Los Angeles "urban farm" with 5 chickens.

Hello all, my names Nick.

Living in Los Angeles trying to grow as much of my own organic food as possible. Of course with that came raising chickens for eggs and manure!

We have 5 chickens, two Americaunas, two Delawares and one Buff Orpington.
I've been lurking around this website for a while getting all sorts of great information and advice, but it is now time to join.

I have just moved houses after my landlord pulled the rug on my mom, girlfriend and myself, and the ladies have had to live without their pen.

With this one of my ladies has been injured. I'm not sure what happened but this morning I went down and the buff Orpington seemed to be gasping for air, didn't go charging for food and I soon noticed her beak had been cracked on one side.
I worried a lot and took her out, my girlfriend got right to researching and after some reading we made a sterile saline solution and cleaned it as best we could,
We separated her from the others for the day to give her space, and to avoid anyone picking on her. Gave her wet mushy food and a big bowl of water, throughout the day she seemed to get her strength back quite a bit, she was eating and drinking by the end of the day. We put her back in with the others for the night so she could huddle and stay warm, and we are going to be checking on her first thing tomorrow !

Tried to add pictures from the app but it didn't work will try to post from computer in the morning

Wondering what anyone would do in this situation, if anyone's had anything similar?

Thanks-
Sorry this is a sad hello!

Great to have you join us Nick! It sounds like you are doing the best you can to take care of your hen. Depending on how she is doing this morning, it might be wise to separate her from the others and do the same as yesterday. If she is acting normal I'd just keep a close eye on her. Until you get the pictures up that is all I can say. Hope this helps!

Oh - and you might want to post about your hen again in this forum. This is the New Member Introductions forum and you might not get so many answers here.

Hello, glad you have joined us.

Beak fractures outcomes depend on how severe they are - If minor and only involving the beak without injury to the underlying bones will resolve with time. If it interferes or causes pain with pecking regular food, you will need to continue a soft diet til she can eat normally.

But the gasping is not part of the beak injury and can be caused by many things.

I would suggest you do a thorough examination for other injuries, post your findings, observations and a pic of her under emergencies to get more advice.

Hope she heals and recovers.

Hi Nick and welcome to BYC - you have some great advice already so I'll just say hello!

All the best
CT

Have you given her a thorough inspection top to bottom? I'm wondering if something (predator ??) may have caused any puncture wounds on her, as well as damage to beak.

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

Wow hello all and thank you for such a warm welcome! Wasn't expecting such a response!

I've deleted the app and switched to just using it on the web haha, much better. Here's her beak

TheKindaFarmGal said:

Great to have you join us Nick! It sounds like you are doing the best you can to take care of your hen. Depending on how she is doing this morning, it might be wise to separate her from the others and do the same as yesterday. If she is acting normal I'd just keep a close eye on her. Until you get the pictures up that is all I can say. Hope this helps!

Oh - and you might want to post about your hen again in this forum. This is the New Member Introductions forum and you might not get so many answers here.

Click to expand...

Thank you, she seems a bit better this morning, she's not gasping for air like she was yesterday, a few very very light breaths, a light wheeze every few breaths.

sunflour said:

  Hello, glad you have joined us.

Beak fractures outcomes depend on how severe they are - If minor and only involving the beak without injury to the underlying bones will resolve with time.  If it interferes or causes pain with pecking regular food, you will need to continue a soft diet til she can eat normally.

But the gasping is not part of the beak injury and can be caused by many things.

I would suggest you do a thorough examination for other injuries, post your findings, observations and a pic of her under emergencies to get more advice.

Hope she heals and recovers.

Click to expand...

Thank you also for your welcome and response
I've looked her over and it seems there's no physical injury besides the beak- I made sure to make my coop as Fort Knox as possible after reading about chickens heads ripped through chicken wire....



During the examination her wheezing became more exacerbated, and it mellowed down when I put her back inside.
Here she is this morning


The cage I kept her separated in had some dry food on the floor and she kept pecking at it and scratching her beak making me think it isn't too terribly painful for her anymore (in the morning she wouldn't eat or drink) and she sneezes when drinking water it seems.

Thinking of making a YouTube to upload a video of her later.

*edit* double post