HELP! Baby Chick Vent Issues

[caitychicklady]

Hi Everyone! I'm new to raising chicks, so I apologize if I don't include everything I need in this first post.

We have (5) 12 day-old chicks. Last night when I cleaned everyones water and gave each of my little girls some social time, everything was fine. But this morning, when I went to clean water again, I noticed one of my little hens has what looked to be a dirty butt. I picked her up and examined her, and it seems to be a little infected. There was no poop on her, but her vent is more or less pulsing.

I started googling, and I cannot figure out what the issue is. I've cleaned her, dipped her butt in warm water, cleaned the entire brooder, separated her from her sisters, and given her some yogurt and some water with electrolytes and probiotics.

She seems like such a healthy chick. She's one of the bigger ones, has eaten and drank healthily and has had no problems to this point. Even now, she's continuing to eat, she just seems to have a big sore butt. She's getting some poop out, but maybe not enough? Sometimes she seems constipated - and I help wipe the poop away when it get's stuck on her sticky butt.

Any thoughts? Here are some pics! Thank you everyone. I don't want to lose my little chimichanga.

 

[caitychicklady]

The other issue is she keeps pecking her own butt. I can't stop her from doing this, but it definitely seems to make it more inflamed.

 

[ChocoboMamma]

I just posted about a similar issue in the emergency thread so I'm going to keep an eye here too.

 

[EagelMom37370]

I'll admit...I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!
My son brings home 2 new baby chicks that hatched from an incubator and it looked like it had dried poo on its butt. So I scraped it off...and now this red bulge has popped out. Help!! What do I do?? Have I killed this baby chick?????

 

[azygous]

No. Calm down. You did what you needed to do to clean the poop off the vent area, but you may have done it a bit too roughly and irritated the delicate tissues.

Coconut oil is the best thing to use on the swollen vent. If you don't have any, you can use Preparation H.

Keep a close eye on this chick since the pasty butt could come back again. Also, make sure it's pooping and an internal plug hasn't formed. In that case, the chick won't poop because it would be constipated, and you would need to treat it by giving it some mineral oil.

Baby chicks can be a major production. Welcome to the club!