Injury to base of beak -- possible trauma or frostbite? No big deal?

Date sort Score sort
I would treat their whole body and the rest of your chickens as well. And the bleeding and/or beak coating may be from scratching against things because they itch.
I contacted a friend of mine who has come across just about everything with over 300 chickens, and I will see if she knows anything.
 
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Wildorchid, It took them years to ok ivermectin for dogs. I think it was a money thing cause ivermectin is cheap and you don't need a script. I think in parakeets and finches, they're so small it's real easy to overdose them.
I personally use Ivomec Eprinex pour on (put spot on back of neck) I use about 0.4 ml. per chicken or 0.2 ml on a small chicken.
 
Humm............... the only time I've seen that on one of my hens beaks in when they were digging around in something abrasive/ or sticking their head into something they shouldn't rooting for stuff and injured the groove like shown. Other than injury, i don't know what may have caused that on the beak....
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Chapped skin/beak ?
 
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Thank you to SeminoleWind and Chickenzoo for your thoughts on this.

I treated for mites today and reapplied Vaseline. I did see them rubbing their beaks on the roosts this morning, so that seems to be where this is coming from. Ordinarily they will sometimes rub their beaks (if they have food or something on them) but I'd noticed the behavior is more frequent and finally the lightbulb went on as I watched them do it today. Hopefully the mite and dry-skin treatments will help take care of whatever is bothering them and making them rub.

(My own dry, chapped knuckle split open this morning even though I've been moisturizing my hands multiple times a day. Winter sucks!
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)

HeatherFeather, I know in another post you mentioned going away overnight -- when you're back, could you please update on that one girl's condition and whether you've noticed face-rubbing?

And of course if anyone else has thoughts on this/has seen this before, I'd very much appreciate hearing about it.

BTW, my greediest girl has decided that Vaseline is tasty -- whenever I'd lower the Q-tip towards her face she'd reach up for a slurp!
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Everyone else who tried it emphatically did not like it.
 
I got back on Sunday, but my computer has been giving me a hard time!! (only on this site though, I seem to be able to surf FB no problem?)

Thank you so much chickenzoo and seminolewind for your thoughts! I am progressively more concerned as I watch the combs of my flock slowly receding.

My girl in the basement is slowly doing better. The front of her comb is healing up, as are the frostbitten areas further back on her comb. She's eating a bit now, she really got going on some pork bits and swiss chard, and now she's into the scratch. She isn't drinking very much at all though-maybe 4 tablespoons a day....and not pooping very much. Hopefully that changes soon now that she's eating more, which is pretty much as of last night. The entire time she's been in the cage (5 days) she's pooped as much as one chook normally would in a night.

I haven't noticed any beak rubbing at all Rareroo. Only if they happen to get something wet stuck to it-and I've really been avoiding mushy foods for a while now, as they just seem to freeze into the bowl anyhow.

Most of my flock now has the comb shrunk back, with the white part of the beak exposed. There are only 2/12 who don't. The combs look white around the edges where its shrunk back. There hasn't been any more bleeding thankfully though.

I have been greasing up all their beaks and combs with a general purpose salve I make, which is antifungal and antiseptic. I started making it years ago as a diaper salve....but its really really useful for all sorts of things. I would think that it would kill off any mites if there are any in that area, as vaseline and all sorts of oils are recommended for beak mites.

Its too much $$ if I were to start greasing up all their legs with it in case they have scaly leg & beak mites, so I'm going to treat with paraffin oil on the legs if I can get it, vaseline if not.

I treated all the birds with DE a few weeks ago as two chooks had a wee bit of poultry lice, and they've all been dustbathing in DE ever since too, so I don't think I need to treat their whole bodies for mites.

I just wonder why nobody else has seen this happen to entire flocks like this? It is bizarre indeed, and concerning.

Rareroo, do you know what your humidity sits at usually? Our local weather says its usually around 80% which is what I've noticed in the coop as well-I can get it down about 5% from outside if I have a fan running at the vent and heatlamp on.
 
HeatherFeather, I'm glad your girl in the basement is doing a bit better!

Like you, I'm increasingly concerned about my girls -- all have the white part exposed (though no white around the edges of the comb), and I still can't quite tell if the combs are receding. It might be too soon for the mite dusting to have fully kicked in but they're still rubbing their beaks (and flicking their heads, so I'm really betting it's mites). I can't quite tell if the beak rubbing is as bad as before. The Vaseline seems to encourage it, unfortunately, since they want to try to get it off as soon as I put it on, so I'm not really sure if I should continue with that. Luckily it has not been super cold here (30s/low 40s during the day, high 20s/low 30s at night) so frostbite is less of an issue, though it continues to be quite humid what with the melting snow plus a rainstorm on Sunday. I'm not quite sure what the humidity reading actually is, but it is rather damp. Their legs do not seem to show any signs of scaly mites.

I just ordered some Avian Insect Liquidator (http://www.vetafarm.com/products/AVIAN-INSECT-LIQUIDATOR-(A.I.L)-READY-TO-USE-500mL.html), which has a different ingredient than the dust I'm currently using. I'm hoping that since it's a liquid, it will be easier for me to apply directly to their heads. Plus I can spray the heck out of the coop with it. Has anyone had any experience with it?

I looked at Scatt as Seminolewind suggested. I know ivermectin is pretty hardcore stuff (and we would like to be able to keep eating everyone's eggs if we can), so I'm going to keep that in mind as a backup.

Ugh, this is so frustrating!
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Luckily everyone's behavior, eating habits, etc. continue to be normal.
 
I've used Scatt on my finches (9 at the time) with no problem. Scatt will work on mites. And it does sound like they're scraping.
Did anyone consider a yeast or fungus?
Or a bacteria?
The hole is probably caused by rubbing.
 

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