Beak deformity?

[zimileih]

One of my chicks has always had a little gap between top and bottom beak. It doesn't seem crossed but there is a noticeable gap. What is wrong with the beak and is there anything I need to do to help? Otherwise healthy chick, eating and drinking fine.

 

[sourland]

Sometimes it just happens. As long as it does not progress to cross beak, the bird will have a normal high quality life.

 

[LadyAchee]

One of my chicks has always had a little gap between top and bottom beak. It doesn't seem crossed but there is a noticeable gap. What is wrong with the beak and is there anything I need to do to help? Otherwise healthy chick, eating and drinking fine.


View attachment 2774220

Curious if it got any worse?

 

[zimileih]

Curious if it got any worse?

It did not get any worse, however, we did lose her a month later. I am not sure what happened, I went to let them out of the coop and noticed she didn't come out, and she was just gone on her side with her legs out. I think it was a heart attack.
I ended up losing another one from this batch a few months later, again went from healthy to deathly ill overnight, she was still alive but I had her euthanized and necropsied since she was getting worse and suffering. (They did not find any definitive cause of death so marked mareks by default, no test done for it) she had less severe of a gap but also had one
The one in the front of this picture, I Iost two months ago, same as the 2nd she went from healthy to super ill. I tried to give her antibiotics and she died an hour later in a heart attack position. You can see she also had a bit of a gap. It never seemed to bother any of them, they all ate and drank fine.

I still have 1/4 from this batch. She's so sweet but I can tell she is lonely even tho she is with a flock.

I am not sure what happened, I had this bad of luck with chicks. The batch I raised before them 5/6 are still alive and the one who didn't make it was an unfortunate predator attack.

 

[LadyAchee]

It did not get any worse, however, we did lose her a month later. I am not sure what happened, I went to let them out of the coop and noticed she didn't come out, and she was just gone on her side with her legs out. I think it was a heart attack.
I ended up losing another one from this batch a few months later, again went from healthy to deathly ill overnight, she was still alive but I had her euthanized and necropsied since she was getting worse and suffering. (They did not find any definitive cause of death so marked mareks by default, no test done for it) she had less severe of a gap but also had one
The one in the front of this picture, I Iost two months ago, same as the 2nd she went from healthy to super ill. I tried to give her antibiotics and she died an hour later in a heart attack position. You can see she also had a bit of a gap. It never seemed to bother any of them, they all ate and drank fine.

I still have 1/4 from this batch. She's so sweet but I can tell she is lonely even tho she is with a flock.
View attachment 3046978

I am not sure what happened, I had this bad of luck with chicks. The batch I raised before them 5/6 are still alive and the one who didn't make it was an unfortunate predator attack.

Did you hatch them yourself? I have 1 that has this a millie fleur d'uccle from ideal poultry. Sorry you lost so many. Any idea what the term for this beak deformity is? Not quite a crossbeak or parrot beak.

 

[zimileih]

Did you hatch them yourself? I have 1 that has this a millie fleur d'uccle from ideal poultry. Sorry you lost so many. Any idea what the term for this beak deformity is? Not quite a crossbeak or parrot beak.

I do not hatch myself, all of my sets of chicks I have bought are from tsc and one set from the local feed store. local feed store ones seemed healthier, but I usually don't have terrible luck with my tsc chicks other than getting cockerels I'm not able to keep :')
These ones were tsc ameraucanas, so probably not well bred. I saw something mention that the bottom beak could grow too straight rather than bending a bit to the top beak causing this but it didn't have a name for it and I haven't found the source again. I also do not know if that is the actual cause. The only thing I can find is cross beak / scissor beak but usually the beak does not align, so I'm not sure if that's what it is, like you mentioned. I don't think it's parrot beak because those cases looks like the beak grows downwards, where as this the beak just can't seem to close all the way, leaving a gap.

Keep me updated on your millie if you don't mind! I really miss these cuties, but I don't think it was the beak that caused this. The beak did not seem to give them any problems, I just think there was probably something else congenital in their breeding program, or the initial start they got during shipping & time at tractor supply had a hiccup that they survived but prevented them from growing healthy. I'm not really sure.

Good luck! I hope the best for you and your chick!

 

[LadyAchee]

Thank you for the response! I guess I will wait and see how it progresses and I'll try to update in a few months.

 

[Raven11]

i know I’m a bit late to this post but I have an EE that’s having the same issue. She seems to be eating fine but when she drinks she dips her whole face in and shakes around. Do I need to adjust the size of her waterer? I don’t want her to become dehydrated