Removal of scale under sebright's tongue?

[Daniel the Farmer]

Hi nicoleandeliceo,
I know this thread is fairly old but I just had to comment. I also live in the Yucatan and just today my neighbor (who is a very experienced chicken keeper and comes from a very long family tradition of natural chicken keeping) came over and "removed the scales" from my chickens tongues. It all started because I had asked him if I should be concerned that one of my chickens was sneezing yesterday and he said that yes, I should be concerned. I brought him the chicken and he reached under the tongue and pulled off what looked like a fish scale (but slightly softer and translucent). The chicken didn't like it, but seemed OK afterwards.

I asked him what that is and he said that some chickens tongues grow with an extra piece underneath that prevents them from eating normally and causes them to get sick more often. After removal, they heal and are stronger because they can eat better. (so I sort of associated it with the benefits of humans having tonsils removed?) Anyway, not all of my chickens had this extra piece but he removed the piece from 4 of them. He asked that for the next 3 days I squeeze a lime into their mouth once a day.

Afterwards I came to BYC to see if anyone had commented about this before and found your thread. This must be either a local Yucatecan home remedy or perhaps the birds bred here (although mine are mostly local cross breeds) have it? I am also new to chicken keeping (6 months for me) so it's all new to me. But my neighbors chickens are so healthy and lively and I trust his methods.

I hope you have had great luck with your seabrights, I would love to see a picture. I'd also like to know if you went through with the removals?

Blessings,
IronEagle

Hello I'm a chicken Farmer in the Bahamas I've always heard the procedure your referring to called removing a pip it's a cartilage like growth that grows under the tounge that's so painful to the chicken it stops them from eating you can take a pocket knife under the tounge about a quater of a inch back and pull towards the front of the beak and it comes off fairly easy sometimes it bleeds a little but they will be fine and eating normal in no time and healthy again.