Diary of a Crossbeak: Support for Special Needs Chickens and their Keepers

[Coralietg]

This is Billy, the Buff Brahma Bantam (I think). He's about 10 weeks old now. Tiny. Been keeping him in the house, he is now brooding with 2 week chicks. I feel bad for him as they sometimes go after his tongue, so he now sleeps with his head under his wing. I haven't been giving him any special treatment yet, other than some Nutri-Drench twice a week. Much appreciate the thread! I'm most worried about lice and stuff, as it must be hard for him to groom.

 

[suzyQlou]

Here's my little girl, Night. She's a six week old Americauna chick.



Thanks to the advice here, we trimmed her beak at 3 weeks. At that time, I had just started to notice the problem with her beak. What I noticed more was that she made a huge mess of her crumbles, and seemed frantic when eating.

We did have a small amount of bleeding, so I don't know if I will try trimming again. I won't trim it just because it looks bad. I'll watch her eating behavior and growth to help me decide.

After trimming, I fed some yogurt and deeper bowls of crumbles for a while. Now I feed her mash (water mixed with crumbles) in a bigger bowl. She gets very excited when I give fresh food, but always seems to eat plenty. She's not frantic anymore when she eats. It just looks like she has a healthy appetite.

In fact, she's a very spunky little gal. Much more so than her sister. It makes me laugh to see her jump about. The other day, she jumped up on the handlebars of my son's bike. That's a big jump for a little chick, so she really does seem to be thriving right now.

Finally, here's Night with her good friend, Sunshine. We have just two chicks, and they are the same age. Sometimes I worry that Night is so much smaller. She looks like a sparrow next to her sister. But full grown Americaunas are going to be smaller than Buff Orpingtons, so it's not really fair to compare them. I'm very lucky to have such darlings in my family.

 

[starlingsbaby]

This is my cross beak RIR /barred rock mix.

 

[kukupecpec]

Well with Bernard gone I tried to steer away from the thread as it is still quite sad for me.
But this week, I noticed I seem to be a magnet for special needs birds.
One of my 5 week olds has a cross beak. She was one of the two day olds I bought from the feed store to keep Bernard company!!! I have no idea what breed she is, as they weren't actually sure either lol. Here are some pictures of her little beak







I was also wondering if anyone has any neurologically special birds? I moved my 5 week old birds to the outside brooder a month ago and haven't paid them much attention out there with somuch going on around here. I had some older birds die in the same coop so cleaned it all out really good and turned it into my new grow ou coop - where the now 9 wk olds will stay until they start laying or crowing - and I noticed that one of the silkies was being weird. Here is a video of her. I have no idea what's up with her. She CAN lift her head up all the way and even walk around and bobble like a normal chicken. I've been watching her for a few hours now and I've only seen it once when she was afraid. She mostly does circles, backs up a little, and sleeps. She rarely opens her left eye, but it does open all the way.
Any ideas what's wrong with her? Or what I can do?


I posted in the emergencies diseases and illnesses page but no one is responding. When I pick her up she freaks out (probably from not being handled much) and she curls and thrashes her head around like she doesn't have any control. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BullChick]

Well with Bernard gone I tried to steer away from the thread as it is still quite sad for me.
But this week, I noticed I seem to be a magnet for special needs birds.
One of my 5 week olds has a cross beak. She was one of the two day olds I bought from the feed store to keep Bernard company!!! I have no idea what breed she is, as they weren't actually sure either lol. Here are some pictures of her little beak





.
Any ideas what's wrong with her? Or what I can do?

Sorry you are a special needs chick magnet. At least you know what to do!
Is there any chance the Silky is blind at least in one eye?

 

[kukupecpec]

Sorry you are a special needs chick magnet. At least you know what to do!
Is there any chance the Silky is blind at least in one eye?

Theres definitely a chance, I have no idea whats going on with her....
MY husband said a few minutes ago she was running around our room totally normal, and ten when I went in, she was all upside down again. I don't know what to do

 

[Nimby Chickens]

Look up wry neck. The cure is poly-vi-sol without iron (liquid infant vitamins) if it is a vitamin deficiency.

The bird could also have an ear infection, look at the ear and see if there is any swelling, discharge, foul odors, or so forth.

Check her well for parasites - mites/worms can make a bird do odd things.

 

[kukupecpec]

I gave her food and water last night and she was still a twisted ball when I got up this morning.
I put her in her own cage with food and water and left for work. I've been home for about an hour now and she hasn't twisted at all!!!

 

[Coralietg]

Our little guy is having some trouble today. I had moved all chicks outside while everyone in the house had gastroenteritis, and I put him outside with them. I don't know if he flicked a bunch of food at his eye and irritated it, but he's not happy. I had a good look, and I got a flake of something out from under his eyelid. I've started wetting his mash now.



I noticed he was panting a little bit, ended up picking his nostrils out with the end of a toothpick. He had some food crusted up in there. I feel bad for him, but I've brought him in on his own for now. We should have some more chicks arriving next week, so he won't be lonely for long.

 

[angrybirds]

If you have any on hand, try putting some colloidal silver in the eyes, that may help. Good luck!