Bloody Beak. What now?!

[ADozenGirlz]

Our Easter Egger, Esther, is 8 months old and has had "scissor beak" for most of her life. We don't know the cause. We occasionally trim it to help her with eating. A few hours ago, my DH trimmed it too closely and nipped the vein. We tried holding pressure to stop the bleeding and applied styptic powder while holding pressure on it, but that didn't seem to stem the drippping. Thanks to our neighbor, we used Dr. Gold's Super Clot Gel" on it and that seemed to slow things down a little bit. It bled for about 45 minutes total (the fastest bleeding was a large drop of blood every 2 seconds or so and slowed over time).

We now have her in a crate in the basement with pine shavings in the crate with some water and a dish of chick starter mash in warm water (20% protein) to make it soft for her. Any suggestions for further treatment or things to look out for? Is there cause to think that it will begin bleeding again? How long should we keep her in the basement, separate from our other chickens? I haven't seen her eat or drink anything yet but will keep a close eye on her. For future reference, was there anything else we could've tried to stop the bleeding?

Thanks for your input.

 

[silkiechicken]

Sounds like you did all you could. It's pretty much like clipping a dog's nail or your finger nail deep enough into your nail bed to cause it to bleed. It's not a vein in there, just the beak bed on top of bone. Just wait it out and it will grow out eventually. Don't really have to do anything special for her. Just make sure she eats.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. I thought that the beak was like dogs' toenails that DO have veins in them. The styptic powder sure didn't stem the tide of bleeding AT ALL though (whereas it does for my dog's nails). I ended up putting her back in the run about 26 hours after the injury. She seemed much happier there than in the dog crate. Although...she did lay an egg in the crate! But she wasn't enthusiastic about eating in there and I didn't see her drink at all. The first thing she did in the run was to drink and start pecking around for food. Whew.

Thanks again for replying.

 

[silkiechicken]

Technically it is a mesh of capillaries that come out from the bone in the beak to form the nail bed. Not sure if that is the same in dogs though. Either way, there is blood in there and your girl should be just fine

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
That's fascinating. You would've thought we cut a main artery by the way that thing bled. It was horrible. I've been apologizing to her for days now!
Can you suggest some place that I can read up on in-depth chicken anatomy like this type of information you just gave me? I appreciate the info! Thanks!!

 

[wasatusay]

There are 3 anatomy videos here. they are pretty interesting in understanding your chickens body and how it works.
http://sciencestage.com/v/11806/avian-anatomy-part-one.html

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
Fabulous! Thanks for sharing!