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We have a hen with scissor beak and we have trimmed her beak periodically with a dog nail clipper. The last time my husband trimmed it too far and it bled unbelievably. We tried EVERYTHING to get it to stop (styptic powder, a special styptic glue, pressure...) until we finally just had to put her in a crate and hope that it stopped of its own accord, which it did. She was back in action the next day, but it was scary. I thought we were going to have to put her down b/c I didn't want her to bleed out and for a while there, it looked pretty bad. Someone on BYC told me that the beak has no veins in it (like a dog's nails do) but capillaries that cause the bleeding. In any case, small increments is a great recommendation!
Going forward it might help to keep cinder blocks or some kind of cement type item in her run (if she doesn't free-range) so she can file down her beak and nails herself.
We have a hen with scissor beak and we have trimmed her beak periodically with a dog nail clipper. The last time my husband trimmed it too far and it bled unbelievably. We tried EVERYTHING to get it to stop (styptic powder, a special styptic glue, pressure...) until we finally just had to put her in a crate and hope that it stopped of its own accord, which it did. She was back in action the next day, but it was scary. I thought we were going to have to put her down b/c I didn't want her to bleed out and for a while there, it looked pretty bad. Someone on BYC told me that the beak has no veins in it (like a dog's nails do) but capillaries that cause the bleeding. In any case, small increments is a great recommendation!
Going forward it might help to keep cinder blocks or some kind of cement type item in her run (if she doesn't free-range) so she can file down her beak and nails herself.
