Is this extreme frostbite or fowl cholera?

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SIMZ

SIMZ

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We've had unusually cold weather this week. Tuesday night, when we were closing up the chickens, we noticed our rooster had iced feathers on his chest. It looked like he had gotten wet from his wattles while drinking. We brought him in the garage and placed a heat lamp on him to keep him above freezing temps. We also noticed his wattles were pale and frostbitten, with a bit of swelling at the bottom of one.

The next morning we discovered his wattles and chin were completely swollen, and he wouldn't/couldn't eat or drink.

Here is a photo I found from a previous thread on BYC that looks just like him:



It's horrible and he has to be in terrible pain. Yesterday, we had him under a heat lamp all day, and had to give him electrolyte water with a syringe, along with some runny yogurt. There is no improvement today, although he's still crowing. He hasn't had & still doesn't have respiratory symptoms.

Questions:
Is this frostbite?

If this is cholera and he recovers he will be a carrier that infects our other chickens, correct? In that case, it would be better to cull him. I don't want to see him suffer any longer if that's the case.

We're planning on starting Duramycin-10 in water with his syringe this morning. Is that the best thing is this is simply a secondary frostbite infection?

Has anyone seen this in their chicken and had them recover? Again, is he's just going to suffer and then die, I'd rather put him out of his misery now.

Thank you for any help you give us. We are heartbroken to see him like this and not know what to do. Our other rooster has been frostbitten, but we've never seen anything like this.
 
I seriously doubt it's fowl cholera. He wouldnt be crowing if it was fowl cholera. I dont recommend duramycin, that's normally used for respiratory problems. I've never dealt with frostbite; living in southeast Georgia and northeast Florida. You could give him aspirin for pain management.
Here's a link for you with an aspirin solution:
http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/solutions.html
 
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I was just reading a thread about dosing Tylan 50 and they said to ask "Dawg53" because you were very knowledgeable.

Do you think I should try giving him some of that or just keep giving him liquids and keeping him warm?
 
Tylan 50 is geared toward respiratory diseases much like duramycin. I dont believe you should give antibiotics if they're not needed. If the tissue were to become necrotic, penicillin injections might be best. The best you can do is wait and see. Continue support as far as keeping him warm, provide the basics ie...food and water and just keep an eye on him. Aspirin may help with pain as I mentioned.
 
Ok! Thank you so much. We'll give him aspirin and continue what we're doing.

Thanks again!
 
Here is what fowl cholera looks like.

Depression, coughing, loss of appetite, lameness, ruffled feathers, swollen joints, diarrhea, are also signs of fowl cholera. Are there any more symptoms?

I think it is frostbite. The comb and wattles are only affected at the tips or edges. The damaged area is black, not blue. In fowl cholera the whole comb is swollen.
Some more symptoms of fowl cholera: Listlessness, coughing, loss of appetite, lameness, ruffled feathers, swollen joints, diarrhea. Are there any more symptoms?

If you live in a cold area, have a straight comb breed of chicken, and you wish to raise early chickens, consider dubbing your roosters.
Although your rooster's case appears minor, roosters often become infertile until after the frostbitten comb heals.
Prevention is worth a pound.... make that a ton of cure. What ever you do, don't put oil or Vaseline on his head. That only increases heat loss between the comb and the atmosphere.
 
I have always heard to put Vaseline on combs and wattles, but then I read not to. So, I didn't do anything, and have beating myself up because of this. I do realize that a few stupid things I did most likely made this worse -- feeding them oatmeal & yogurt on the super cold mornings, and giving them a fresh BOWL of electrolyte water to make sure they were drinking enough. It's too bad this poor guy has to pay for my stupid mistakes.

Our other rooster is also inside to avoid something like this from happening to him, too. We are definitely going to be dubbing -- there is no reason for our roosters to go through this if they don't have to.
 
Good news! We just gave him his electrolyte water and yogurt/egg "smash", and put neosporin on his wattles. At the end he just kept falling asleep and laying down, and I thought he was dying. We laid him back in his cage, and a few minutes later he started eating food out of his bowl. I'm not sure if he's getting any, but he's trying! Maybe he's sick of our offerings! LOL

I'm going to update and record the outcome of this. The 2 or 3 cases that were similiar to "Yukon" didn't have updates.
 
Today begins day 3 of the severe swelling. It's no worse, and may be just a bit better. He's been pecking at his food for the last day, and seems to be getting some. We still haven't seen him drinking water on his own at all. He crows throughout the day. This morning he even seemed to get a bit fiesty with us when we tried to give him his water. (Ironically, the plan was to butcher him in the spring because of this! lol What we'll do for our chickens, right?))

Treatment: He's inside a 45 degree garage with a heat lamp on 24 hours a day.
Water with electrolytes through a syringe (just placed in his beak)
Feeding of yogurt, scrambled eggs, and beef cat food placed in his beak.
Neosporin rubbed on his wattles and chin in the morning and again at night
Once a day dosing with aspirin for pain relief
Placed Nutri-drench directly in his mouth last night and it seemed to perk him up.
 
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