Help...what is wrong with my chicken's beak? (pics)

[7&8]

Quote:
Thank you for the link to the awesome site!

 

[chickengal]

I have been gone all day and am just reading the posts. It is not cross beak. I am thinking it might be canker...YUCK! It is hard to see it unless you open the beak. It is sort of dry flakey looking. It sounds hard to treat. Has anyone else had this in your flock?

 

[CMV]

Never had it, but I recognized it immediately. Pretty gruesome stuff. Dawg's links provide some excellent references for caring for a bird with this disease. It can't be cured, but birds can live with it and acquire a sort of immunity given the proper care and treatment. Whenever they are stressed or ailing in the future this can crop up again. You might consider closing your flock- no new birds out or in- because this is a problem with long term implications.

Good luck.

 

[sourland]

It's canker. Do a search for Foy's pigeon supplies. They have several products for treating canker. It is extremely contagious and generally strikes when birds are stressed and their immune systems are low. Treat the entire flock as all have probably been exposed. Transmission through the waterers is very common.

 

[chickengal]

Shoot!!! My daughter put them in the poltry show at the fair and this happen right after. I guess that stressed them...there is just two that have it. Can I just remove them from the rest or do you think they are all carriers of it now? I saw online were someone used the fish medicine called metroidazole to treat it....but I am not sure how much or how they used it.

 

[chickengal]

We use a nipple waterer. It seems like that would make it harder to spread through water.

 

[sourland]

I would isolate all the show birds from the rest of the flock; however, I would recommend treating all birds since all have probably been exposed. Birds drink, trichomanids enter water and other birds are exposed. The next time you show have a quarantine cage that you put the show birds in after bringing them home. Quarantine just as you would any new additions to the flock. With treatment, you can control this problem. Just be aware that the flock may have periodic outbreaks whenever stressed. I have pigeons, and it is pretty much endemic in pigeon flocks. This year I kept my numbers low, disinfected waterers daily and had no outbreaks even though I know that my flock is infected. It is an opportunist that strikes when conditions are right. Yes, your birds were stressed from the show and may even have contracted the organism from improperly cleaned cages, feeders, or waterers. Good luck. You have caught this early and can resolve the problem.

 

[Wiglwerm]

Looks like wet pox to me. I just went through this with my flock, thanks to the misquitoes. I had some that got the sores on the inside of the beak like that. I used a q-tip to clean the site of the white crusty cheesy stuff, made sure none formed in the throat and waited it out. My gold laced wyndotte got one on the inside of her beak and her cheak swelled up HUGe, I ended up giving her tylan for the secondary infection she appeared to be fighting. She was bad off but has recovered nicely. good luck!!

 

[chickengal]

We have a small flock so we took most all of them to the fair...only three stayed home. So we didn't see the need to keep them apart from the rest.

I hope it is wet pox...but I am leaning toward canker. Some one said not to add any new birds. We just started with this coop and were hoping to hatch more in the spring. I still have a few roosters to get rid of. Does this mean I should not give them away if someone wants them. I cannot keep all the roosters I ended up with because they will fight and we just have one run!

 

[Pine Grove]

I'ts canker...