Chicken missing part of beak and molting

LissaMcClark

Hatching
Dec 11, 2020
2
1
4
I have an over 1yr old Lanvender Banty. (Millie) She has been a house chicken since last winter as she is small and at the time we got her she was the only chick we had from a late hatch and she was not big enough to winter outside (it was January when she was given to us) weird story I know.

Well this summer she went out with our batch of 12weekers, and she was not fond of the other chickens. She roosted with them but otherwise stayed away from them. Our flock got destroyed by a family of foxes (and have since moved the dog pen closer to the chickens for an alarm system) but we assumed, sadly, Millie got got. Our dog found her 2 days later hiding under our porch (sniffing and excited but did not hurt her)

Millie was missing a bunch of feathers and the upper half of her beak. We prepared our daughter (6yr old)for the worst as Millie had become her lap chicken while in the house, and a regular companion while outside. Millie was obviously in shock and we did not expect her to make it through the night. We made her as comfortable as possible in her cage in the house and that chicken SURVIVED!!!

It is 12weeks later and Millie is still missing the top part of her beak, but she is using the bottom as a shovel, she is messy but accomplished in feeding herself and watering herself. I'm certain her beak won't grow back, but she is a tough and now rough looking chick, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm impressed!

Of course the stress sent her into a molt and now she has long pin feathers she can't properly groom. What can I do to help this poor spikey looking chicken with the crusty looking pin feathers that she cannot break and groom?? Any thoughts or suggestions?

Pics are of Millie post attack, and 1 pre attack. I will get a pic of pin feathers as soon as I can.
 

Attachments

  • 0925201104b.jpg
    0925201104b.jpg
    265.9 KB · Views: 26
  • 0925201104c.jpg
    0925201104c.jpg
    255.6 KB · Views: 16
  • 1127191133_HDR.jpg
    1127191133_HDR.jpg
    433.7 KB · Views: 16
Last edited:
I have an over 1yr old Lanvender Banty. (Millie) She has been a house chicken since last winter as she is small and at the time we got her she was the only chick we had from a late hatch and she was not big enough to winter outside (it was January when she was given to us) weird story I know.

Well this summer she went out with our batch of 12weekers, and she was not fond of the other chickens. She roosted with them but otherwise stayed away from them. Our flock got destroyed by a family of foxes (and have since moved the dog pen closer to the chickens for an alarm system) but we assumed, sadly, Millie got got. Our dog found her 2 days later hiding under our porch (sniffing and excited but did not hurt her)

Millie was missing a bunch of feathers and the upper half of her beak. We prepared our daughter (6yr old)for the worst as Millie had become her lap chicken while in the house, and a regular companion while outside. Millie was obviously in shock and we did not expect her to make it through the night. We made her as comfortable as possible in her cage in the house and that chicken SURVIVED!!!

It is 12weeks later and Millie is still missing the top part of her beak, but she is using the bottom as a shovel, she is messy but accomplished in feeding herself and watering herself. I'm certain her beak won't grow back, but she is a tough and now rough looking chick, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm impressed!

Of course the stress sent her into a molt and now she has long pin feathers she can't properly groom. What can I do to help this poor spikey looking chicken with the crusty looking pin feathers that she cannot break and groom?? Any thoughts or suggestions?

Pics are of Millie post attack, and 1 pre attack. I will get a pic of pin feathers as soon as I can.
Hi! Sorry, I don't even know what house chicken means. I'm from a different continent. The bird must be able to be in the wild (or outside) as much as possible- in a natural environment. Food must be rich in protein, so that it grows itself with a damaged beak back. Beak damage heals itself if the person does not intervene too much.
 
Can you get some clearer pictures of the injured beak? If the quick was not damaged too much then possibly it could grow back over time. I can't see it well enough to tell how bad it is. Birds lose beaks sometimes and with help to accomodate feeding and drinking difficulties they often adapt and do well. Make her feed into a mash by mixing it with water, and use open and deeper dishes so she can scoop easier. Raise the dish up to shoulder height to also help with scooping. Same with water. Feather quality may not be quite as good, and if she's not able to distribute oil from her preen gland then her feathers will not be as water proof or keep her as warm, so time will tell. The feather shafts should still come off, it just make take longer. I wouldn't try to help as that might actually cause inadvertent damage to the new feather. If there are some really thick shafts that over time just don't seem to want to be shed then I would just roll it gently between finger and thumb at the tip end to see if it flakes off a bit. But normal molt can sometimes take months to complete even when everything is totally normal, so be patient. Even with a small amount of upper beak she may adapt enough to at least preen somewhat successfully.
 
Hi! Sorry, I don't even know what house chicken means. I'm from a different continent. The bird must be able to be in the wild (or outside) as much as possible- in a natural environment. Food must be rich in protein, so that it grows itself with a damaged beak back. Beak damage heals itself if the person does not intervene too much.
"House chicken" she now lives in doors. Her cage is near the back door, which is a full glass panel, and full sun light. Her cage is cleaned often and she is out of her cage almost daily to move freely. But she seems to prefer to sit with my girls. The weather has been unpredictable as it is autumn here and on nice days we take her outside, but she resides as a member of our household for now. I agree chickens should be outside, but I believe we will be doing her a disservice now putting her out as winter has already started to show its ugly head around here with freezing Temps and her insufficient feather coverage and her body not preping for Temps naturally she would not survive the harsh winter of the Midwest.
 
"House chicken" she now lives in doors. Her cage is near the back door, which is a full glass panel, and full sun light. Her cage is cleaned often and she is out of her cage almost daily to move freely. But she seems to prefer to sit with my girls. The weather has been unpredictable as it is autumn here and on nice days we take her outside, but she resides as a member of our household for now. I agree chickens should be outside, but I believe we will be doing her a disservice now putting her out as winter has already started to show its ugly head around here with freezing Temps and her insufficient feather coverage and her body not preping for Temps naturally she would not survive the harsh winter of the Midwest.
My chickens are also inside in the winter, but when we don't have wind and rain, the birds get outside. 39 F is minimum when they get out. We usually have winter 14 F even lower. We live in the Nordic countries in Europe, has been here -22 F. Then there are heaters in the coops. We have large rooms for chicken- not small miniature houses like in USA.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom