Broken beak under nostril!

[Amb2122]

Hello!

My Road Island Red Ethel (yes, her sisters name is Lucy!) has what looks like a broken beak. It looks like it’s the outer layer that it cracked under her nostril and it’s hanging. There is some blood, but it looks dried and hasn’t continued to bleed. She is acting fairly normal except for not being able to eat her favorite treats/food, which shows me there is some discomfort. We don’t know if this is something we can treat at home or if she needs to be seen and treated by a vet.

Help will be very much appreciated! Very worried about my girl!

Here’s a picture of my girl and her beak!

 

[Shezadandy]

Just went through this with one of ours- I'm going to send you to another thread that has all the info - both chickens healed successfully (without a vet).

 

[Shezadandy]

Edited to take you to the first page of the two page thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/cracked-beak-vet-or-wait.1252772/

 

[Shezadandy]

OK - so first you'll want to trim off any excess with a pair of nail clippers- whatever edges are rough and will get caught on things - trim them to the best of your ability. If you have a variety of nail care things - all the better.

Please check out the link above- I had one of these in January and nestleaver1 just went through it- it will take a couple weeks to heal- as long as you trim off edges that will catch on things -- keep it as clean as possible - vetricyn is my favorite go-to stuff.

Because there is blood, I would avoid closing/patching the beak. Just clip- leaving as much as you can- flush- clean it well- put some antibiotic ointment (just PLAIN neosporin, no pain relief formulas) at the margins of the crack. =) The other thread has pictures and other links already in there.

 

[Amb2122]

OK - so first you'll want to trim off any excess with a pair of nail clippers- whatever edges are rough and will get caught on things - trim them to the best of your ability. If you have a variety of nail care things - all the better.

Please check out the link above- I had one of these in January and nestleaver1 just went through it- it will take a couple weeks to heal- as long as you trim off edges that will catch on things -- keep it as clean as possible - vetricyn is my favorite go-to stuff.

Because there is blood, I would avoid closing/patching the beak. Just clip- leaving as much as you can- flush- clean it well- put some antibiotic ointment (just PLAIN neosporin, no pain relief formulas) at the margins of the crack. =) The other thread has pictures and other links already in there.

Oh, so so thankful for your reply! I’ve been pretty frantic all night worried about her. I’ll try clipping it tomorrow, and have vetrycin and neosporin already so I feel much better about handling this!

 

[Shezadandy]

Excellent! I'm happy that helped.

If she won't stay still enough- just make a chicken burrito with a towel (taking care that she can breathe of course) so you can contain her to properly address the beak. Let us know how it goes!

 

[Amb2122]

Update: I got nervous when it came to clipping her beak and our vet ended up having an opening so we took her and he clipped some excess and put adhesive, but said it may not grow back and if it doesn’t we may have to put her down. Which devastates me! She ate mashed feed with water today and drank water when we got home, I’m praying she continues. Putting her down is the absolute LAST thing I want!!!

 

[Amb2122]

I have heard so many success stories I feel much better now. I feel like my girl will be ok! I keep reading all situations and am learning so much!

 

[Shezadandy]

I really, REALLY don't think that will happen. I'm not the one who's actually looking at your chicken in person- but ours was bad enough that if you lifted up the edge it moved the whole side of the beak- decent amount of blood and bruising--- and she was fine- by a week later you'd have to know something happened, and within 2 weeks you'd really have to have seen it to know there was ever a problem.