What is wrong with my chick?

[tomato lady]

I have a 3 month old Buff Orpington chick that has an unidentified problem. She was acting like she couldn't walk and had a sore leg. When I picked her up to check out her leg she was holding it funny, but I couldn't see any injury. Then I noticed that her upper beak is way overgrown. Now I am not sure if she is unable to eat right because of her beak and is just weak, or if she does have an injured leg. What do you guys think.

This is my first sick chick and I don't know what to do for her. I did give her some yogart and she ate that like there was no tomorrow. Right now she is snuggled under my coat at the computer with me. My DH would definately not approve of bringing her in the house, but it is going to get real cold out there tonight and she is all fluffed up like she is cold.

Thanks

 

[PeeperKeeper]

If the beak is overgrown severly, it causes problems in being able to pick up food bits. Like with debeaked chickens. They have to have feed in deep pans or wells to be able to pick it up. I had a little one one time and we had to file its beak down about every 2 weeks....until the cat caught it one afternoon. Bad Cat!

 

[feathersnuggles]

I don't know what the leg disease might be. But here's some things I'd do for a start.

Keep her in a warm and draft free place. Start by bolstering her system with 3 drops per day of a complete vitamin, like Polyvisol (WITHOUT IRON). It's the baby vitamins in the grocery or drug store. Dribble the vitamins along her beak, until she eats them or mix them into her food. Provide clean water and soft, easy to eat, high protein food like mashed hard-boiled egg, yogurt, crumbles softened in water. If she is eating those well, you could offer her the usual dry feed, too. Make sure she keeps eating well. Keep a watch on her poo, looking for it to stay normal.

Hope someone else jumps in who knows what the leg problem could be.

 

[tomato lady]

I gave her some strawberry yogart (it was all I had on hand) and she really responded to that, eating several spoons full alnd slurping up the strawberry bits in it. I brought her in the house, hopefully my cat is not a "bad cat". Right now she is warm and dry, very calm, and trying to sleep. She isn't all fluffed up like she is cold any more. I will get some vitimans tomorrow. From her eager response to food I am hopefull.

 

[weaveagarden]

I just checked in to see if there is any news tomato lady. When you have time (and if) take a picture of the overgrown beak. I am curious, and maybe someone can give more detailed info.

Just a thought. Is it possible that she was roughed up by another chicken, or other animal?

 

[tomato lady]

She just ate about half a scrambled egg. I think maybe she got weak from not being able to eat properly. Once she was weak she may have been injured by one or more of the other chicks she shares a coop with. There are 23 in that coop, some a little older than her and some a little younger.

How do you file down a top beak? It is not just overgrown, it is hooked down on the end.

She is in a large plastic tub sitting on my computer desk. She sleeps for a few minutes, then wakes up and eats more.

 

[feathersnuggles]

I used an emery board on my little EE, when I thought she was scissoring her beak because her top beak was very long and curved. So I emery boarded the end of the beak, to try and get it a teeny bit shorter and more in line with the bottom beak.

In the end, it didn't make a difference in the way she scissors with her bottom beak when she eats. And the top beak did grow back. In the end, I probably didn't improve anything with filing her beak. What was better, was that I started a nutritional improvement program for her. My guess was that she wasn't eating as much or as aggressively as the other birds, because her scissoring beak dropped a lot of food that the others grabbed up. So I fed her a protein treat each day, away from the other birds. My plan was to boost her nutrition, until she was strong enough to fend for herself. It took about a month or so of daily feedings. Most days I fed her scrambled or hard boiled egg mashed up. Sometimes with yogurt, sometimes with sunflower seeds, etc. I watched her improve from dropping a lot of food (especially hard stuff like seeds, grains, and pellets) to being very aggressive and fast - getting almost everything with one try. She still scissors a little bit with her beak when she eats. But, she's doing pretty well as she feeds with the flock now. Every couple of days, I still check her crop at night, to make sure it is really plump and full. That's my signal she's still eating well.