Filing a beak that was trimmed

[technolaser]

Hi everyone,

I'm posting in this group as I think that this is a case of an injury. If it's the wrong group, which is the best one for this question?

I have a Leghorn who was born about mid May and as a commercial chick had her beak trimmed. She arrived at me aged about 4 months and I was hoping that her deformed beak might slowly improve but it's only getting worse.

She obviously does eat but only very limited items that she can pick up, otherwise she really can't use her beak in any normal way to eat, preen, etc.

Is it worth me very lightly filing her beak to hopefully improve the shape and function? Maybe even just to file the lower half so that it's not such a bad overbite?

If I did, I would obviously file it very little and see how she gets on before doing a bit more.

Any input appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Shadrach]

I post the study below for every beak related problem I respond to in the hope the OP will read and understand the article before the "Oh sure you can trim the beak up with some nail clippers" posters arrive (Yeah, some people really do it).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1166494/

Firstly you are never going to sort that disgusting bit of cruelty and butchering out.
Any attmepts to do so is likely to cause intense pain for the chicken.
There are occasions when some very gentle filing done over a long period of time may make the beak more usefull. This isn't one of them.
The problem is the beak has thickened top and bottom and to correct it, if it was possible, would take surgery under anaesthetic by a skilled avian vet.

 

[SmiYa0126]

They took her whole beak off

 

[technolaser]

Shadrach - thanks for the link, very interesting.

Given that she's already had much of her beak lopped off early on and it's growing ever worse, I'm not sure that some very judicious filing (maybe only to the lower part) could even make it worse.