Rooster with brittle toenails & beak

[4H ChickenMom]

Hello all, we have a wyandotte hybrid rooster who broke off the tip of his beak a month or so ago. It was fine and grew out okay, but a week or so ago he broke a toenail and we had a time getting the bleeding stopped. Just now, I noticed he has cracked his beak badly into the quick. After he roosts we will catch him and try to trim as needed and stop the bleeding - a friend suggested flour or cornstarch to help bleeding stop. Any suggestions as to why he keeps breaking his hard bits and what to do to help? He's not really an aggresive bird, so I don't think they are fighting injuries. His brother is the more submissive of the two and doesn't challenge him. Please help, he is my daughter's favorite!

 

[chicmom]

That is interesting, I wonder if maybe he was just born that way....Born with a condition that makes him have brittle beak and toenails.....Why not feed him some gelatin in his diet. That is great for hard nails.....Sounds crazy but it just might work.

As far as the injuries go, for bleeding nails, here's a trick that works great: Take a bar of soap, and press the nail into the soap. The soap acts like a little cork, and stops the bleeding. There is also a powder you can buy at the farm store called "Blood stop powder". But the bar of soap works great and often people have that laying around.....

With the beak, I'm wondering if you couldn't pain a little bit of that New Skin (The liquid bandage) into the crack. Just keep him from pecking anything for about 10 minutes or so while it dries and becomes hard. (You can keep him still by wrapping him snugly in a towel, and just covering his eyes. They get very still when you do that.

Good luck and let me know how he's doing,
Sharon