I took these photos of Festus today. The tips of his comb are hard & dry.
His comb has flopped to one side.
After much research & looking at photos of what some call frostbite or frostburn. I started treating his comb & wattles with neosporin. I read that the black areas will dry & fall off. I also read that I could cut the black areas off. Called dubbing on a chicken advice site. I am not sure I can do that to Festus. For now I have applied the neosporin to his comb & wattles in hopes they will not become infected. I read to prevent this to apply petroleum jelly to all the chickens wattles & combs. So I will be doing this. I checked the chicken coop just to be sure there was plenty of soft shavings. There was a least five inches of shavings but I added another two inches of fresh shavings before I gathered the flock to put them back in & feed them today after there roaming time about the homestead. The egg laying increased today. We had a very mild day today making it nice for the flock to wonder about & scratch while I checked all the creatures homes for bedding & cleaning needs.
Blessings til Next Time!
Lara
Poor guy... I tried to leave a comment yesterday, but blogger wouldn't let me into that area. You are definitely right. It is frost bite. If it makes you feel better, I have seen worse cases. The bad parts will fall off. Some times the wattles and combs grow back... and sometimes not. We've noticed that the redder the waddle, the more they are suseptable to frostbite.
ReplyDeleteThe chicken coop will stay warmer if you remove the droppings but let the spent shavings in for the base. (We stop doing deep cleaning of the coop once the weather turns wintry cold.) We have a pretty big coop with about a 6 inch base of old chips. They will get ground up and dense and be a good insulator from the frigid temps. We will do the big clean in the spring. Just add some fresh clean chips to the top for them to walk on. Good Luck!
Aww, poor Festus. He does remind me of the Festus on "Gunsmoke". I'm sure he'll be all right especially with your TLC.
ReplyDeleteHugs~Carol
Poor ole Festus - Hope he heals quickly!
ReplyDeletePoor Festus!It is awful to have this happen but sometimes it just does no matter how we try to prevent it.I have had little goats to get frostbite on their ears tips and loose them.Big hugs to you and Festus!Blessings,Jen
ReplyDeletePoor little guy, hope he looks better soon!
ReplyDeleteWhat I want to see is the capture of the things and the applications...ha...ha... is it hard and dangerous? Sorry to hear about the poor things but I am glad you know what it is now. -Steph-
ReplyDeletePoor boy, I hope you are able to help him!
ReplyDeleteAbout the slaw cutter... maybe they are all hinged?? Maybe all the ones I've picked up and looked at over the years has just been rusted shut or something? I don't know, lol. Anyway... I tend to find out... somehow, someway. =] Thanks for stopping by my blog Lara. Have a great weekend~
I live in Wyoming where it can get to -10 and below in the day time for weeks. My coop is on a timed two light system. The clear light stays on from 4 a.m to 9 p.m and when the clear shuts off a red one kicks on. I have 7 breeds adding up to close to 90 birds. None of the have black on there combs but 3 of my leghorn roosters. My white leghorn was so lathogic to day I took him in to the house where he's seems to be doing better. I don't think at -0 there is much you can do but keep the doors shut and don't let them out side when the temps are below 20 above out side.
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