Beak injury, emergency?

Toby my rose-crown has a small crack or something on one side of his beak, right near his cheek, as well as what looks to be a puncture wound on top of the small band of skin that goes over the top of his beak, near his nostrils. He seems fine, and is eating normally. Unfortunately, I lent my camera to a friend this week! Figures. I also can't catch him right now for a closer look.

The fracture or crack itself is very small, and it looks like it is chipped or flaked a bit just around the crack. It doesn't look bad. There is a small amount of what looks like old blood in the crack (not flowing by any means). But i do not know much about beak injury. Is this an emergency? Vet is closed but I might be able to get in later this week if I make a fuss (they are notoriously busy). Will it heal on its own?

What might cause this? Long story short, he did have a bit of a fight with another bird (our fault, but it happened in a moment... Hindsight and all) that is bigger than he is. He looked ok at the time, but I didn't examine him as closely as I should have. Other than that, it could only have happened in his cage, but there is nothing I can see that looks dangerous in there.

Is there anything I can put on it?

To be honest I think a vet check is called for. There can be hair line fractures that can weaken further and cause pain. The larger bird probably bit him pretty good. JMHO.

is he still eating and treating his beak normally i hope. If there was any blood at all, odds are that is extremely painful for him... :/

Yep, still eating with as much gusto as ever. Right in my eggs and toast tonight at dinner, eating seeds and so on.

If i can't get a vet appt within the next couple days, is there anything I can do for him? Like mash up his pellets or put some vaseline on it or something?

Maybe you could call the vet for advice if you cant get an appointment right away, or go to a different vet? hope this helped and good luck !

Attached is a link which I am sure you will find most helpful
Hopefully you have already taken the bird to the vet.
Please keep us updated

How to Treat Broken and Cracked Bird Beaks - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

antoinette said:

Attached is a link which I am sure you will find most helpful
Hopefully you have already taken the bird to the vet.
Please keep us updated

How to Treat Broken and Cracked Bird Beaks - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Click to expand...

Thanks! I had already read that one

I spoke to the vet and they can't get me in this week, and she spoke frankly and said she didn't think it was necessary if he's not showing any pain, if there is no bleeding, and he is still eating and moving around as usual (which he is - the little bugger was chewing on the shower head again this morning).

I could still bring him in but she doesn't think that there was much they could do about it other than let it heal/grow out on its own, and just to keep an eye on it.

Even if he's not in any pain now, without getting the crack taken care of, if he would bite something hard like a wood block on a toy or a hard nut, it could crack his beak more which would cause a lot of pain and possibly make it harder to correct. I would try and keep him from chewing on anything really hard until you can get him in to be looked at. It's going to be a lot easier to take care of now, less painful for him and less expensive for you, than if he would do any more damage to it that would make it worse, like actually breaking a part of his beak off. Wishing you the best of luck.

IcyWolf said:

Even if he's not in any pain now, without getting the crack taken care of, if he would bite something hard like a wood block on a toy or a hard nut, it could crack his beak more which would cause a lot of pain and possibly make it harder to correct. I would try and keep him from chewing on anything really hard until you can get him in to be looked at. It's going to be a lot easier to take care of now, less painful for him and less expensive for you, than if he would do any more damage to it that would make it worse, like actually breaking a part of his beak off. Wishing you the best of luck.

Click to expand...

I agree with this. If you have 'soft' toys, then use those in the meantime if he needs to chew. Keep a close eye on it regardless though; otherwise call up another vet and get a second opinion. Is yours just a vet, or are they an avian vet?

Alisana said:

IcyWolf said:

Even if he's not in any pain now, without getting the crack taken care of, if he would bite something hard like a wood block on a toy or a hard nut, it could crack his beak more which would cause a lot of pain and possibly make it harder to correct. I would try and keep him from chewing on anything really hard until you can get him in to be looked at. It's going to be a lot easier to take care of now, less painful for him and less expensive for you, than if he would do any more damage to it that would make it worse, like actually breaking a part of his beak off. Wishing you the best of luck.

Click to expand...

I agree with this. If you have 'soft' toys, then use those in the meantime if he needs to chew. Keep a close eye on it regardless though; otherwise call up another vet and get a second opinion. Is yours just a vet, or are they an avian vet?

Click to expand...

Good idea on soft toys! She is an avian vet, but I have never been to her myself.

Hey hey guys, I just wanted to update you on Toby's beak. I did not bring him to the vet or treat the beak in any way. I wish I had taken a photo at the time to illustrate the relative mildness of the crack. The only thing I did was remove hard toys from the cage and avoided giving him anything hard to snack on, although he still did chew on some hard stuff.

It grew out fully with no lasting warps or bumps or anything, and his beak is back to normal.

Not saying that all beak cracks should be left to heal on their own but in this case - no apparent pain or bleeding, and a small crack - it did fine on its own.

Thank you for the update. glad it healed up with no permenant damage.

Unfortunately I had a situation like this and I went to six avian vets and not a single one could help. I had to sit back and let nature take its course. But the crack never split. I didn't have to do anything special. I did start adding red palm oil from healx to help though.