She broke her beak?! Plus white in pupil....

[silkies4ever]

sHey everybody,

I have a hopefully minor issue with one of my chickens. I have a female Polish with an unknown background. I got her from a grain store that doesn't take very good care of their animals because I couldn't resist leaving her there, not knowing what was going to happen to her. I have had her for about 3 almost 4 months now.

She is relatively healthy, but because of a bad diet, wasn't in the best possible condition. I got her on my healthy spoiled rotten pet chicken diet and she's molted and her feathers are looking alot nicer now and her crest has really filled out. She still hasn't grown a tail back though.

Anyway, thats her background. As for the main issues, she broke her beak. That's right, broke it. It looks like she only broke the outter part that I think grows continually like fingernails because I can the tip of what looks like a bone core.

I have no clue how in the world she did it....My question is, will it grow back and will she have a normal beak again? She currently eats just fine as far as I can tell.

Second health issue...She's got what appears to be cataracts growing in both her eyes, except it's only in the pupil. I can't tell if it's hindering her vision or not because she not only hears me coming, but her crest sometimes limits her vision as well. So when I am able to sneak up on her, I don't know if it's because she couldn't see because her crest was in the way and I was in a blind spot, or wether she's having true vision problems. A friend of mine mentioned that when her goats get pink eye, they develop white matter in the pupil...Could it be the same with Ringo?

I appreciate any info you guys can give here.

 

[dlhunicorn]

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS031
Eye Disorders of Poultry

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/PS/PS02900.pdf
"...Avian encephalomyelitisAvian encephalomyelitis (epidemic tremors) is a viral disease usually affecting young poultry. It is characterized by incoordination and tremors, especially of the head and neck in chicks,and
elevated mortality levels. Chicks that recover may later develop cataracts after sexualmaturity. In affected hens, decreases in egg production and
hatchability are noted......"

 

[silkies4ever]

Hmmm, thanks for the links, I printed both out.

I'm not entirely sure what it is yet. I don't know her background, all I know is that she wasn't kept very well, so it could be anything. She shows no coordination problems or tremors though. I'm continuing to research though, hopefully I'll find something.

Is there any reason I can't tie her crest up with a hair tie or something so I can see how well she can or can't see without feathers in the way? I've never heard of anybody doing this so I want to make sure it's ok before I do it.

 

[dlhunicorn]

a recovered bird usually wont (or only when stressed sometimes)> the cataracts may be the only residual effect of that.

 

[Chatychick]

I have White crested black polish and I trimmed their crests as they were having a hard time with the others and now they seem like regular chickens and are seeing the world in a hole new light...man have they changed alot .