Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Howdy.

One of my chicks has developed in the past few days a beak that is shifted over to one side. Has anyone had a bird do this, and if so how did they fair?

The tyke is eating and drinking fine from what I can tell/watch...just dont know if it is going to continue to shift and make things worse or what?

The beak was not like this at birth and they are about 2 weeks old, and was noticed a few days ago.

Thank you~

It happens sometime, unless it's extremely misaligned they manage just fine.
It can be quite successfully trimmed with nail clippers and once it's trimmed it often starts to wear evenly and looks fine.

sometimes that will happen as the jaw hardens as they grow....other times it can be a result of an injury-like getting jumped on with the rough housing that little ones do-especially the boys.
sometimes it is also caused by inbreeding too many generations, it's usually the first sign of too many generations of related birds.....don't use them in your breeding programs (if you breed).
you may find that as they grow they stay the same, or they will get worse (they never get better without help like trimming etc). if they get worse then usually soaking the food and supplying a deep dish to scoop out of as opposed to pecking at will help them get the feed they need.

Thanks for the replies~!

Its even worse today than when I wrote the post...poor thing!

These guys wont be used for breeding...Im not sure how to really trim it as its the bottom part thats shifted away from the straight top part of the beak...Scared we might do more harm than good?

Ill try to get a pic of it...

Will talk to the hubby and see if he thinks we can trim it.

Ummm...another one of the chicks is developing "knuckling over" of his foot...and is tripping over itself...

???????????????

Different than the one with the beak issue.

Silverlacedmom wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:29 pm

These guys wont be used for breeding...Im not sure how to really trim it as its the bottom part thats shifted away from the straight top part of the beak...Scared we might do more harm than good?

If its the bottom part that is off, it might just be dislocated, try to gently push it back to align with the top part.

Suggest vitamin deficiency , get some infant liquid multivitamins and give them that in their water. If its a deficiency it should help.

kenya wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 16, 2017 7:08 am

Suggest vitamin deficiency , get some infant liquid multivitamins and give them that in their water. If its a deficiency it should help.

I give them a small amount of "Electrolyte Plus" in their water, which is "Vitamin and Electrolyte Water Soluble Powder for Chickens, Turkey, Swine, Cattle, Sheep and Horses" just as a preventative and for them to be healthy after hatching or other stressful situations. Since these guys already have health issues, and I was concerned with the Serama since they are so small that I was giving them the supplement in a low dose to help.

The beak is totally so crooked now, we are ready to put him/her down if she starts to suffer, and the 2 that are knuckling over...I have had one chicken LONG time ago that had a leg deformity that the leg knotted up and then the bird couldnt walk...but this is diffrent, its like their wrists are floppy and cant put weight on it...

Thank you for all the suggestions and worry...Starting to think these guys have the cards stacked against them.

The infant multivitamins is far better than just electrolytes plus. The chick with the beak deformity will only get worse.

We let the little one "go" yesterday. We tried to shift it back to place but when doing so we realized even if it was put back in the right spot the whole beak was deformed to the point it wasn't going to help.

We didn't want it to suffer as who knows how that feels to the bird to have the lower jaw like that. It was getting worse everyday.

It was too sad and emotional for me to make the decision. And even the hubby was going back and forth on what to do.