Baby chick 4wk old lower beak severely stunted. Eating and drinking no problem, but the top beak is hooked over and so I tried to trim it ever so slightly, like 1/8th of an inch and it started bleeding. Tried blood stopper, still bled, tried baking powder, still bled, finally stopped. I'm not sure if the lower beak will ever grow more than it already is. It feels like the beak isn't even connected to the jaw as the jaw seems to move independently from the beak. Sorry the picture isn't that great. I guess my basic question is, has anyone had a deformity like this and the chick lead a good life. She definately is smaller than the rest, but gets right in there and eats. In the photo the jaw looks like a bump and the beak is above it, but it's tiny.
First let me say - you should ask this in Emergencies, Illness, and Diseases and you'll get more responses. Now: Wow I have never seen anything like that.... Okay I have to be completely honest with you and say that I do not see how that chick is going to be able to lead a whole healthy life without the lower beak...It looks to me that the lower beak if never going to grow into a decent proportion to the upper beak. Honestly if you are really going to try to keep her and she can get up some size, I do not feel that chicken will be able to stay outside with the rest of her 'chicken family' as she will definately be seen as the weakest and get the snot beat out of her, 2. you will need to make sure she has deep bowl of food and deep water dish so she can properly eat, and it will difficult to keep those things out with other chickens around. You would either have to make a smaller section/coop for this chick and one or two 'friends' and keep her special need bowls near, or you could always make her into a house chicken. Howver I must tell you I believe that chick will not make it to adulthood (1 year old) because there is no telling how better or worse that beak will get and how much difficulty this chick will have feeding itself as it grow. If it were my chick I would cull it just to not let it suffer down the road, but if you 'can't' cull, I commend you for trying to save chick. Good luck
You will need to trim the top beak using large toenail clippers. Be very careful and go slowly. After trimming it, take a nail file (the kind for acrylic nails) and smooth it down. After the initial trimming I would use the nail file to gradually remove a bit more of the beak every few days until it you have it pared back. As long as you keep the top beak trimmed and use a feed dish that is deep enough to get it's beak all the way into, it will probably be fine.
