Rooster beak broken, how do I feed him?

[Maggies Momma]

Hello All,
Someone dumped off their two young roosters into our 6' fenced chicken yard Sat. morning between 2am and 5am. The bigger rooster got into it with our 4yr old rooster, Henry. My husband saw it while leaving for work, and broke up the fight. (Both dumped off roosters are in a separate pen until they are claimed or sold. I suspect the owner lives down the road from our farm.)

This evening while we were feeding veggies to our hens and we noticed that Henry's top beak was bloody near the comb. When my husband took a closer look, he noticed that the entire beak is cracked.

Our poor Henry couldn't take any crumbles of graham cracker off my hand or pick up anything off the ground.
I was hoping to try and feed him myself with a feeding syringe from the feed store. I'm not sure what to feed him or how much.

Our oldest son just left for summer camp on Friday and I really don't want him to come home next weekend to find that Henry is gone. He would be so upset. I would rather Henry go while my son is with him.

Henry is so sweet. I hate the thought of him starving to death because of someone who decided to dump their responsibility on our family.

Any feeding suggestions or help would be great.

 

[kellysmall87]

You can syringe him anything mashed up really... make a mash out of the pellets with some warm water? Probably need to put small pieces of grit in there too to aid his digestion? Mashed up cereals? maybe get some tonic to suppliment the food you give him? Hope he gets better soon.

 

[TheJadeChicken]

Is it cracked? Or broke off completely?

 

[Maggies Momma]

My husband and I just looked at him and noticed that since it still has some blood, our hens are picking at it. I see that the black top layer is now gone and softer tissue is showing. (I'll try to post pictures) We immediately removed him from the yard and put him in confinement.

I was able to give him some mashed up food with a lot of liquid. I also added some oyster shell that I crushed up into a powder. I'm hoping that this will help the healing beak to keratinize and heal quicker so he can go back in with his girls.

 

[TheJadeChicken]

So he still has his beak?

 

[ButchGood]

Mine broke the tip of his beak off and was fine. This sounds more serious. I wondered about this injury and how they would cope. I will be following this with interest.

 

[welasharon]

There was a thread on here within the last year I believe of a broken beak that was repaired with maybe some sort of glue or compound and a mesh or coffee filter-like material. You can do a search. I imagine the best thing would be to patch and give it a chance to grow on out. Good luck!

 

[Maggies Momma]

This is Henry. I think the girls pecked the broken part of his beak off. Closer pictures to follow.
The tissue exposed looks very soft and it is obviously sensitive because he won't root in the soft soil or peck at any food.


Henry with one of our Rhode Island Reds. His beak was black and long like hers.



Henry's missing the top layer of his beak. His girls were pecking at it so it continued to bleed. You can barely see that they have also plucked the feathers from his neck.



Henry from the front. The top layer of his beak is completely gone. The blood is all down his breast.

His nostrils were not affected, which is a good thing from other posts I have read. I haven't cleaned up his breast feathers yet. I thought I would wait until tonight when he is ready to sleep so he will be more willing to tolerate being restrained.

I'm not sure if I should attempt to clean up the exposed area at all. My concern is sensitivity, as I have read this in some articles.

 

[Maggies Momma]

I just posted pictures of Henry. Did your rooster's beak look the same? Did it grow back?

 

[Gretta]

My little girl Nugget lost her upper and lower beak last year in a fight with a raccoon. After going to the vet, he told me that she probably want make it. Well, I took her home, put her in my closet with bedding and the nursing began! I cooked oatmeal, grits, soaked fresh bread in buttermilk, grinded grass with some worms (yuck) but I felt she need the protein, put vitamins in her water and antibiotics. I fed her in deeper bowls so she did not have to peck or bump her face on the bottom of the dish (about 1in deep), She did great and is now top of the pecking order... Although she can only lick!! lol I didn't know chickens have tongues. I kept her in side for about 2 weeks.