Crossed beak help

[art2700]

We’ve been keeping an eye on our little Easter egger since discovering her cross beak. The first picture is her at about 4 weeks when I first noticed something off with her beak. I was hoping it wouldn’t get worse but as you can see in the second picture 8 days later, it’s gotten way worse. I just gave her some water with a syringe (new of course) which went well but food not so much. I tried mixing it with water and placing it on her beak but that was a huge struggle. I’m worried about her getting enough to eat and drink. Is there anything yall recommend for this?? Is there a “wet” food I can buy her? Or even a supplement type thing I can add to the water to compensate for the lack of food?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Unfortunately it will only get worse as she grows. You can try offering water in a deeper dish as well as wet feed (simply add water to dry crumble/pellets until you get a thick paste) in a deeper dish, but if she starts struggling to feed herself and you cannot commit to tube feeding her on a schedule, she'll slowly starve.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Agree with @rosemarythyme. It may be best to cull her

 

[FunClucks]

Unfortunately it will only get worse as she grows. You can try offering water in a deeper dish as well as wet feed (simply add water to dry crumble/pellets until you get a thick paste) in a deeper dish, but if she starts struggling to feed herself and you cannot commit to tube feeding her on a schedule, she'll slowly starve.

@art2700 unfortunately, the above from rosemarythyme is true.

This is a really bad crossbeak. IMO this is one bird that will require tube feeding to thrive. Crossbeak gets worse as they grow, and for it to be this bad this young is not a good thing, as it's just going to get worse as the bird gets older.

I've had a few crossbeaks myself. My first one I put out deep dishes of moistened feed every day for it and trough/dish waterers. The time came where it wasn't able to get enough water and/or enough food, and I didn't catch it in time, and the bird died. I wish I'd culled it humanely earlier. Since then, I either rehome with a warning about the bird's specialized medical needs, or I cull. I also stopped breeding from that parent flock - they were throwing too many cross beaks out, and it wasn't fair to the birds. It's a genetic issue.

ETA: Looks like you're a new user/poster on BYC. Sorry this is the news we have for you. There is probably an Article in the Learning Center about cross beak, and any number of posts where folks have been dealing with this issue with their birds, if you would like to read more about things. So sorry you're going through this! I wish I had better info for you about your sweet bird! This is one of the hard parts of chicken keeping.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Poor baby. She will get worse as she ages, but she's not a hopeless cause if you want to put the time into her. She'll most likely need to be tube fed, and her beak will need to be trimmed/filed every two to four weeks to stop it from getting too long.

Here's a very helpful article on caring for her with instructions on how to tube feed:

Caring For Cross Beaked And Other Special Needs Chickens Including Tube Feeding Techniques

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Had one that was bad that was culled as it wasn’t growing.then had another wasn’t to bad and this is him literally today lol

 

[Wingstem]

We’ve been keeping an eye on our little Easter egger since discovering her cross beak. The first picture is her at about 4 weeks when I first noticed something off with her beak. I was hoping it wouldn’t get worse but as you can see in the second picture 8 days later, it’s gotten way worse. I just gave her some water with a syringe (new of course) which went well but food not so much. I tried mixing it with water and placing it on her beak but that was a huge struggle. I’m worried about her getting enough to eat and drink. Is there anything yall recommend for this?? Is there a “wet” food I can buy her? Or even a supplement type thing I can add to the water to compensate for the lack of food?View attachment 4259220View attachment 4259222

Definitely not a hopeless case, but she will need management and at least some special care. I've been managing my little girl with physical therapy, beak taping and trimming as needed, she is probably a bit more severe than yours... she has a slightly twisted upper beak and parrot beak. It appears your little one may have parrot beak (short lower beak) as well.

Here's a post where I shared how I manage my girl: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/advice-on-trimming-crossbeak.1678468/#post-28879712


She went from this...




to this...


I use a deep bowl and she manages to eat dry chick crumble just fine... she's not a fan of mash at all! I also use a gallon bucket for water which allows her to dip her beak deep enough (standard chicken waterers are too shallow) to easily get water. She's doing great!