HELP! Egg Tooth stuck on beak and causing malformation

[purplesquirrel]

I've only just noticed that my little Exchequer Leghorn's egg tooth is still stuck in his/her beak. It's already starting to cause malformation, but I can't get it off, she screams to high heaven and I can already see blood.
The egg tooth is pinching the beaks growth development and I really don't want to end up with a disabled chicken with eating problems. And if it is a boy I'll have even more trouble trying to sell a deformed cock.

Will it grow out? Should I cut it off? I've never had this problem before...

 

[KittyKat3756]

That's the tip of his beak, not an egg tooth. Beaks grow a bit like nails and claws from that point of view. The pink bit is kinda like a "quick", but the very tip is "disposable". The egg tooth is about 1mm in size and falls off very shortly after hatching.

Breaking off the tip is probably going to be the equivalent of it being ground off: it won't grow back, but won't kill it.

On the other hand, I'd probably leave it be and see if it falls off by itself.

By the way, it looks old enough to be sexable… one can generally tell around 4-6 weeks with a point of comparison. I see that you're in UK. One bit of advice that I can give you is be very careful of who you sell it to. Cock fighting is not as uncommon as most people think! (I'm kinda concluding that it's a boy here based on the comb, but really need to see the wattles to be sure.)

 

[purplesquirrel]

But it really doesn't look like the end of his beak, it looks like something else, none of my other chicks have it. I will have to leave it to see if it fall off/grows out. Poor little birds, it looks really strange, I can't think how it's happened!