2 wk old chick developing scissor beak

[OzarkEgghead]

I have seventeen 2 wk old Easter Egger chicks I'm raising indoors. They all appeared normal at 1 day old. I've noticed one of them is only HALF the size of the others so I singled her out today & inspected her closely. I was shocked & dismayed to see she was already developing scissor beak. I've raised chickens for 8.5 yrs now & have never run into this before so I'm CLUELESS what to do for her...or even if she can survive seeing as how quickly it's developing.

She appears quite active & feisty & with a strong will to live. That said, I don't want her to suffer if there's no hope for her. I'm going to try attaching a picture so you can assess how bad it is.

 

[nuthatched]

That's pretty bad for so young. If it were mine, I'd put it down because it gets worse as they age and it's already substantially crossed.

 

[Eggcessive]

You can try to mix some water in a little chick feed and let it eat out of a small bowl with deep sides. Chick crumbles in the same tall sided container might make it easier to eat as well. Chickens with scissors beak birth defects tend to get worse as they grow. When they grow, sometimes mild beak trimming or filing may help alignment. Here is a good article to read:
https://meyerhatchery.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017990812-Cross-Beak-Causes-and-Management

 

[OzarkEgghead]

That's pretty bad for so young. If it were mine, I'd put it down because it gets worse as they age and it's already substantially crossed.

When I noticed she was so badly crossed at just 2 weeks, I was afraid that would be her fate. I'm going to call my vet tomorrow & see what she says. If she thinks we can do something to help her, I will. She euthanized a badly injured adult hen for me so I suppose she could do the same for this little one if there's no hope, though.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would read some articles about cross beak chickens, and maybe give her some time to try and make it. I have never raised a chicken with it, but it doesn’t always mean the chick needs to be put down.
https://www.fresheggsdaily.blog/2016/05/causes-and-treatment-of-scissor-or.html

 

[OzarkEgghead]

Thought I'd give an update on my scissor-beaked EE chick. She'll be 4 weeks old on Monday. From what I can tell, the scissoring doesn't appear to have gotten any worse. She's still smaller than the other chicks hatched the same day but she seems to have caught up a little. I moved them to the coop last weekend. They're separated from the adult hens with a hardware cloth pen with a hardware cloth roof but they can see each other & I have not noted any aggressiveness from the adult hens. The chicks seem fascinated with the adult hens & I see them watching then mirroring the older hens' scratching & rooting behaviors. I was half afraid to move them...especially the scissor-beak.... because we've had horribly hot, humid weather ("feels like" temps no lower than 75F but as high as 113F) and I was afraid it would stress them too much. I kept a good eye on them for heat stress & provided them a shallow dish of water to use as a wading pool where they could splash around & cool off if needed. My fears about the heat were unfounded as they've all done very well & the scissor-beak actually seems to be THRIVING in the high heat. Despite her disability, she seems to be learning how to compensate. Where the other chicks peck lightly at their feed, I see her driving her beak deeper into the feed and kind of scooping it up. I make sure to keep the feed dish filled pretty deep so she can really get down into it for easier scooping. I noticed her feathers were a bit tatty & she wasn't preening herself before I put them out there & now I'm seeing her preening & her feathers are almost completely normal. I've also seen her using that offset lower beak as a kind of "ladle" to scoop up water. I don't know if the scissoring will shorten her lifespan or not but I'm going to give her every chance that I can for a long, full life. The only thing I'll do different for her is that she will be kept in a pen with other hens ONLY...no making whoopie with the rooster because I don't want to risk passing on the scissor-beak to other generations.