Broken beak! Please help

[Angelita]

Yes, I've had a couple beak issues and they do heal quickly. As mentioned before, trim off what might catch on things. It can be hard to get it with nail clippers - I keep a pair of Fiskars small branch trimmers for just this purpose. They're straight blade and very sharp, easy to control. (link below). I'll try to find my pictures.

You can wrap your girl in a towel to help contain her if need be. We sprayed everything with Vetricyn after trimming sharp pieces out, then dabbed a little Neosporin around the seam. Give her luke warm water, and mix warm water into crumble to make a nice soft food for her.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/fiskars-so...-_-0&msclkid=263b6cfa675511bab7dd31530431adf4

Thanks so much, and definitely if you find your pictures i'd love to see and compare. I'll be going to tsc first thing tomorrow

 

[Shezadandy]

This makes me feel so much better, I was really looking for some input from someone who has experienced something similar. Everyone is so helpful, I'm beyond greatful... I was a mess over her at first I nearly had a heart attack lol. Thank you all so much!

Here's what we were working with. The whole thing could be rocked just about off. After this photo I'd trimmed those edges even more than my initial effort. This was on Jan 31, and the 2nd photo with her chicks was Feb 8th.

 

[Angelita]

One more thing, does anyone whose experienced this sort of issue have any input on how your bird reacted to food at first? One of the first things I did when she hurt herself was make her warm mash with warm water and I made sure to sterilize her food/ water bowls in boiling water, but she would only dip her beak in and then pull it out. Again, it was late when it happened and she was already tired plus I'm sure it still hurt so I'll update on her eating tomorrow, but in any event it's still worrisome that she wouldn't eat or drink. She tried but it wasn't much of an effort. I'm hoping she'll eat tomorrow but I wasn't sure if anyone else had this issue at first and if I can expect her to be doing better any time soon

 

[Angelita]

Here's what we were working with. The whole thing could be rocked just about off. After this photo I'd trimmed those edges even more than my initial effort. This was on Jan 31, and the 2nd photo with her chicks was Feb 8th.

View attachment 1937723 View attachment 1937724

Yes, this looks like almost the same sort of break, I'm glad she's doing better! From what I can see it looks like your girls breaking point was close to the cuticle too? I can't really tell but if so it gives me hope. I'm obsessively comparing all the pictures posted to figure out her relative damage lol so I really appreciate it. Everywhere I look for info on a broken beak its always a chip or a tiny break so I've felt a bit left in the dark.

 

[Shezadandy]

This makes me feel so much better, I was really looking for some input from someone who has experienced something similar. Everyone is so helpful, I'm beyond greatful... I was a mess over her at first I nearly had a heart attack lol. Thank you all so much!

Here's what we were working with. The whole thing could be rocked just about off. After this photo I'd trimmed those edges even more than my initial effort. This was on Jan 31, and the 2nd photo with her chicks was Feb 8th.

View attachment 1937723 View attachment 1937724

One more thing, does anyone whose experienced this sort of issue have any input on how your bird reacted to food at first? One of the first things I did when she hurt herself was make her warm mash with warm water and I made sure to sterilize her food/ water bowls in boiling water, but she would only dip her beak in and then pull it out. Again, it was late when it happened and she was already tired plus I'm sure it still hurt so I'll update on her eating tomorrow, but in any event it's still worrisome that she wouldn't eat or drink. She tried but it wasn't much of an effort. I'm hoping she'll eat tomorrow but I wasn't sure if anyone else had this issue at first and if I can expect her to be doing better any time soon

Yes, it does hurt, think of it like having a fingernail or toenail ripped off.
It will be tender for a couple of days. Seems like by the end of the first 24 hrs they start to improve, then by day 2-3 they're eating and drinking.

Temperature control of what you offer is the best way to help her- don't give her really cold water, luke warm water. Make sure it's a deeper water dish so she can sip without hitting the bottom. And outright warm water to mix with her food - you don't need soupy consistency, just easy to pick up without the normal precision they have when getting the tiniest specks of food. To entice her, you can float some meal worms on her water - like bobbing for apples - same thing over the food- whatever her favorite treat is.

Oh, and here's Feb 14, 2 weeks after her beak injury- you'd never know.

 

[Angelita]

Here's what we were working with. The whole thing could be rocked just about off. After this photo I'd trimmed those edges even more than my initial effort. This was on Jan 31, and the 2nd photo with her chicks was Feb 8th.

View attachment 1937723 View attachment 1937724


Yes, it does hurt, think of it like having a fingernail or toenail ripped off.
It will be tender for a couple of days. Seems like by the end of the first 24 hrs they start to improve, then by day 2-3 they're eating and drinking.

Temperature control of what you offer is the best way to help her- don't give her really cold water, luke warm water. Make sure it's a deeper water dish so she can sip without hitting the bottom. And outright warm water to mix with her food - you don't need soupy consistency, just easy to pick up without the normal precision they have when getting the tiniest specks of food. To entice her, you can float some meal worms on her water - like bobbing for apples - same thing over the food- whatever her favorite treat is.

Oh, and here's Feb 14, 2 weeks after her beak injury- you'd never know.

View attachment 1937725

thanks again, I really appreciate everything!

 

[Shezadandy]

Yes, this looks like almost the same sort of break, I'm glad she's doing better! From what I can see it looks like your girls breaking point was close to the cuticle too? I can't really tell but if so it gives me hope. I'm obsessively comparing all the pictures posted to figure out her relative damage lol so I really appreciate it. Everywhere I look for info on a broken beak its always a chip or a tiny break so I've felt a bit left in the dark.

Yes, I could have lifted it off all the way up by her nostrils. The tissues re-adhered in her case- a good cleaning with Vetricyn and the little bit of Neosporin at the edges did do the trick. I'll see if I can play with the photo to give a good idea how bad it was. The part in front of the blue line was detached.

Edited to add: It probably looks weird and is harder to compare because I had already snipped off the part on the side because that's where it was very unstable before I started taking pictures.

And without the blue line so you can see it better:

 

[Angelita]

Yes, I could have lifted it off all the way up by her nostrils. The tissues re-adhered in her case- a good cleaning with Vetricyn and the little bit of Neosporin at the edges did do the trick. I'll see if I can play with the photo to give a good idea how bad it was. The part in front of the blue line was detached.

View attachment 1937726

And without the blue line so you can see it better:

View attachment 1937727

Yeah, sounds exactly alike. And at what point did you trim from relative to the blue line? I'm getting the posts mixed up... Did you trim the whole thing right off leaving her beak bare? This is what someone else said I think but I'm trying to see at what point I need to trim from... Your pictures seem like you had the same problem so I'm going to try to treat my girl the same if possible

 

[Angelita]

Yeah, sounds exactly alike. And at what point did you trim from relative to the blue line? I'm getting the posts mixed up... Did you trim the whole thing right off leaving her beak bare? This is what someone else said I think but I'm trying to see at what point I need to trim from... Your pictures seem like you had the same problem so I'm going to try to treat my girl the same if possible

Oh! And as for the vetricyn, I'm broke as of now so I might have to hold off on that for a few days but do you have any advice for an at home alternative in the mean time? I do have Neosporin thankfully, I already dabbed her with sterilized sea salt water mixed with a small amount of peroxide and then dabbed her again with the neosporin.

 

[Shezadandy]

Oh! And as for the vetricyn, I'm broke as of now so I might have to hold off on that for a few days but do you have any advice for an at home alternative in the mean time? I do have Neosporin thankfully, I already dabbed her with sterilized sea salt water mixed with a small amount of peroxide and then dabbed her again with the neosporin.

That's good for the initial cleaning, but I wouldn't use peroxide again- it can kill healing tissue. Wonderful for flushing out initial infection, but after that first flush, it can do more harm than good.

I trimmed (with the very sharp Fiskars) basically a straight line down, leaving as much there as I could. Where the beak shell had started to curve out, I took that too- tried to leave a nice (easily defensible) straight line with my trim, but mostly to keep as much as possible to re-adhere while taking off any part that would get caught and cause it to get torn off.

I think what I did is follow the red line:

Because in the photo from a week later, within that green triangle there was no more shell. It filled itself in within a week. There was enough tissue left to naturally re-adhere over the top of her nose and down on the other side, so I left that area alone other than a cleanup and Neosporin.