Chick with jaw problem

Squirlatheart

In the Brooder
10 Years
May 17, 2009
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Hi all,

I have a chick that is about 20 days old. Tonight when I was checking them, I noticed his lower jaw is displaced to the right markedly. The top beak is central. I don't know if he could have caught it on something or what, but I can push it back over, I think it hurts him though, then it goes right back. Is there anything I can do to help this or will he now be deformed. I think he can still eat, but he was so pretty. Thanks for any help.
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I have the same problem, our chick is just over a week old. Her bottom jaw is displaced, she seems to be eating and drinking fine but it is definatly deformed. Her bottom jaw goes to one side, it moves back but does seem uncomfortable. We are taking pictures to post, hope someone has an answer to this issue... Sorry to hear about your chick yet glad we are not alone.
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Poor little things!
 
Hello-

This could be an injury, but it sounds like a genetic defect that some chicks just have. What you can do is make sure these chicks have a deep dish to eat from--a deeper dish will help them sort of scoop that food in. Sometimes you can trim that lower crooked beak a bit to make things easier for the chick. They always say don't allow these chickens to breed. If it's not real bad, a chicken with this beak deformity can live a long time. Having a deeper food dish really works wonders.

Good luck to you!

PS: Once, one of my pullets did have a crooked beak for just a few days.....I think she maybe had it stuck in something and strained it,,,,,and it did go back into place on it's own...maybe it's something like that......

Best of luck!

Sharon
 
Thank you so much for responding. I do feel better not to be alone. He was not born this way, so could it still be a genetic? I pray it will go back.... He is so sweet.... Regardless I will take good care of him. I checked dates, he is 12 days old...
 
Aww, breaks your heart to see something going wrong with your little chicks........Sometimes, they start out fine, and then the beak just gets worse with time. It could still be genetic, but there is always hope.......He's a lucky chicken then to be with you. I wouldn't cull one like that either, but I just love chickens so much. I mean, if it was painful or whatever, I might do that, but just looking a little funny--no, no culling!

Nice to meet you, I'm fairly new here!

Keep in touch!

Sharon
 
Our chick didnt come that way either. I have pics taken the day we got her and she was fine. Im not sure if I should contact the hatchery we got her from and just see what they do? Or at least inform them. She is still definatly a keeper, just hope she stays healthy. I would hate to think of it getting worse, she looks pretty bad as it is. No culling here! I think we would only consider that if she was unable to feed herself and was suffering. But if there is anything we can do to help her, we are all for it.
 
I realize this post is several years old, but I recently had the same problem with one chick in a group of ten others. They were all from my incubator and subsequently were in a safe environment where injury would be unlikely. I did not notice anything at the time of hatching, but about a week later this chick could not seem to close its mouth completely. With time the mandible deviated to the right side. I could move it back in place but it would not stay that way. I could not feel any bony abnormality along the mandible, so I believe a fracture of the mandible not likely. This chick managed to survive for about 8 weeks but he soon became the runt of the lot which I felt was due to decreased nutrition. Ultimately I decided to try holding the jaw in place with a fine nylon suture. The alignment was not perfect but definitely improved. Still the bird could not open and close mouth normally so it became weaker and weaker. When it became obvious that no cure was in sight, I put it out of its misery. I should have done a necropsy but did not; none the less I feel the problem was likely a hypo-plastic mandible socket. In nature such a bird would have no chance of survival, so would not recommend keeping such bird even if you decide to hand feed it as the likelihood of a genetic defect is too great to risk putting more in the genetic pool.

Aloha,

Doc B
 

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