HELP! Chick with scissor beak.

[Rocky Rhodes]

I just had several Cream Legbar chicks hatch overnight. While I was counting them I noticed that one has scissor beak! I have never encountered this before. Is there any way to correct this or does this chick have to be culled? I try to give every chick a chance, but I don't want to prolong any suffering. If I must cull this chick, what is the most humane way of doing this?

 

[Wol1]

This online avian medicine book has a paragraph on scissors beak in babies. It's written by specialist avian vets.
http://web.archive.org/web/20121106014020/http://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/avmed/ampa.html

The information you need is in chapter 30, page 836 and 837.

My best at summarizing: It usually doesn't affect ability to eat. There are many causes. It can often be corrected in newborns by a method of trimming the beak to "retrain" growth or by applying pressure several times a day. Please read the pages in the book to understand the details.

 

[Miyashi]

I've had a couple scissor beak birds. One didn't make it because I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't trim her beak and I fed her a mash, which made a wonderful mess. I eventually paid the vet to have her euthanized.... she was so sweet and adorable, but I just didn't know what to do for her.
Later that year my silkie had her babies and one came out the same colour as the pulley I had and later developed scissor beak...course of a couple days.
I purchased a pedipaw and used that to keep her trimmed. She learned to sit for it and all was well. I gave her to an older woman with a small flock and she's very happy there.
That's my story!
If you have the patience, it's totally doable. I suppose you have to feel that it's worth it too.
Best of luck!
I've never heard of applying pressure daily as a fix, but that is interesting.