Need advice on deformed chick

[guineahen14]

I have a Silver Lace Polish chick which is now 2 weeks old. It's bill is deformed instead of closing the normal way, it closes x shaped and the mouth remains slightly opened. It was hatched this way, but the bill was not so noticeable when the chick was tiny. Is there anything I can do for it? It must be able to eat enough to stay alive and it has grown. This was a mail order chick, and the 8 others I received with her are fine. Any advise would be greatly appreciated, I have never seen this before.

 

[gritsar]

Do a search here on BYC for 'cross beak'. I'm sure you'll find the threads you uncover helpful.
Good luck to your little chick. I know they can do well.

 

[dsowens15]

I have no clue what to do. My guess is that the only problem would be she would need more water then others. sorry I could help.

 

[guineahen14]

Thank you, I will look us cross beak and make sure she has plenty of water and food.

 

[cubalaya]

cross beak comes from a skull deformity. it will only get worse over time.

 

[geojane42]

We've recently had this problem with a Chantecler and a Buff Orpington. The Chantelcler is worse and we clipped her beak a bit to make it easier for her to eat which seems to have helped. She wasn't developing as quickly as the others but seems to be coming along nicely now. The Buff looks pretty bad too but doesn't seem as crossed as the Chantecler. Surprisingly, I easily found homes for both of them and they're going to their new homes today. I'm happy because I couldn't bring myself to cull them since they seem perfectly happy and healthy. I would just recommend that you make sure that you have water and food dishes a little deeper than usual so they can eat and drink more easily. And apparently you can file the beaks with a dremmel which would probably be better than clipping them since our Chantecler started bleeding with the nail clippers.