Scissor beak

[stormrobin]

My friend has a chick with a bad scissor beak. We are wondering if she can live a fairly normal life or not. I know you have to watch for weight gain and she is eating and drinking in her own. My friend said she looked normal at first. Just wanting to find out the outcome of one this severe.

 

[Waves]

@Wyorp Rock @oldhenlikesdogs

can you help this little chick? sorry but i really know nothing about chicks

 

[LaFleche]

I am sorry to say that this is not only a scissor's beak but a much more severe deformity of the entire lower jaw which will only get worse with passing day. Sadly, there is nor cure for this.

Here is a similar case: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-to-do-with-this-baby-😢.1369016/post-22534943

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You sure can try to keep it going. I suggest wet mash, and taller containers to eat out of. Time will tell if it can get along. If not culling is the next best option. Give a chance and see.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

My friend has a chick with a bad scissor beak. We are wondering if she can live a fairly normal life or not. I know you have to watch for weight gain and she is eating and drinking in her own. My friend said she looked normal at first. Just wanting to find out the outcome of one this severe.

I'm sorry about the chick.

I do agree with @LaFleche it is quite severe and likely will get worse as time goes by. Sometimes a chick with a deformity like this may have other developmental issues as well.

You could try and see how it goes. While she may be able to eat/drink on her own - is she getting enough to eat or just making a mess. You would want to weigh her now and track the weight to ensure she's getting enough to eat. Some birds seem to eat a lot or all the time but the fact is they are simply not getting enough and having to continually eat.

It's really up to you to decide what happens. Give her a chance or cull. It's so easy to get attached and you never know, she may thrive.

Some folks are able to keep up with the bird/dedicate time with them each day to ensure they are doing fine, hand or tube feed as well.
If you keep her, try to keep her cleaned off if possible. Since she's not really able to clean her beak well, the food will harden inside the beak. Likely get into the nares (nostrils) and plug them up too.

A lot depends on her personality - she may do o.k. with a flock, but have a plan of where to house/care for her if the others pick at her.

No one should judge one way or another whether you keep or cull. I would not use her for breeding.

Here's an article that may give you some tips.

https://the-chicken-chick.com/scissor-beak-aka-crossed-beak-what-it/

 

[Kayburt]

This post was very helpful. I have a 4 week old with the same problem. I noticed I slight misalignment when it was about a week old and it has gotten worse as its gotten older. I was feeding it egg yolk from a dropper while it was in the inside brooder. It seems to always be eating or at least TRYING to eat. At this point its about the same size, if a little smaller than, the other one of its coloring/breed but its a good amount lighter. I want to give it a chance to survive on its own but I also don't want it to starve to death...

 

[HAPPYCHICKENLADY17]

I have a little silkie with a cross beak, she is a year old now and doing great, i do make her mash and she has a deep water dish....she was about 3 weeks old when i discovered it and it never seemed to get any worse as she got older

 

[HAPPYCHICKENLADY17]

here is another pic of her......i fed a lot of scrambled egg

 

[stormrobin]

Thank you all for the information. I will pass it along. My friend did mention she does seem to make a mess of herself quite often. I have a kitchen scale we can use to make sure she is gaining weight. She wants to give her a chance if she is doing ok but will cull if she goes down hill so she doesn’t starve to death.

 

[Luckylarson]

We have had a few. One was named Hai-Hai and she was a polish. She grew up and did fine but she did die a little early. We also have a pulley who is pretty bad, but we found that if you put them in a deep dish or bucket with feed they can get the food into their beaks easier. They had a hard time using the shallow dish because they would hit router beaks on the bottom. Here is a pic of the one we have now... She is small but happy ☺