Help Beak Starting to Cross!

[Christineschick]

Hi Everyone!

It seems like I can't catch a break with this baby chick. She a 6 wk old chocolate Ameraucana and when I got her home at 4 weeks the new food I had, had botulism toxin in it and paralyzed her for 2 days. Once she survived 48 hour and regained her ability to walk she was what I thought was back to normal. She was thriving again, and then this week I just notice her beak is starting to slightly cross

. It's slightly crooked, and can't find any website for remedies to fix it. Has anyone had any luck with treating this. I saw some scissor beaks can be caused by vitamin deficiencies. I started adding chick vitamins to her water. I also decided to make her a chick head gear with medical tape to basically force it align. She can still eat with the gear on, and it aligns her jaw. I know she's growing still but I'm hoping if this make-shift head gear will help the bones to form normally. Has anyone tried any other trick to align the beak? Thanks for the help.

 

[realsis]

Cross beaks can lead a perfectly normal happy life. I know, I had one myself. I would trim the beak to help it from worsening and make sure she's getting enough to eat. This is a inherited issue. .I don't know a thing about the head gear, but if you search on the backyard chickens site, crossbeak you can read many great posts about this issue. Hope this helps.

 

[Christineschick]

It's just very odd it's not a full cross bite, it's just a slight under-bite I just noticed few days ago. I did file it a bit to get it to align better, and used the medical tape to help align it as well. On another forum I read someone used arthritis cream called penetran supposedly chicks with a slight under bite maybe caused by a muscle spasm and putting this cream around the jaw area may stop it from making permanent damage. I guess if the spasm isn't resolved it can cause the beak to cross. I ordered some one Amazon, and going to try that as well. Thanks for your help and hopefully one these options does the trick!