by Kathy Shea Mormino, The Chicken Chick
1.Spraddle Leg/Splayed Leg
2. Scissor Beak/Cross Beak
3. Egg-binding
4. Prolapsed Vent/Prolapse Vent/Blow-out/Pick-out
5. Egg-Eating
1 Damerow, Gail (1994). The Chicken Health Handbook. page 53: Storey Publishing.
2 Anatomical illustrations and photo reproduced for educational purposes, courtesy of Jacquie Jacob, Tony Pescatore and Austin Cantor, University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. Copyright 2011. Educational programs of Kentucky Cooperative Extension serve all people regardless of race, color, age, sex, religion, disability, or national origin. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, M. Scott Smith, Director, Land Grant Programs, University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Lexington, and Kentucky State University, Frankfort. Copyright 2011 for materials developed by University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension. This publication may be reproduced in portions or its entirety for educational and nonprofit purposes only. Permitted users shall give credit to the author(s) and include this copyright notice. Publications are also available on the World Wide Web at www.ca.uky.edu. Issued 02-2011
96 Comments
I don’t know if anyone else has said this yet, but it needs to be said.
DO NOT BREED FROM ANY BIRD WITH ANY OF THESE PROBLEMS!
Sorry about the yelling, but culling for health problems prevents that birds poor genetics from being perpetuated. If you choose not to cull then it becomes your responsibility to prevent breeding. Keep good records, if they have a health problem where they would have died without aid, then don’t keep the weak genes in the flock.
Have you ever had a wry neck bird? We got our first flock of 115 birds 4 weeks ago, and we noticed day 2 that we had one with a bent neck. We gave him extra vitamin drops and did some physical therapy, but it is no better. He is clumsy, but growing at the same rate as the other chicks. I put a message on a couple of Facebook groups, and all but one person said to cull the chick. I hope he’s not in pain, but he seems to be healthy otherwise… just special needs.
Thanks,
Karyn
This comment has been removed by the author.
Great information as always!
Such a great blog. Thank you! Love the Egg Skelter too!!!
Egg bound scares me tremendously…but then again so did prolapsed vent and I made it through that one.
Thankfully I’ve never had to deal with any of these issues, yet. Near egg bound hen a couple of times, but she passed the egg (had me worried though). <3
Love the articles.
Great info! Thanks!
I love your blogs and info Kathy. Bill Bubba Jewett.
Love this! I am always taking other peoples ‘problem’ animals. I just can’t see culling them for something that can be fixed or dealt with. Thank you once again for your awesome information!
Great article! I have a hard time thinking about culling any of my girls, but I suppose it could happen at some point – GULP!
Love getting all the info you provide! Thank you!
Thanks for your dedication to helping everyone with all your chicken knowledge!
We’ve had to deal with a few of those issues. Thanks for the info!
Love your blog! Love all the information.
I agree with pretty much all of what you said in your article. It was well written and a pleasure to read. Also thanks for the giveaway!
I cant thank you enough for your information on scissor beak. All of the information was awesome. I love my chickens and feel better knowing that these problems are managable most of the time. It has been a pleasure to follow your posts and blog.
I have a seven month old Buff Orpington that is blind. She took quite a bit of work when she was a chick, but now takes just a few extra minutes a day to care for. She is a love and I am glad that we spent the effort to save her.
Very helpful information. Thankfully I have not had to deal with any of these problems yet but I’m sure I’ll come across one of them in the years to come.
Miller Family Poultry in Indiana greatly appreciates your articles and blogs. The time you put forth in helping with poultry info is appreciated. Thank you!
Thanks for all the info!
I don’t know that I would be able to cull a chicken.I am glad that I haven’t had to make that decision. I would love an egg skelter. I think the kids would think it was fun!
I am interested in have a couple of layer hens, no roosters as pets and egg providers for my use.
My father grew up with Bantams but I heard eggs quite small, I use large eggs for my cooking.
I would like to learn more about layer chickens.
I have a space under my sun room can put for winter and once a large item sold in shed can put them out there for rest of year except winter or when first snow comes. I have had pin quail, cute little ones. How are they for transport, travel with other pets?
Great article-thank you! I love that Egg Skelter, by the way! 🙂
Wow! What wonderful information, I just hope I don’t have to use it. Thanks for keeping us informed.
this would show off our beautiful brown eggs i just love chickens
Since my last night post GeeNovember 13, 2012 8:22 PM account of Brownie our tough hen. Tonight I am sad to say when my daughter was locking up our coop found her attacked in the back of our run. Not sure what got her there was no break in the chicken wire fence? Could the other hens have turned on her?
Great Blog…learning so much
I am new to this and wanted to leave a comment for the giveaway. I love reading your blog because you give so much info and help many. Thankyou.
One of my favorite roosters was born with a crossed beak. Some of our most special moments have been when I take him in my lap and trim it down, and he’s done very well with that. A few months ago, he became blind and I feared we’d have to put him down, but he’s learned where his food and water are and his girls look out for him! We still have our special moments, of course, and the girls watch me carefully to make sure I don’t hurt him. When he returns to them, they check him over and “forgive” me! 🙂
You have so much wonderful information. I’m a newbie with chickens and this comes in very handy. The egg skelter looks pretty cool, would love to try it. Thanks for all you do.
I have a scissor beak hen. She holds her own pretty good!
Our girls have eaten a few eggs but its usually a sign that they are bored o missing something nutrient wise. It’s such an easy fix. No need to cull!
I only have 6 hens but look forward to your tips on caring for them. They are healthy, happy and sassy. The Egg Skelter would really show off the pretty Easter eggs.
We have had a girl with crossbeak for three years now. It is a lot of work and dictates what kind of feed the others are offered, but she does just fine! Just some extra work and she lays like a champ!
great info here, Have learned a lot already. Will be using some of this stuff to help my flocks from now on.
Thanks
Carolyn
notavailablecj@yahoo.com
I subscribed to your blog. Very informative post, by the way. We had a little cross beak Americana chick this spring. I followed all the suggestions I could find, but her beak kept getting worse every week. Poor little thing didn’t make it. I just don’t have the heart to put them down unless I know they cannot make it. I will be pinning this post for future reference! Thank you!
Thank you for this. Fortunately the internet has livened up the information for chicken keepers. All the books have “cull” as a treatment for treatable conditions. Having a chicken who just had a prolapse last week (thanks for the info on how to help her btw!) I am thankful for information on how to keep her around. She has since laid again and seems perfectly fine.
Just found this blog and I love it! Thank you for all the great information and the chance at the egg skelter!
Following your blog… My friend brought her last two chickens, Bertha and Trudy, earlier this year. Bertha survived a dog attack but she was severely limping. They were the last two out of 30. Dogs got all the rest of them. After 4 months at my house with 47 other chickens, she is in almost perfect health. Her leg has completely healed and it is only occasionally visible that she has a slight limp. I had to beg my friend to bring them to me, she had Bertha locked in a cage and now I know that she needed the exercise of walking and running around to have her leg heal.
Nice giveaway, I’ve been eyeballing the Egg Skelter, contemplating to ask for it for Christmas.
Thank you so much for an article like this. I’m a new chicken mama, and have worried about these situations. thanks!
We have 9 hens and a roster and have had only one almost culling experience when a raccoon broke in to the chicken run. The roster was making a commotion it was 2 am and knew there was something wrong. I ran out with a flashlight and found feathers all over the ground and the coop door was down. Shined the light around the run and saw two bedeviled eyes looking back. Brownie my daughter’s favorite was down on the ground with a raccoon pinning her down. Grabbed a broom and ran over and smacked that raccoon off its feet and it ran under the coop. Shut the coop door, picked up Brownie an put her in a cardboard box bleeding from feathers pulled out and claw marks. Ran to the house to take care of the menace and by the time I got back he was gone. Lucky for him he found his way back out.
Brownie was lifeless and bleeding. I grabbed an old kitchen towel and picked her up when she started flinching. Wrapped her up to keep her warm and just held her for about an hour. Her eyes opened and I cleaned her wounds with some hydrogen-peroxide bundled her up in a clean towel and put her on some straw in a clean dog-create. She did not move much that next day. I gave her some water with an eye dropper she started to sit-up but her neck was bent over, her head on the ground. After two days of just water she stood up but her neck and head hung down. Thought for sure she was not going to make-it through the day until she laid an egg to let us know she will be OK. Then she started eating and walking, but in small circles with her head hanging down. After about a week she was walking forward but at a angle bumping into things because her head hung over to one side and could not keep it up. It took about a month before she got back to normal with head held high and re-introduced her back to the flock. Brownie was AOK and started laying eggs again about two weeks latter. Thought for sure she would have to be culled a couple of times but found her to be a tough gal, more then we ever thought!
I am so glad I found this site AND your blog.
Thanks!
I had a chicken with prolapsed vent and was ready to give up on her. I found your blog and read about it and followed your directions and she recovered fine. Thanks for all your info !!!
Love your blog! I’m a new subscriber of your RSS feed.
Gingeeoo616 at AOL dot com
I really liked your egg eating suggestions, some i had heard before but not all. I will try some of those that are new to me.
I have been blessed with very few problems with my backyard flock of 7. Love the information you post and the obvious love you have for chickens. My coworkers think I am crazy because I spoil my girls so much but I feel they have really added and interesting aspect to my life. Their very different little personalities make it a lot of fun to watch and interact with them. Keep up the great work!
The Spraddle leg chick is so darling. Glad it pulled through! My three ladies are pets, not livestock. The local exotic vet takes care of chickens if any of my ladies get sick. Crossing my fingers they never do. (And I would be so happy to get an Egg Skelter!!)
I Love your blog! And your contests too!
We haven’t experienced any of these yet (Thank god!)You always give such great information. Love your site, and your blog, and facebook page! I hope to win the wonderful Egg Skelter!
I heard of spraddle legs before but I have only seen it in hens who were genetically altered to gain extreme amounts of weight in short periods, such as “broiler hens” so your video took me by surprise. We have not had a chick with this condition..yet and hopefully do not but if we do I am thankful for your video and blog. I also consider these dear chickens as beloved pets and spend most of my day with them. I would not consider culling (killing) a chicken unless they were severely injured beyond repair such as being run over by a car and still alive. If culling is to be done the bird should be given an anesthetic and put to sleep just as one would do for a pet dog or cat. Thanks for sharing.
I am preparing to get chickens for our family and I have learned SO much from your blog! It’s fantastic!
I also subscribe to your blog via email and love it!
I love my little scissor beak chick, she’s a fighter. Takes a little extra TLC, but she has caught up in size with her sisters. Love all your wonderful info!
thanks for all the info
I love the info you provide. I do all I can to save any bird I have from whatever is ailing it. We keep a first aid bucket on hand and it makes life easier. I have stitched up chickens and kept them isolated until well again. I just hate to have to put one down, makes me bawl like a big baby. It would be fun to have an egg skelter to display our blue and white eggs!
The Spraddle Leg video is so cute. Sad that it happened, but so nice to see a working fix!
I’m lovin your blog .. I just started raising chickens and they are laying now =) I think this egg collector would look awesome in my farm kitchen .
Love the information I get from your articles.
Great information! I look forward to reading more in my email. It would be awesome to win the egg skelter!!!
Industrial farmers don’t have the time to put the care and attention necessary to “fix” these problems but small scale chicken owners are much more likely to take on the labors of love!
Thank you for making this information available to us!
Great Article. You always have good advice.
Nice article that I will stash away for the future… haven’t had anything like this come up yet with the chickens, but it’s probably just a matter of time…
Thanks for the info!
Matt Jarvis
Eugene, Oregon
Thanks for another great article. Sign me up for the giveaway please.I just recently discovered the egg skelter, egg-cellent timing with the giveaway. fingers crossed
This article was helpful. Our crossed-beak chicken had a great personality and managed despite her disability. She would scoop food up to eat it, and came running when she knew we had something for her to eat. We trimmed her beak occasionally as needed, and she persevered.
Out of a group of ducklings I’d hatched to sell, there was one with an obvious birth deformity — head tilted far to one side, off-balance, and circling endlessly in direction of tilt instead of moving in a straight line. No way could I sell her, so I kept her. She was the happiest, most interactive and interesting duck, a good egg layer, and had a happy life for 13 years.
A very helpful list of common problems. I have experienced just one of these so far: eggbinding in a young Dominique pullet. It was touch and go for a couple of days. I tried the warm bath with epsom salts, but didn’t use enough water. I also gave her olive oil by mouth, er beak, though I think I got as much of it on the outside of us both than inside her. By the end of the second day, I was desperate, so I tried giving her epsom salts in water, and that did the trick. She passed two eggs, one broken and one with no shell and immediately began acting normally. She has continued to be a good layer, though she tends to lay thin-shelled eggs and the occasional shell-less egg. If I had a rooster I would definitely not breed her, but since she is in a flock of only hens, I have kept her. I probably ‘should’ give her away or ‘cull’ her, but she is such a character, I haven’t been able to face doing her in.
Love your blog, and hope to win the wonderful Egg Skelter!
Good article.
Great article again Kathy, I too have a crossed beak chick, and she does just fine thank you- she see’s me coming and will hop up on my arm while I scoop feed in her deep bowl. She is smaller, and will probably never be a egg producer,but that’s ok,Lucy is still a viable member of the flock family
Thank you for your blogging!! It has helped me so much since I am newbie chicken lady!! I have really learned a lot from your site – thanks again!!
Love the Egg Skelter, great idea!
So…the only treatment for crossbeak is to allow the chicken to teach herself to adapt? urgh. Don’t have one (yet), but this is worrisome. I love the clip of the chick in braces….you should send that to a human handicap advocate. It would make a good presentation piece with a talk on how disabilities are all oer the place.
Today was my girl’s first peek at snow, how comical to watch them come out of the coop!!
I just now discovered your blog and am learning so much. I’m just a beginner at this, so I’m soaking it all up. Thank you!
When I have a bird that I don’t want to use in breeding I give it to someone looking for a friendly pet chicken. I currently have a hospital cage set up in my garage where I’m treating a rooster for bumblefoot. He’s been there for over a month, receiving daily care.(A hospital cage is a fancy way to say a dog crate in the garage.) I’ve had chickens for a 2 1/2 years now and have experience 4 out of the five of the above.
Thank you for addressing these problems. I have encountered a couple of them and I wish I had seen this earlier. 🙁 Now I know other things to try.
Nice blog I’m entering for the contest again.
Ron Engel Jr
Thank you for sharing info on backyard chickens. Do you have any suggestions for aging chickens? We could never kill (cull) and eat any of our flock, but I’m wondering how long hens live and if there’s any special care for older birds.
I dont have any issues with beak problems Thank The Good Lord– I would be very happy to win the Egg Skelter, I now just leave them on the counter on a paper towel 🙂
You have the best advice and the best chicken pictures! I love your posts on Facebook too! I am your Nebraska Fan! Go Huskers!
I don’t have a URL or an account with any of those options listed so I hope I can still qualify for the contest my email is aemelia _ eq @ yahoo . com (just take out the spaces).
I have a golden silkie with scissor beak. It hasn’t stopped my sweet Clementine for a second. She does great, and is one of my friendliest hens. Even after 8 years, she is still laying every now and then!
They are family members to us and that was reassured to us by how hard we took the loss of our Annie last week.
Couldn’t cull a chicken unless it was in pain and there was no way to relieve that. Thanks for the information!
Great article, I hope to win the contest this time
My crossed beaked chick was missed by the breeder when my 15 wee sent as chicks–and THANK GOODNESS!!! We love her dearly and she does fine eatng out of a deep bowl!!! She is a dear family pet!
Thanks again for all the fun contests
Nice article…we have a buff orpington that has the scissor beak problem. We feed her wet food and she is doing ok. She comes running when she sees us because she knows she is getting her special dinner. I doubt if she will ever lay an egg…but she is sweet enough to pamper anyway.
In all my years with various breeds of chickens and exotic pheasants, I’ve rarely culled anyone, especially not for simple physical abnormalities. I once captured a stray pigeon who had broken her leg, reset it, and she went on to lead a normal, healthy life. All it takes is a little attention. In fact, if placed in a ‘hospital cage’ for a few days, you may end up with a bird that is even more affectionate, laugh.
Enter me for the giveaway! I am also following your blog! I have not had any of these issues yet with my chickens, thank goodness. My biggest issue is dealing with racoons. Recently lost a girl to an attack=(. So sad.
One of my hens broke her top beak (not sure how)…it’s healed but she now has a severe under bite. She has a hard time picking up thing, but can scoop up grain from the feeder and peck at soft things and tear leaves/grass, so I haven’t done anything. Thought about trimming the bottom beak to even things up, but since it has a “scoop” end, I think I should leave well enough alone.
Thank you for this article. Our chickens are members of our family and culling them is a last resort.
your spraddle-legged baby video had me cheering like never before!
It’s always tough to draw the line between pets and livestock when it comes to members of small flocks.
I raised a crossed beak chicken. She was like the photo above. She couldn’t eat out of the feeder so I purchased a corner feeder for rabbits and screwed it in the corner of the coop. I kept her beak trimmed and she grew to a fine egg producing hen. She was so tame. She would see me coming in the afternoon and would fly up and sit on my shoulder. I would hand feed her treats as she couldn’t pick them up off the ground. I researched the condition and knew not to breed her. I just couldn’t bring myself to cull her so we adapted and over came her limitations.
I would definitely not be able to cull one of my chickens unless she was suffering and it was an absolute necessity. Thank you for posting such great ideas on how to help and prevent some of their common problems.
As long as the chickens with these problems aren’t reproducing hens, then these issues aren’t a big deal and I’m all for keeping beloved pets around. However, many of these problems have a hereditary basis don’t they? Please stress that fixing these issues shouldn’t be in order to have that beloved pet produce more just like her. Otherwise I’m on the same page on this. Thanks.
I had a keet with spraddle leg and found it was a very easy fix. After only 2 days of bracing the legs, the keet was walking like normal and is just fine today!