Broken beak! Please help

[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.

Yes, Vetricyn is definitely expensive, but a little goes a long way. Around here it goes on sale in February at the farm stores when all the shows start back up again - or check Amazon. Once you've got a bottle, it will last a LONG time. I've got 100+ chickens and still haven't gone through a full bottle.

I love it - safe around nose/eyes/ears, so when working with living breathing unappreciative protesting chicken patients, knowing I can't hurt them if it over-sprays is great.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Seems like by the end of the first 24 hrs they start to improve, then by day 2-3 they're eating and drinking.

This was exactly what I noticed, too. I put out warm water for her, too. I have vertical drinkers in the eun, so I had to put out pans. But all my chickens started using the pans, so I still use them, even months after Poppy's injury.

That looks about the same as Poppy's. Wish I had pics to share, but I couldn't manage Poppy and a camera.

How is she doing today?

 

[Angelita]

Update: Angel is drinking and eating more of her mash. I added a bit of baby aspirin to one of her warm water bowls and she went crazy for it (I only added a quarter of it to a whole bowl of water). She's still being very docile, she actually just jumped up on my lap and fell asleep in the middle of the day... Poor girl I think she's still in pain but she's still following me all around the house when she's not laying down or eating. I still can't get the vetricyn just yet but my neighbor has some bactine spray. Anyone know if this is a good idea? I've still not clipped anything because she seems to be healing a bit already... The skin looks like it's scabbing up and pulling back close to the beak a bit, but I'm about to call a vet I was referred to today while I was out. I'll update what she says to do

 

[Shezadandy]

This was exactly what I noticed, too. I put out warm water for her, too. I have vertical drinkers in the eun, so I had to put out pans. But all my chickens started using the pans, so I still use them, even months after Poppy's injury.

That looks about the same as Poppy's. Wish I had pics to share, but I couldn't manage Poppy and a camera.

How is she doing today?

You'd never know looking at her today that it happened, and she had no trouble doing everything a momma hen was supposed to do- lots of scratching and pecking. Another one of my hens had what amounted to a 'self-dubbing' - that horrible practice of cutting the beak - in some kind of accident. It was about the same in terms of recovery time--- but her top beak is still shorter - around 1/3" or so- than the lower one, probably because of where she broke it- she does just fine too. I make sure I've got a couple deep pans for food just to be sure - it's like she's missing the tip of one of her chop sticks- so worst case she can use the sides of the pan to her advantage.

I used to use poultry cups, and I still like them - but when I'd put out pans for momma hens with chicks (shallow water heater pans, by then the chicks would be 10+ plus days old and more than capable of hopping out even if they were near full) -- everyone liked them so much better, I just use pans now.

 

[Shezadandy]

Update: Angel is drinking and eating more of her mash. I added a bit of baby aspirin to one of her warm water bowls and she went crazy for it (I only added a quarter of it to a whole bowl of water). She's still being very docile, she actually just jumped up on my lap and fell asleep in the middle of the day... Poor girl I think she's still in pain but she's still following me all around the house when she's not laying down or eating. I still can't get the vetricyn just yet but my neighbor has some bactine spray. Anyone know if this is a good idea? I've still not clipped anything because she seems to be healing a bit already... The skin looks like it's scabbing up and pulling back close to the beak a bit, but I'm about to call a vet I was referred to today while I was out. I'll update what she says to do

I haven't had bactine around for a while, but if I remember right it has lidocaine in it- so I would avoid that. There's something tricky about the pain relieving "-caine" drugs and poultry - my understanding is the line between and OK amount and an amount that could be fatal is really small - so most of us avoid even risking the -caine ingredients (those are things that numb the pain, so they'll be advertised as "pain relief").

So look at the active ingredients on the bactine package - if it's got a "-caine" (lidocaine is one) - I would just stick with the salt water solution you were using.

 

[Shezadandy]

Update: Angel is drinking and eating more of her mash. I added a bit of baby aspirin to one of her warm water bowls and she went crazy for it (I only added a quarter of it to a whole bowl of water). She's still being very docile, she actually just jumped up on my lap and fell asleep in the middle of the day... Poor girl I think she's still in pain but she's still following me all around the house when she's not laying down or eating. I still can't get the vetricyn just yet but my neighbor has some bactine spray. Anyone know if this is a good idea? I've still not clipped anything because she seems to be healing a bit already... The skin looks like it's scabbing up and pulling back close to the beak a bit, but I'm about to call a vet I was referred to today while I was out. I'll update what she says to do

And excellent news that Angel is drinking and starting to eat! I'm glad you were right there when it happened to flush it out and treat it - then as it knits itself back together there's less risk of an infection under there.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm probably not going to be able to help much. However, you should read this if you are considering any kind of surgical intervention.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1166494/
One problem is going to be making sure she can eat and drink while and if the beak repairs.
I would be looking to tube feed a chicken with such an injury. While it's virtually impossible to stop them pecking at things, not having the impact received by the beak during feeding may help.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/