frozen feet? please help

[alexline]

I'm sorry you for your rooster. It all depends on how bad it is. I have a chicken that froze her toes and they fell off at the first joint. She is doing just fine now.

Where does the black start on your rooster's feet or leg?

BTW,

one foot is ALL black/froze and the other, the toes are over half black thanks! and thanks for replying you 2

 

[alexline]

I'm sorry you for your rooster. It all depends on how bad it is. I have a chicken that froze her toes and they fell off at the first joint. She is doing just fine now.

Where does the black start on your rooster's feet or leg?

BTW,

The one foot that is all black is all dried up because it was too cold to decay. Do you still think it will fall off?

 

[what did I do]

one foot is ALL black/froze and the other, the toes are over half black thanks! and thanks for replying you 2

The black part will fall off. It is just a matter of time. The tough part is to decide if you want the rooster to walk/ hop around on one foot with only part of his toes on the only remaining foot. The rooster might not be able to cover a chicken with only one foot. If you are just keeping him as a pet in your backyard, well, he might do ok. He won't be able to travel very far on one foot. If he looks healthy in all other ways and you want to keep him, give it a shot. If you don't want to care for him it would be best to put him down. My chicken who lost her toes last winter is doing just fine but she only lost part of all of her toes on both feet. She did stay in the coop for months on soft clean bedding. Chickens are tough birds but this is a tough call. only you know what the conditions in your area are and if the rooster will have a nice life. If it were me and I wasn't ready to give him up yet, I'd just wait it out. You can always put him down but you can't bring him back.

 

[1 Happy Hen]

My heart goes out to you all that are going through this. I had this happen to one of my cockrels about 3 months ago. Somehow he managed to get stuck upside down hanging by 1 foot in the coop (we have since made corrections to the coop to prevent this from happening again). It must have happened during the night, because when my oldest daughter found him both of his legs were frozen solid. She brought him inside and we warmed his legs. He was in shock and I thought it would be best to put him down, but my son wanted to give him a chance.
Days went by and he seemed to be healing well.His feet were swollen and black, but was walking good. 2 weeks after being frozen I decided to put him in a brooder with chicks that were about 1 month old. He was doing very well. Then after about month in the brooder his toes started to fall off. All of the skin and scales on his legs fell off. He was having a hard time walking and his legs and feet began to swell alot more. I decided to cull that day. I honestly wish I would have done it immediately after finding him frozen because he went through alot of pain and it was absolutely unnecessary.
I believe every sick animal deserves to get a chance at getting better, but some things are incurable no matter how much love and care you put in to them.
Good luck to you all. May you find peace in any decision that you make.

 

[alexline]

thanks guys for the advise I'll see what i can do. this rooster actually breaded a hen with the dead feet i'm incubating the eggs that was from from this hen and rooster! and they are developing

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Unfortunately it doesn't sound too good for the feet. Have they stayed swollen or are they sort of shrunk and skinnier like some of the pics on this thread? If you have a picture sometimes we can tell better too. Roosters/chickens go to a special place with their pain--all the same it's impossible to put ourselves in their feathers so to speak. But if the tissue is black it is dead usually and non-functioning. Eventually the body can become infected or the black may even break off or expose bones. Infection though is the greatest enemy. Poor birds this winter. It's been horrid for this sort of stuff.

 

[alexline]

Unfortunately it doesn't sound too good for the feet. Have they stayed swollen or are they sort of shrunk and skinnier like some of the pics on this thread? If you have a picture sometimes we can tell better too. Roosters/chickens go to a special place with their pain--all the same it's impossible to put ourselves in their feathers so to speak. But if the tissue is black it is dead usually and non-functioning. Eventually the body can become infected or the black may even break off or expose bones. Infection though is the greatest enemy. Poor birds this winter. It's been horrid for this sort of stuff.

I'll try to get a pic in a few days I'm new at this so I'm still trying to figure everything out still but it looks about as bad as that recent thread .... like the 2 pics, 1 with the chicken and the feet, the other one was just with the feet... and they were very black.... if you know what I'm talking about then you'll see almost how bad my rooster's feet are. except one of my roosters foot has just a part of his toes. but I'll get a pic soon.

 

[Chesterchook]

just wondering if any of the earlier posters with frostbitten chicken feet could comment on their birds' recovery, if any.

 

[P-Funk]

Sorry if this was mentioned already, but your roost is probably the culprit. If you are using 2x4's place them flat side up. This way when the birds are perched on them they can sit on their feet, thus preventing freezing.

 

[dogbitesandbeestings]

I have a two month old polish on my lap right now....thawing her feet. I found her in the coop this afternoon not moving. When I picked her up I found her feet frozen...unbending. Wrapped her in a reel and have her thawing on my lap. After about twenty minutes her toes started bending. I will keep her inside in a crate until thus cold spell breaks.

Good luck...let us know how your hen does.