Possible frost bite on Comb Bleeding now

Does anybody possibly have a picture of what frost bite looks like on a roosters comb. Roughly a week ago it looked like my rooster "shaggy" had what seemed to be frost bite on his comb. What surprised me was it was almost a straight line just barely into the main part from the tips. It was all the way across and looked like burnt oil. After doing some research on here I convinced my self that it was frost bite and best I recall from that didn't seem there was much I could do at that point other than wait and see. It seemed as thought it was healing and wasn't bothering him so I didn't think much of it. Woke up this morning and it is no longer black but is bleeding fairly bad. Managed to get some corn starch on it and am hoping it will stop but had to leave for work. Plans forward will be to plan on pulling him off the roost tonight when he is calmed down try to doctor it more and separate him. Unfortunately I don't have any before pictures of what it looked like but hopefully I can get the after pictures to load. Does anybody have 1.) Any idea what it could be if not frost bite and 2.) Any other thoughts on treatment or what I should look for. He is the only rooster I have and is in the coop with 2 hens that were raised with him and another hen that has been with them for the past 2-3 months. There doesn't seem to be any fighting so I don't think that's the cause. I would have to check my hatch records but I think he is one of the chicks I hatched out from the Easter Hatch Along 2 years ago. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I'm new to chickens since last spring but I'm from WI and we did get some frostbite when it was -30(with wind chill) despite doing everything we could. I can't speak to if it is frost bite but I would suggest applying blue kote to it and keeping an eye on it. I have heard frostbite can bleed but non of our birds did. Hope this helps.

chickendreams24 said:

I'm new to chickens since last spring but I'm from WI and we did get some frostbite when it was -30(with wind chill) despite doing everything we could. I can't speak to if it is frost bite but I would suggest applying blue kote to it and keeping an eye on it. I have heard frostbite can bleed but non of our birds did. Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice on blue kote. I think I have some. I will plan on trying that when I get home and see how it goes.

Put some vaseline on his comb..keeps it from getting frostbite.

Vaseline at this point. I saw that but thought it was more for prevention than treatment. If now would I put it on before or after blu kote? Or just Vaseline?

This a stag with frostbite stag / cockerel suffered three years ago. All points and about half of wattles lost. He no longer suffers frostbite even when temperature in the -10's F even with lots of wind.




OP, the frostbite your bird has is very mild and does not appear to cause a loss of points. Frost bite that is damaging usually has a light band between the darkened / dead tissue and the healthy red tissue.

centrarchid said:

This a stag with frostbite stag / cockerel suffered three years ago. All points and about half of wattles lost. He no longer suffers frostbite even when temperature in the -10's F even with lots of wind.

OP, the frostbite your bird has is very mild and does not appear to cause a loss of points. Frost bite that is damaging usually has a light band between the darkened / dead tissue and the healthy red tissue.

Click to expand...

This is what his looked like until this morning. almost all of the discoloration was gone and it was back to red. When I looked at it closer it was bleeding. wattles are fine though. Wife just told me she found some red kote at the house but no blue kote. Need to look up the difference and see if I can use it. If need be I can swing by tractor supply in the morning and grab blue kote. Beautiful bird centrarchid

When points turn purple for only short time the frostbite is minor but body will salvage damage tissues. The temporary purple color I think is due to bruising caused some freezing of the tissue. In addition to the modest bleeding you also likely see some swelling of the affected tissue and it will feel warm. Dead tissue will feel cold even when ambient temperatures warm up.


I do not treat the frostbite. Feet would be a different matter.

centrarchid said:

When points turn purple for only short time the frostbite is minor but body will salvage damage tissues. The temporary purple color I think is due to bruising caused some freezing of the tissue. In addition to the modest bleeding you also likely see some swelling of the affected tissue and it will feel warm. Dead tissue will feel cold even when ambient temperatures warm up.


I do not treat the frostbite. Feet would be a different matter.

Click to expand...

So no treatment at all for now? feet are fine.

The damage he has so far is not life threatening and probably will not even effect his well being at all. The treatment itself unless he is used to being handled with the comb ans wattles manipulated with be stressful. Generally with frostbite the emphasis needs to be on the prevention.