Well, Here's A New One... Opinions Needed Please

[Birch Run Farm]

It's coming into spring and the boys are not getting along so well as they usually do. I have several young cockerels, four araucanas and one ameraucana.

So they have been fighting, mostly minor stuff. Bitten combs, lost clumps of feathers, boys keeping their distance from each other, normal stuff.

Sometime during the day while I was at work, one of the araucanas ripped to upper horn off the beak of the ameraucana. Seriously, just the bone of the maxilla is left. I looked VERY closely.

The ameraucana has been the big aggressor and plucked clean the head and neck of my cock araucana. I suspect he got revenge.

So, bone is truly exposed. Seriously, up to the skin around the nostrils, no horn, just beak bone.

My assumption is the bird will go septic. He's been fine so far other than he does not close his mouth all the way but I have seen him eat and carry on aggressively.

I am assuming the horn covering will not re-grow. Anyone have something similar happen? If so, what were the results?

Has anyone had a bird live with out an upper beak? Should I cull him?

 

[crtrlovr]

don't know about chickens, but in other birds an avulsion like that CAN heal if the growth plate in the bone itself is not gone. Keep it covered with an antibiotic ointment and give it some time.

 

[MoodyChicken]

Dang! That's an intense fight! Could you get a picture? I'm quite curious. Isolate him and put him on antibiotics. It will heal with beak, but he'll never have a full beak again. If you really want to go the extra mile, feed him baby bird food until it scabs. I would imagine that it's pretty clean because it's fed to baby birds with developing immunities. You could also trim his lower beak so it's more even with his... stub.

 

[Crazy_For_Chickens]

I would wait to see if it will grow back. I would watch it for a few days to make sure that it doesn't get any worse.

I don't think that you need to cull him, but if it disgusts too much you might want to cull him. If he is eating and drinking then he should be fine.

If they keep on fighting you might want to get them seperate pens or find new homes for some of them.

Hoped I helped.

CFC