I just got off the phone with my vet-- she called to do a follow up to check on my chicken. I thought that was really nice of her! If anyone lives in the Buffalo NY area I recommend Dr. Laura Wade.
My coop and run are built like a fort, double hardware cloth over welded wire fencing, with electric fence, so no predators can get in to the best of our ability. However, there were some large rottweliers running loose yesterday that panicked the chickens and poor Kua somehow broke her beak as she was in a blind panic.
The vet did gently manipulate the beak back into place. Because the wound was
fresh and the way the break was, it was determined that doing so would cause no more harm than was already done. She just didn't dare try to separate the break any more in fear that such a thing could make it worse.
Rockin' Reds :
WOW!! I would love for you to post some pictures. Nugget doesn't seem to be in any pain, at least not at this point...we are 1 week out today from her injury. She is getting much better at manipulating food into her beak. She does the best with scrambled eggs. I gave her some raisins out of the palm of my hand yesterday and she did great with those...I think because they are stick, but still she enjoyed the little treat. I switched her to pellets thinking that since they are larger maybe she can manipulate those easier. We will see. I didn't feed her via syringe at all yesterday because I want to see where she is at as far as intake. It's hard to tell exactly what makes it down the hatch and how much actually falls into the shavings. She is still gaining weight so I thought I would give her a chance to see what she could do on her own. I will weigh her later this morning and see. Wish us luck!!
I am so glad to hear that Nugget is doing fine and eating as well as she can!!
It gives me hope for Kua.
Kua slept well through the night (in our bedroom, I am such a sucker) and was eager to eat this morning. My first priority was to find something she'd like, and it ended up being some cooked oatmeal mixed with her grower mash (a lot of it is powdery and so it mixed up very well to make a gooey, soft food for her). I snuck her painkiller medication into a spoonful and she ate it without incident. Whew! Now at least she'd have some relief. Then I tried to mix her antibiotic in with a spoonful. No go! It must taste pretty terrible. I wasn't about to force her beak open to administer it directly, so I brainstormed alternative ways to get it in her for later. She ate her crop's full, I was so pleased. She seems to be completely at loss for drinking out of anything other than the red-based chicken waterers I have outside, though. They are too big to fit in the hospital area I have for her, d'oh! So every hour or two I take her out in the coop and let her drink. I am hoping she figures out the bowl of water soon.
My family came over this morning to play with the chickens (haha, like little kids!!) and so I felt it was safe to have her out in the run with all 4 of us out there for a short while. That way if anyone pecked her beak we could stop it immediately. It was the darndest thing-- I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it, and my sister saw it too. My very smart Barred Rock Pullet, Chickadee, came running over to Kua. I thought for sure she would peck her 'bubblegum beak' and was ready to pull her away, but instead, Chickadee leaned forward very slowly, rested her beak very gently against Kua's injury/beak patch and just sat there for a minute before wandering off. What the heck was that! We all know that chickens 'peck first and ask questions later' so it was pretty weird to see!!
Anyhow, I offered the other chickens a handfull of BOSS and to our amazement, broken-beak Kua came over and dived in, eating those big hard seeds like it was nothing! So now my brain gears are working... I bet I could inject a sunflower seed or two with her antibiotics and she'd eat it without even tasting it. Hmmm!!
Back in the house again, and she refuses to eat some of her favorites (like mealworms!) but is eating the soft mashes I am making her, gingerly. She snaps up BOSS though, it's crazy. She is doing well and to my surprise is staying in her hospital area, even though there is nothing to keep her from wandering around the house. Her 'hospital area' is just a big, old fish tank (I think it's a 125 gallon) with pine flakes, because she loves to scratch, her food and water bowls, and a 2x6 board across the top of the tank for her to sit on.
Here are some photos. I didn't get a photo of the break itself, because frankly it was the last thing on my mind!
Here is the fiberglass patch. The dental acrylic was used as a glue to hold it in place. The vet wrapped it all the way around to help hold everything in place, to give it the best chance to heal.
The fiberglass is very strong, hard, and lightweight. It looks like someone stuck bubblegum to her beak!
I drew this on top of the photo to show you where the break was. It was major.. you could see into the deep tissue of her beak.
The blue line is where the beak split down the middle part ways (visible only from inside her mouth, it was not split down the blue line on the outside).
From below, so you can see how it is on her beak a bit better.