My take on frostbite and experience with it.
IMO coating combs and wattles might help prevent frostbite, but there's no guarantee it will prevent it....
...but once they have it, it's best to leave hands off unless they have an obvious infection that would need treatment.
Messing with compromised tissue can just make it worse and actually introduce infection.
Despite copious ventilation, a closed water system, dry bedding technique...I still get some frostbite every year.
Have concluded it's unavoidable in my climate....especially on wattles(girls and boy), they love to nosh on the snow banks, getting their wattles wet in frigid temps.
This guy(Woody-long gone now) healed up just fine with no intervention, tho I did keep a close eye on him for signs of infection.
He lost his comb tips the year before and lost parts of his wattles from the event pictured.
By spring you could hardly tell what had happened.
Initial swelling, lasted 2-3 days.
After swelling went down.
Don't have any way-after pics, but all the black 'fell off' and there was a razor thin scar along front of wattles that you wouldn't even notice unless you knew.
Here's the story of Willies comb frost bite.....in pictures.
Again no 'treatment' except for close watch for infection, which never happened.
Willie has a deformed right wattle from a chickhood injury, his left wattle was frostbit , and healed, prior to the comb bite.
...and he got nailed again in the 2019 polar vortex.
IMO coating combs and wattles might help prevent frostbite, but there's no guarantee it will prevent it....
...but once they have it, it's best to leave hands off unless they have an obvious infection that would need treatment.
Messing with compromised tissue can just make it worse and actually introduce infection.
Despite copious ventilation, a closed water system, dry bedding technique...I still get some frostbite every year.
Have concluded it's unavoidable in my climate....especially on wattles(girls and boy), they love to nosh on the snow banks, getting their wattles wet in frigid temps.
This guy(Woody-long gone now) healed up just fine with no intervention, tho I did keep a close eye on him for signs of infection.
He lost his comb tips the year before and lost parts of his wattles from the event pictured.
By spring you could hardly tell what had happened.
Initial swelling, lasted 2-3 days.
After swelling went down.
Don't have any way-after pics, but all the black 'fell off' and there was a razor thin scar along front of wattles that you wouldn't even notice unless you knew.
Here's the story of Willies comb frost bite.....in pictures.
Again no 'treatment' except for close watch for infection, which never happened.
Willie has a deformed right wattle from a chickhood injury, his left wattle was frostbit , and healed, prior to the comb bite.
...and he got nailed again in the 2019 polar vortex.
