Mild Cross Beak, HELP!!! (PICS PG. 2) *UPDATE*

[animallover505]

tclews from a different tread cross-beaked thread said this..."I'm so glad to have seen your post because this happened to our one of our sweet chickens last year and she eventually died from starvation. Unfortunately, I didn't start researching it until it was too late, but found out that it is very easy to fix this problem. The problem is actually in your chicken's jaw and if you start giving her Calc/Phos and Bioplasma (cell salts available at your local natural foods store) the jaw will grow normally and she will have a normal beak. It was incredibly sad to see our sweet chick slowly die. We thought she was growing normally, but soon discovered that her crop was empty and the reason she was following us around all the time was because she eventually couldn't get any food.

I found out about the cell salts from a wildlife rescuer (she saves hawks, deer, etc.). She was very disappointed to hear I had waited until our chicken was six months old to call her. If I, like you, had started giving her cell salts early on, she would have been fine.

You can dissolve the cell salts in the chicken water. It is good for the other chicks too."

 

[chicken pickin]

Thanks I will look into that

I hope I can find some and hopefully itll help her. I just found a thread on crossbeak chickens
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-for-special-needs-chickens-and-their-keepers

 

[SamanthaBrooke]

Awesome, I am going to contact my local nutrition store, hopefully it really is safe for all the other chicks too because I don't want to segregate this one, chicks alone tend to get depressed and I learned it the hard way with a serama.

I am going to try the Penetran cream to see if I can loosen the TMJ muscle on my since it is so mild, cross your fingers it works because its $15 I did NOT have in my budget lol but this chick is worth the try!

 

[jtbrown]

SamanthaBrooke -- We kept a cross beak, mixed with a large flock. He always had a messy face, he had to have food deep enough that he could "scoop" to get the food in his beak. He made a mess, we kept him, nice guy to have around. Definately bottom of the pecking order, and he didn't breed the ladies. Typically cross beaks have a hard time grooming as they cannot preen like normal.

We used a dremel tool with grinding stone on it (recommended from here somewhere), my husband held the bird, I carefully ground to make the cross less and it seemed to keep the beak from getting too crooked, making it harder to use what he had. I know it sounds like an awful lot, but he was full size, not small. He was an EE and apparently quite common in that line (at least more common than other bird lines).

Good luck.

Jennie

 

[jtbrown]

Oh, and one more thing, it went from very mild to very prominant as he went through his teen weeks, and it was not there when we got him as a day old, and progressed very rapidly through his teens.

 

[SamanthaBrooke]

well I wasn't able to get the cream because the store was closed for the day and I drove so far, UGH!

 

[LVchicks]

and here she is today at 2 weeks 3 days old

The chick I culled last week had a cross beak like this the day she arrived. She also was missing an eye. I'm glad to see not all crossed beaks are that severe and some can go on to have fairly normal lives.

 

[SamanthaBrooke]

Beak is definitely getting worse and sadly I have another developing it that I have banded, they are both eating and drinking fine and I am learning how to trim the beaks so that they can survive!

HOPEFULLY there will be no more the develop this issue or I'll be disappointed but I think everything will be okay, only two out of 31 have the issue.

 

[animallover505]

Let's hope so!

 

[SamanthaBrooke]

Okay babies are just over 3 weeks old and my two cross beaks and seeming like they are in pain and depressed. The others participate In treat time and play time but these two just aren't happy, they are eating and drinking and their crops are full, they are growing feathers like the others but I can take their skull mutation is causing them great pain...I feel my selfish want to keep them alive is only good for me and now I feel guilty and wrong for my wants, I'm considering euthanizing them this weekend via the starter fluid method but wanted to see what you all thought, I just feel so guilty and sorry for them...I hate to lose them or give up on them but they are miserable.