young hen with weird beak

[mulevaline]

I have a young hen with a beak that "crosses over", the top beak goes one way, the bottom another way. Is this a big deal or not? She appears otherwise healthy. Will she be able to feed enough? She seems to have trouble picking up scratch. I feed her treats away from the other chickens so she can take her time.

 

[jessica117]

Here is another post with a lot of info about cross-beaks. I have a 6 month old pullet with the same thing. I just had to make sure that she had extra time to eat and gave her a deeper dish so it was easier to scoop it up. Hope this helps!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=44060

 

[hooligan]

She will be fine, but she does need crumbles to eat and a deep dish of them. I had a cross beak to and she was my favorie girl and became my first house chicken

 

[ChickadeeLover]

A few things you can to help fix the beak are,

Penetran which is a cream, that will help relax the ligaments in the face ( click here http://www.penetran.com/ and type in your zip code in the "find a store near you" thing. I found it at several places. It costs about $15 or less.)

Push her beak back into place you can even use rubber band around for a few minutes (make sure she is by herself) or at least hold in place for as long as you can. I put the penetran on twice a day. I have noticed a little improvement over the past day!

Polyvisal enfamil (a kids A-B-C-D vitamin you get 3 drops a day for a week then taper off (this will help her keep strong)

Cell salts; cal-phos. you put it in the water and it will help her grow normally.
You can also trim it to help them eat, I have not done this yet but I probably will try it soon.
Good luck! let me know if you need anymore info.