Chicken swallowed own beak

[HeatherKellyB]

Either way, any chance you could take a picture of her now? I understand she's back to normal but after something like that, I'd be worried about some inflammation at the very least. Hopefully this is not only a first, but also a last

 

[Stablecoop]

I'd say she's deficient a certain nutrient. It might happen again. @Wyorp Rock might be better at telling what nutrient she needs.

She got stomped at just the right angle. The 15 hens are all under vet care and have a fully balanced hen diet. I really think it was just the right angle, just the right stomp. I am just so glad it wasn’t broken.

 

[Weeg]

Weird, the beak should not be that soft, this doesn't make much sense to me.
What do you feed out of curiosity? So the beak folded back into her throat?
Nuts!

 

[MysteryChicken]

Pictures please?

Mark area of beak seperation? If you can't get pictures right now.

 

[micstrachan]

Just sharing a WILD story from today. We were re-integrating some birds back into our flock (one was in house recovering from bad winter molt and feather pecking) and there were a few light squabbles. We put the hospital hen in with 2 friends in side by side see-only coops. When they were gently reintroduced, there were a couple light squabbles, nothing worth breaking up. I looked after one of our birds abruptly ducked out of the squabble and it appeared that her top beak had been completely amputated!! It was completely gone. We grabbed her and were ready to put her down. Walked over to the place to get it done, loppers in hand, and I wanted to see the point of amputation, but I couldn’t find it. The top beak was just missing. No blood on face, light scratch on wattle, until I realized her entire top beak was down her throat. I retracted it out, and wa-la, she was fine. She Ate like a starving artist, and drank. Seriously it was the most roller coaster 5 minutes of my week. All fighting ceased from that point on. It was like siblings fighting but when someone breaks the coffee table everyone knows it went too far. Omg. What a day.

This is one of the most crazy chicken stories I’ve heard yet! So she is going to be ok???

 

[Stablecoop]

Either way, any chance you could take a picture of her now? I understand she's back to normal but after something like that, I'd be worried about some inflammation at the very least. Hopefully this is not only a first, but also a last

Yes I can take a pic tomorrow. We didn’t give her aspirin just in case there was bleeding unseen. We are literally helicopters, and will be watching closely over the next week.

 

[Weeg]

I just can't wrap my head around it...

 

[Stablecoop]

Pictures please?

Mark area of beak seperation? If you can't get pictures right now.View attachment 3001196View attachment 3001198

There was no beak separating. The top beak tucked down into her throat. I had to pull her head back and puck the beak up by applying pressure to the outside of the throat. The lower beak had to have stretched or forced out of the way to accommodate this. She is eating and drinking and preening and pecking at ground with no perceived greater jaw laxity. It was the singular freakishly bizarre and stomach turning experience I’ve had in a very long time. I really still can’t grasp what happened. I don’t have pics, it was an emergency situation where we thought we had a beak amputation, so we were immediately ready to cull. We were standing next to the killing cone with loppers in hand, I couldn’t find an amputation point so I said hold on. And discovered that her top beak was not gone, that it was under her bottom down her throat. It bypassed the bottom beak once down the throat.

 

[Stablecoop]

Holy wow. You got pics?

It was an emergency situation that lasted under 5 minutes, I SO wish I did, but I didn’t take a pic. It looked like the beak was amputated. We grabbed her and headed for the cull station. I couldn’t find a point of amputation and then realized the top beak had gone down the throat, bypassed the lower beak and could be felt through the throat under the lower beak. What a day. I really can’t believe it still.

 

[MysteryChicken]

There was no beak separating. The top beak tucked down into her throat. I had to pull her head back and puck the beak up by applying pressure to the outside of the throat. The lower beak had to have stretched or forced out of the way to accommodate this. She is eating and drinking and preening and pecking at ground with no perceived greater jaw laxity. It was the singular freakishly bizarre and stomach turning experience I’ve had in a very long time. I really still can’t grasp what happened. I don’t have pics, it was an emergency situation where we thought we had a beak amputation, so we were immediately ready to cull. We were standing next to the killing cone with loppers in hand, I couldn’t find an amputation point so I said hold on. And discovered that her top beak was not gone, that it was under her bottom down her throat. It bypassed the bottom beak once down the throat.

I don't understand how a beak can go down a chicken's throat without any form of separation from the bone like a /break, or degeneration of bone structure.