WingItRanch
Crowing
Ok I'm going to start this by saying it's not under the "Emergencies" thread because it's not a medical question post. More of a learning experience.
After work yesterday, I discovered one of my poor Barred Rocks had a crack in her beak. I took photos and walked back to the house to do some research. I searched all over BYC for similar cases and the common suggestion for cracks with no exposed tissue was to repair it with the super glue/tea bag method. https://the-chicken-chick.com/repairing-chickens-broken-beak/
Well that was a complete disaster. I managed to glue my own finger, made a big mess, and I couldn't even get the tea bag paper on it to seal. Not to mention just upset the poor bird even more. So I did the best I could to clean her and gave her some mash and water and put her back in with the others. I didn't want to keep her separated because there was no blood and she was just so freaked out. She didn't seem to be in any pain and no one was pecking her.
Then today after work I checked on her and it looked much worse! The end of the beak was hanging more. Then as I was trying to take pics of her.... one of her sisters came up and pecked it right off of her!!! And then ATE it!! Freaking chickens...
Funny enough, she actually looks much better and is eating and drinking just fine. Pecking at everything normally. I even saw her filing it on a brick.
So my lesson to myself? Don't forget you're not an actual vet and unless you're confident in the method of treatment... you might actually make it worse than if you just left it alone.
After work yesterday, I discovered one of my poor Barred Rocks had a crack in her beak. I took photos and walked back to the house to do some research. I searched all over BYC for similar cases and the common suggestion for cracks with no exposed tissue was to repair it with the super glue/tea bag method. https://the-chicken-chick.com/repairing-chickens-broken-beak/
Well that was a complete disaster. I managed to glue my own finger, made a big mess, and I couldn't even get the tea bag paper on it to seal. Not to mention just upset the poor bird even more. So I did the best I could to clean her and gave her some mash and water and put her back in with the others. I didn't want to keep her separated because there was no blood and she was just so freaked out. She didn't seem to be in any pain and no one was pecking her.
Then today after work I checked on her and it looked much worse! The end of the beak was hanging more. Then as I was trying to take pics of her.... one of her sisters came up and pecked it right off of her!!! And then ATE it!! Freaking chickens...
Funny enough, she actually looks much better and is eating and drinking just fine. Pecking at everything normally. I even saw her filing it on a brick.
So my lesson to myself? Don't forget you're not an actual vet and unless you're confident in the method of treatment... you might actually make it worse than if you just left it alone.
