How to prevent frostbite?

[romea]

...

ETA: 20 minutes of searching and skimming I found it-
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/742274/freezer-camp-in-our-minnesota-coop-frozen-wattles-on-roo

OMG! thank you so very much for this!! i trust unearthing this will be helpful to many - so thank you for your time - much appreciated!

with regards to an infection, good ol' polysporin would be my go-to ointment. with regards to swelling in frostbitten tissue, i believe this to be sign of inflammation (which is probably a normal immune response in this case).
while a cat would lick polysporin off in no time, i think i would use it on frostbitten combs & wattles as a preventative measurement. you're not doing anything wrong and an early intervention will most likely reduce healing time should an infection develop. (i am thinking out loud here.)

 

[aart]

Quote: IMO messing with compromised(frostbitten) skin might do more harm than good, best to leave the body take care of it if it can.
There's an anti-septic/anti-biotic called vetrimycin? that alot folks use on chicken and other livestock.
I guess any antibiotic ointment would help in the face of an infection....just avoid anything with 'pain relief', anything with -caine in the mix, as it's highly toxic to birds.

 

[romea]

IMO messing with compromised(frostbitten) skin might do more harm than good, best to leave the body take care of it if it can.
There's an anti-septic/anti-biotic called vetrimycin? that alot folks use on chicken and other livestock.
I guess any antibiotic ointment would help in the face of an infection....just avoid anything with 'pain relief', anything with -caine in the mix, as it's highly toxic to birds.

i have mixed feelings about the chicken chick (insert trademark logo here

) site for various reasons. however, i am adding its topic on frostbite fyi: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/12/frostbit-in-backyard-chickens-causes.html

 

[matt44644]

Mine thermometer doesn't work right,i was trying to funny about it but it didn't work out right.

 

[EagleEyes]

easy answer: Your meter is not working correctly.

 

[aart]

easy answer: Your meter is not working correctly.

@Eagleeyeice ...I assume you were responding to @matt44644 who seems to have deleted his post?

 

[matt44644]

yes

 

[EagleEyes]

Yes I was.
Why did you delete your post? That was a good question.

As an example, which I've done before, here right now, the temp outside is 45 deg, and inside my coop it is 47 deg.
The humidity outside is 89% and inside my coop it is 88%
Rainy and foggy. Horrible December weather!

 

[BayBay Peepers]

I agree with you there. The weather is ugly. And by this evening the rain will turn into snow (so they say) and we'll be hitting the freezing point. Yuck.

 

[Dandelioness]

My hygrometer has been saying 85-90% during this whole thaw. I've been removing a lot of deep litter, opening more vents, and putting down the sweet PDZ. But now that it's below freezing again, the hygrometer says 70%. I am sure the housekeeping helped, though, but it was so wet and yucky for a while there!

I am going to put down some more sweet PDZ and a little more dry litter today. Hopefully, I'll be down in the 60% range soon.