Nothing wrong, just curious: Information on Birth Defects in Chickens?

[Fritzen]

This is a bit weird, and I’m not sure where else to post this thread but here.
I’m very interested in physical deformations and dysmorphology. I was wondering if anyone has any good reading material (or even first-hand experiences!!!) with physical deformations in chickens?

I’m primarily looking for info on things such as dysmelia in any limbs, as well as any variants of conjoined twins. I’ve also heard of different beak deformations, which I’m interested in hearing about as well...
Basically, if it’s an abnormality in the structure of the chicken that you can see visually from the outside, I’m interesting in knowing more.

I’m looking for absolutely any info. Rate of survivability, quality of life, complications, usual causes of death, etcetera.

I’m asking this purely for educational and recreative purposes only! I don’t want anyone to be worried— there is nothing amiss with my chicks.

 

[Eggcessive]

I have not seen any deformities in my own chicks, but here on BYC, I have seen a few threads on chicks who have had 2 functioning vents, and chicks with 4 legs. Some chicks are born with bulging eyes and are blind.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ripley-the-4-legged-chicken.1309218/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/four-legged-chick-need-advice.1119506/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/bulging-eye-on-newly-hatched-chick.978786/

 

[Chookchicken]

I had a chick with a deformed leg, her leg was twisted the wrong way. I know a lot of people probably have dealt with this so it isn’t that interesting but here is my experience.

We first noticed it looked odd when she wasn’t standing up in the incubator like her sister. Originally we though it was straddle leg, so we put her in a splint. We put her under my (already) mother hen. After about a week she wasn’t very happy so we took it off. We were going to put her down but after we took the splint off she was jumping and trying to run around. So we left her with her mother and sister. She was a stressed chicken and would start crying if you took her away from her family so we decided if she was going to die she would prefer to be with her family. She was tiny she wasn’t growing right and had no feathers under her wings. If you lifted up her wings you could see her ribcage. We didn’t notice it was facing the wrong till about 3 weeks when we took a closer look at it. She was really light which meant we had to take a few things out of their coop so they would crush her. When she was about 2 months her mother decided they were to sleep upstairs with the other chickens. She couldn’t stand on the grid and I had to crawl into the back of the coop every night to put her up with everyone else. She was also being badly bullied by two of my chickens but that stopped when she started becoming weaker. The last week of her life she spent most of the day sleeping. One night I put her to bed told her i loved her and left. The next morning I went out and opened them up and she didn’t come down. She passed away at about 3 months old peacefully in her sleep. Her name was April.

This probably isn’t that interesting and I am sorry if I wasted your time.

 

[BDutch]

I didn’t have any abnormalities but I find this interesting too. Especially if there are people who have the idea that some kind of poison, like herbicides , pesticides or GMO feed might cause some of these these abnormalities, bad outcomes or a large amount of deaths within the chick population.

Very common deformations are cross beak and chicks that cant walk properly (split legs?).

 

[Fritzen]

I had a chick with a deformed leg, her leg was twisted the wrong way. I know a lot of people probably have dealt with this so it isn’t that interesting but here is my experience.

We first noticed it looked odd when she wasn’t standing up in the incubator like her sister. Originally we though it was straddle leg, so we put her in a splint. We put her under my (already) mother hen. After about a week she wasn’t very happy so we took it off. We were going to put her down but after we took the splint off she was jumping and trying to run around. So we left her with her mother and sister. She was a stressed chicken and would start crying if you took her away from her family so we decided if she was going to die she would prefer to be with her family. She was tiny she wasn’t growing right and had no feathers under her wings. If you lifted up her wings you could see her ribcage. We didn’t notice it was facing the wrong till about 3 weeks when we took a closer look at it. She was really light which meant we had to take a few things out of their coop so they would crush her. When she was about 2 months her mother decided they were to sleep upstairs with the other chickens. She couldn’t stand on the grid and I had to crawl into the back of the coop every night to put her up with everyone else. She was also being badly bullied by two of my chickens but that stopped when she started becoming weaker. The last week of her life she spent most of the day sleeping. One night I put her to bed told her i loved her and left. The next morning I went out and opened them up and she didn’t come down. She passed away at about 3 months old peacefully in her sleep. Her name was April.

This probably isn’t that interesting and I am sorry if I wasted your time.

Not a waste of time at all, it was very sweet reading this! I’m very happy to hear that she passed peacefully, and I think it was a good call to let her live her short life with her family.

 

[Fritzen]

I have not seen any deformities in my own chicks, but here on BYC, I have seen a few threads on chicks who have had 2 functioning vents, and chicks with 4 legs. Some chicks are born with bulging eyes and are blind.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ripley-the-4-legged-chicken.1309218/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/four-legged-chick-need-advice.1119506/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/bulging-eye-on-newly-hatched-chick.978786/

I’ll check these out, thank you so much for links!

 

[Pollito Pelon]

Undeveloped eyes and crossbeak

 

[carlaashdown]

I have a black australorp hen with defects. The inner toes on both of her feet are deformed and turned in. That was noticeable as a small chick. As she grew and got older, it became evident that her head and comb are significantly smaller than her sister's (same age). Otherwise, she is normal - behavior, activity, eating, laying, etc.

Probably not what you're looking for, but I thought I'd share just in case.

 

[Abigrayl]

I’m had 2 from my first hatch that are deformed. One has scissor-beak and the other has a pelvis deformity (probably).

Bucky with the scissor beak copes exceptionally well. She broke off the end of her deformed beak herself when it got too long. Crazy I know but super convenient for me. She’s as fat as the others although she can’t catch a bug first try. It takes a couple of strikes to get it. She was born with a slight misalignment but it got progressively worse. She has a lot of attitude and doesn’t get bullied.

Daffy with the deformed pelvis isn’t coping as well. She lies down a lot and has started acting like it hurts to walk. She has waddled since day 1 but it’s gotten progressively worse. I’ll cull her when I know for sure she’s in pain.

 

[carlaashdown]

I had a chick with a deformed leg, her leg was twisted the wrong way. I know a lot of people probably have dealt with this so it isn’t that interesting but here is my experience.

We first noticed it looked odd when she wasn’t standing up in the incubator like her sister. Originally we though it was straddle leg, so we put her in a splint. We put her under my (already) mother hen. After about a week she wasn’t very happy so we took it off. We were going to put her down but after we took the splint off she was jumping and trying to run around. So we left her with her mother and sister. She was a stressed chicken and would start crying if you took her away from her family so we decided if she was going to die she would prefer to be with her family. She was tiny she wasn’t growing right and had no feathers under her wings. If you lifted up her wings you could see her ribcage. We didn’t notice it was facing the wrong till about 3 weeks when we took a closer look at it. She was really light which meant we had to take a few things out of their coop so they would crush her. When she was about 2 months her mother decided they were to sleep upstairs with the other chickens. She couldn’t stand on the grid and I had to crawl into the back of the coop every night to put her up with everyone else. She was also being badly bullied by two of my chickens but that stopped when she started becoming weaker. The last week of her life she spent most of the day sleeping. One night I put her to bed told her i loved her and left. The next morning I went out and opened them up and she didn’t come down. She passed away at about 3 months old peacefully in her sleep. Her name was April.

This probably isn’t that interesting and I am sorry if I wasted your time.

What a sweet story I‘m glad you shared it.