Duck bill repair

[StarCreekFarm]

I will come back to add more, edit and post photos soon, but wanted to share a duck bill repair tactic we devised that seems to be working, just in case anyone else has a similar emergency and is looking for ideas straight away.

As always, this worked for us, but might not work for you, or I might not be describing something perfectly, or missed something. It might also cause some other problem and if we see that, I'll clearly edit this post to note that. No guarantees this works for you and we don't even know this will ultimately repair a bill, but it is holding on our duck so far. If you use any of this, like everything, it's at your own risk.

We have a duck hen who hung herself by the bill over the top of their enclosure. A freak thing. Many years now that we have had ducks and I have never seen anything so dreadful.

Her lower bill was broken midway from the bean/tip to the back of her bill, with the vertical interior ridges of the bottom of the bill broken so that the lower bill hung downward at 90 degrees from the bean / tip to the midpoint, held on by the flat part of the lower bill, under her tongue.

We tried a number of repairs to the sides and even interior edges of the ridges, similar to what others posted here and things we've used for chickens, including tea bags, lightest weight woven fiberglass cloth (under 2 ounce) and multiple different adhesives, including vetbond and superglue. It seemed as though the serrations around the interior edges of her bill halves made all those attempts fail.

Here is what worked for us and held for four days now. Note, we're sharing just for the ideas or help it may provide. We don't know if this will ultimately heal the break. I might not be describing this well, or could have missed something important. Also, given the hen hasn't healed, we don't know if this could cause other problems (and if anyone here thinks it might, we would appreciate the input on this thread to help others!) or this repair might cause worse issues. As always, use any advice here at your own risk, including this description of what we did to try to support our hen's bill break.

Also note this was definitely a two person job. Given we were using super glue around the bill and her face, we definitely needed to hold her perfectly still to be certain to not get any in a place that would glue her bill together or any similar horror scenario.

We started by measuring the distance on the underside of her bill and divided that in half which gave us our splint measurement. We cut two flat wood toothpicks each to that measurement to be the splints. Then we coated those toothpicks lightly in regular super glue and let those dry on a piece of wax paper. Once the toothpicks were dry and the super glue on those cured, I gently held her beak closed, so that it was in it's proper shape/position and fitted those to the longitudinal ridges on the under/outside of her lower bill and gently bent those toothpick splints to fit the contours of the underside of her bill. We "dry-fitted" those so that each splint bridged the underside of where the breaks were on the top / serrated side of the lower bill, with an equal amount of splint on either side of underside of the lower bill, relative to where the break was on the top. That required cracking the toothpick splints gently between my fingers, but not all the way through, so that when I would hold them to the bottom of her broken bill, they would be shaped with a slight curve to fit against the slightly convex contour of the under/outside of her lower bill. Now shaped, we again coated the toothpick splints in a light coat of regular super glue and let them dry on wax paper. (we still hadn't glued anything to the hen at this point.)

Again, note that we were SUPER careful not to get any super glue near the edges of either her upper or lower bill. We were only putting it on the bottom, outside of the lower bill (similar to the underside of your lower jaw.) We took one of the splints and put a single tiny drop of "thick" super glue in the center, directly underneath the breaks and glued that to the bottom/outside of the bottom bill and let that dry. Then, using an extra toothpick, put a tiny drop of the thick super glue on one end of the now affixed in the middle splint, and while holding the bill gently closed so that it was in its proper position, let that dry. Then still holding the beak gently closed and in the proper position, put a tiny drop on the other end of the splint, again using a spare toothpick to apply a single tiny drop of glue. One that all was dry, when we let go of her beak, the splint held the beak in its correct position, with the two sides of each break touching and appearing in the same position they would have been before the injury. At this point, we gave her a few minutes to relax.

Then, we filled the area between the three points where the splint was affixed to the bottom / outside of her lower bill. We did that by taking a tiny artist's brush, about an 1/8" wide and dipping the brush in a bit of baking soda. We brushed a light dust of baking soda gently in the tiny gaps between the affixed splint and the bottom /outside of her bill. After the baking soda was lightly dusted in those spaces, we used a spare toothpick to place a tiny dot of thick super glue in those gaps. The baking soda with a tiny bit of thick super glue creates a filler that we hope will provide more support to the splints.

We gave her another extended rest, then repeated the process with the other splint on the other side of the under/outside of her lower bill.

Her lower, broken bill has remained in its proper position while she is eating, drinking, quacking and hissing at me for the last four days. I have no idea if the breaks are going to heal/knit back together ultimately, but she is doing okay at this point.

I have her in a wire crate, by herself, and am feeding her only well soaked until it is soft, floating duck food, floating on water. Also, obviously keeping her separate fresh water bowl filled. She is eating normal volume of food and water, quacking and hissing at me. She was definitely distressed when I found her, but she is behaving normally and quite bossy now.

I certainly hope no one has the same emergency, but thought I would share in case this helps with ideas for anyone else.

Again, use at your own risk, if you decide to use at all.

Best wishes to all.

 

[Ourgosling22]

I will come back to add more, edit and post photos soon, but wanted to share a duck bill repair tactic we devised that seems to be working, just in case anyone else has a similar emergency and is looking for ideas straight away.

As always, this worked for us, but might not work for you, or I might not be describing something perfectly, or missed something. It might also cause some other problem and if we see that, I'll clearly edit this post to note that. No guarantees this works for you and we don't even know this will ultimately repair a bill, but it is holding on our duck so far. If you use any of this, like everything, it's at your own risk.

We have a duck hen who hung herself by the bill over the top of their enclosure. A freak thing. Many years now that we have had ducks and I have never seen anything so dreadful.

Her lower bill was broken midway from the bean/tip to the back of her bill, with the vertical interior ridges of the bottom of the bill broken so that the lower bill hung downward at 90 degrees from the bean / tip to the midpoint, held on by the flat part of the lower bill, under her tongue.

We tried a number of repairs to the sides and even interior edges of the ridges, similar to what others posted here and things we've used for chickens, including tea bags, lightest weight woven fiberglass cloth (under 2 ounce) and multiple different adhesives, including vetbond and superglue. It seemed as though the serrations around the interior edges of her bill halves made all those attempts fail.

Here is what worked for us and held for four days now. Note, we're sharing just for the ideas or help it may provide. We don't know if this will ultimately heal the break. I might not be describing this well, or could have missed something important. Also, given the hen hasn't healed, we don't know if this could cause other problems (and if anyone here thinks it might, we would appreciate the input on this thread to help others!) or this repair might cause worse issues. As always, use any advice here at your own risk, including this description of what we did to try to support our hen's bill break.

Also note this was definitely a two person job. Given we were using super glue around the bill and her face, we definitely needed to hold her perfectly still to be certain to not get any in a place that would glue her bill together or any similar horror scenario.

We started by measuring the distance on the underside of her bill and divided that in half which gave us our splint measurement. We cut two flat wood toothpicks each to that measurement to be the splints. Then we coated those toothpicks lightly in regular super glue and let those dry on a piece of wax paper. Once the toothpicks were dry and the super glue on those cured, I gently held her beak closed, so that it was in it's proper shape/position and fitted those to the longitudinal ridges on the under/outside of her lower bill and gently bent those toothpick splints to fit the contours of the underside of her bill. We "dry-fitted" those so that each splint bridged the underside of where the breaks were on the top / serrated side of the lower bill, with an equal amount of splint on either side of underside of the lower bill, relative to where the break was on the top. That required cracking the toothpick splints gently between my fingers, but not all the way through, so that when I would hold them to the bottom of her broken bill, they would be shaped with a slight curve to fit against the slightly convex contour of the under/outside of her lower bill. Now shaped, we again coated the toothpick splints in a light coat of regular super glue and let them dry on wax paper. (we still hadn't glued anything to the hen at this point.)

Again, note that we were SUPER careful not to get any super glue near the edges of either her upper or lower bill. We were only putting it on the bottom, outside of the lower bill (similar to the underside of your lower jaw.) We took one of the splints and put a single tiny drop of "thick" super glue in the center, directly underneath the breaks and glued that to the bottom/outside of the bottom bill and let that dry. Then, using an extra toothpick, put a tiny drop of the thick super glue on one end of the now affixed in the middle splint, and while holding the bill gently closed so that it was in its proper position, let that dry. Then still holding the beak gently closed and in the proper position, put a tiny drop on the other end of the splint, again using a spare toothpick to apply a single tiny drop of glue. One that all was dry, when we let go of her beak, the splint held the beak in its correct position, with the two sides of each break touching and appearing in the same position they would have been before the injury. At this point, we gave her a few minutes to relax.

Then, we filled the area between the three points where the splint was affixed to the bottom / outside of her lower bill. We did that by taking a tiny artist's brush, about an 1/8" wide and dipping the brush in a bit of baking soda. We brushed a light dust of baking soda gently in the tiny gaps between the affixed splint and the bottom /outside of her bill. After the baking soda was lightly dusted in those spaces, we used a spare toothpick to place a tiny dot of thick super glue in those gaps. The baking soda with a tiny bit of thick super glue creates a filler that we hope will provide more support to the splints.

We gave her another extended rest, then repeated the process with the other splint on the other side of the under/outside of her lower bill.

Her lower, broken bill has remained in its proper position while she is eating, drinking, quacking and hissing at me for the last four days. I have no idea if the breaks are going to heal/knit back together ultimately, but she is doing okay at this point.

I have her in a wire crate, by herself, and am feeding her only well soaked until it is soft, floating duck food, floating on water. Also, obviously keeping her separate fresh water bowl filled. She is eating normal volume of food and water, quacking and hissing at me. She was definitely distressed when I found her, but she is behaving normally and quite bossy now.

I certainly hope no one has the same emergency, but thought I would share in case this helps with ideas for anyone else.

Again, use at your own risk, if you decide to use at all.

Best wishes to all.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[StarCreekFarm]

Editing this to add that we found what appears to be a better glue for this purpose. We are now using J-B Weld SuperWeld Light Activated Instant Glue. Read the instructions! We most definitely use protective gloves and the PPE recommended in the instructions. This glue activates quickly on its own and IMMEDIATELY upon shining the included blue light. Be extraordinarily careful both with yourself, your helper and your birds!

What we found very helpful is that the speed of set with this glue allows us to affix the supports quickly and in the correct position. It has been easier on our hen given the process is quicker.

The glue does not appear to be waterproof nor water resistant, but we have found it is holding on the outside bottom our hen's bill between 1-2 days. We are touching up areas that lose adhesion with the ridges on outer/underside of her bill each evening. Just the tiniest drop. We are at 12 days now and even when one or the other of the splints has fallen off, it appears her bill is holding better. I'm not willing to look inside yet and risk it breaking again...if it even is healing. I will look in another couple of weeks if she continues on this good path and update here.

She is eating and drinking normally now. Sassier than ever. Hisses at me, loves my husband who is my "assistant" in this process.

Again, seems to be working for us. Use any of our experiences shared at your own risk.

 

[StarCreekFarm]

A final post on our duck bill break and repair. We are about 20 days now from the injury date and our hen has been returned to the aviary and is living with a hen friend in an enclosure separate from the main flock. She is drinking, eating, preening and doing all manner of duck activities well. While the boney area of the break has not reattached, it seems as though the balance has healed and is supportive enough to allow her to do everything she needs to do. Perhaps if we had started with the J-B Weld SuperWeld Light Activated Instant Glue first we would have gotten it to hold together long enough at the beginning for the bone to heal as well? We ultimately ended up using just that glue (no toothpick supports with the glue) to create a layer of support under the break. Do note the glue heats up when activated (I tested on a gloved pinkie finger first), so we applied it in thin layers to minimize heat while building up support on the underside of the bill on the bony ridges (not the soft tissue) underneath the break. We will probably keep applying some over the next week or two just for good measure. It's great to see her back outside and drinking and eating well.

 

[StarCreekFarm]

A quick follow up, we are now nearly a year after the repairs to the duck hen's bill and she is doing great. Absolutely no different than the other hens and her bill is fully healed. For anyone reading this, I hope you have the same success with any beak or bill repairs you undertake!