Are they in a draught? 

Well they're in our bath, so I'm going to say not particularly.

> Is there ad lib water available at room temperature? 

Yes

> Is their infra red lamp or brooder at the correct height?

They've got an electric hen, and yes. They're certainly not telling me they're cold at all.

> Is the parent stock your own or are they from bought-in hatching eggs? 

Truthfully? I drove past somebody's driveway honesty box a month ago and thought 'why not?' 



OK, so I managed to clean them up by holding their bums in a shallow dish of warm water until the poo softened. They're all fine except for one, which I think may have a blockage internally due to me not sorting out the external blockage early enough.  We'll just have to see how he gets on.

One thing is for sure - this wasn't going to sort itself out and it definitely would have been better if I'd intervened earlier rather than just hoping the problem would go away!