Broken beak... How serious? Update: adjusting well!

psimons2004

Chirping
8 Years
Jun 10, 2011
104
1
91
Cheyenne
Poor Arucana broke her beak somehow this morning. I am not sure how she did it. The is no more bleeding, it clotted on its own. I have washed it gently but not treated it yet with anything for fear of ingestion. I brought her inside and fed her some grits (very watery) and scrambled eggs. She gorged!!!! So she is able to drink, etc. from a deep dish. She is not yet able to pick up pellets or crumbles. I am hoping that as it gets a bit less tender (since it is a recent injury) that she may learn how to still do that. I am not sure how much of the beak they need. There are some pretty good photos. I keep reading conflicting things as to regrowth. Doesn't sound promising... Any advice or even just experience stories??? She is not one of our people loving birds and isn't very excited to be handled so much and brought in. So we'll see how this special treatment goes.
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Holy Moly - Sorry you are going through this. My Penny broke her beak several months ago but just the tip of the top beak. This looks bad! Penny's did grow back but not all the way yet and it is very slow. I hope someone with more experience replies as I have no idea how she will be able to eat normal feed on her own.
 
Looks like she broke it pretty far back so not sure if it will grow back or not... Because chickens are at the lower end of the food chain, they have great capabilities to adapt... I would seperate her for a few days to make sure she relearns how to eat and give her something deep to eat out of so that she can "scoop" the food since pecking will be out of the question... You can start off with a mash (put some electrolytes in the food to soften a bit, or even water or yogurt) and then each day add a little bit less so that eventually she will know how to scoop the regular crumbles... This will also give her a small boost in the beginning to make sure she gets enough nutrition... You can add a few drops of poly-vi-sol (withOUT iron) to it also...

Goddess
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Hey lady
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my 4-H leader said to watch for dehydration too but if she learns how to eat she should be ok. Keep a good watch for infection.
 
Thank you my FB chicken friend, LOL. That is great news. I really really hope she is right! Thank you ALL for the advice and comisserations!
 
One of my hens broke her beak like this when some dogs got into our yard- She didn't know that she was safe in her coop and run and the crazy girl flew into the walls of her run until she tore her own beak off. It wasn't as close to her face as your hens, but my gal's did grow back.

In battery farms they cut off the top beak (the process is called dubbing or debeaking, I believe) so that the poor overcrowded darlings don't tear each other apart soooo ahen can totally survive even if she is debeaked- I'll see if I can find a link about caring for debeakedchickens
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If I find it; I will post it here for you!
 
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Thank you Orp.... I would appreciate that. I found quite a few articles on debeaking - which is a horrible inhumane practice and I feel awful that one of my birds is having to deal with this type of injury, but I couldn't find and photos or diagrams to see how far back they clip beaks. I would like to at what point they are still able to eat, etc. She was able to 3/4 of a cat food sized bowl of grits and eggs, so at least I know mushy chicken feed will be an option for her. I just hope she continues to drink well, and I wonder how the cold here in Wyoming is going to affect this. She's indoors for right now... The last few nights have been below zero. Thank you again for the advice, and I am VERY encouraged to hear some chickens have regrowth!!!
 
One more thought- on that second thread a BYC member, Seminolewind, had a debeaked chicken- She might be able to give you good, first-hand advice if you pm her!

Good luck!
 
Thank you - that did help - good pictures. Defenitly not as severe as this broken beak, which worries me. But a great reference. Thanks!!!
 

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