Can an old foot injury make your chicken more prone to frost bite? (Photos)

[aggiemae]

Poor boy....sometimes you do everything you can but those large combed chickens that are just to stubborn (or dumb) to come in from the cold and they just get frostbite. I have a (formerly) double combed hen like this. Stayed out in the freeing cold until the whole top of her head was a sheet of ice....The top of his comb will dry out and fall of on its own, in the meanwhile just keep and eye out for infection and otherwise leaving it alone. It will never grow back but it will round out and look ok after a while.

 

[shell3]

Howa roger doing? i cant stop thinking about his poor wattles and comb and of course his poor little toe!!! oh roger you poor boy, thank goodness he has someone like you to care for him so well, i can only imagine the grim lives of the ones who dont.
he is unfortunate to have these problems but very lucky to have you. sending him warm healing thoughts

and for you

glad you had a great time at ice bocce, the distraction probly helped, it gives you a chance to relax a litlle, also im sure your family think your wonderful for caring so much, all mine know im a bit crazy but they love me just the same

 

[Happy Chooks]

Poor guy - just when his toe was looking better. I've had frostbite occur on wattles from a metal feeder. Not that bad, but our temps aren't as frigid as yours. I now change to a plastic feeder during winter.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Here is Roger's toe today. I'm thinking maybe I can stick it out another week of bandaging and I'm probably going to call it good. I'm happy with the color (circulation) and I think like you said Shell the ulceration is just a removal of dead tissue and underneath is the good healthy stuff coming. This is Day 14 since I first noticed the problem. And yes he is posing on my finest heirloom tablecloth. (My Grandmother's Holiday Table cloth.) Boy I love my chickens...lol. Guess I didn't really think about that when I popped him upthere for his update photo.

Wattles are still pretty swollen and it pulls down on his beak so his beak always is open a bit. I think they are slightly less...but they're still dramatic. Brought him in as his crop is empty and fed scrambled egg, oatmeal, mealies, tomatoe, and a bit of spinach. And then I brought treats back down to the run so he could present those to his crew. First thing he did was mate my EE Lily, when he got back down. I know I'm probably more worried than i need to be...lol. Crazy bird.

We'll bring him back up for more egg and oatmeal before roost time.

Thank you so much Happy Chooks. I have always had a plastic waterer for ACV use and I guess pure expense. I do have metal dry food feeder though...so hard to say if he went with wet wattles over to the metal pellet feeder.

Aggiemae thank you for popping by. His comb looks pretty much like hamburger on top right now. But am just leaving the scabs and drainage in place...spot cleaning minimally with water and dabbing of iodine. then vaseline again. to help repel any moisture issues. His wattle swelling probably bothers me most right now just because of him not being able to get past them to beak at food. Waiting for some fairer February winter weather. Seems like this is the time that Winter makes a turn for the better and I'm counting on that.

You all are a blessing to me with your warm thoughts everytime I open up this thread. And I feel refreshed in my efforts with our favorite chicken. xxx

 

[choptank330]

It looks like Rogers toe has more.color to it!! How awesome. Now if his comb and wattles will go down!! Heres to hoping he will get better soon !!!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Yes, Choptank! I'm very pleased with his progress on his toe.

When we first started with this I was pretty concerned and thought that toe could go either way. Glad it went Roger and My way. That is for sure.

Fed Roger an egg tonight. I notice he needs to tip his head back and let it kind of fall back into his throat and swallow. Then he twists his neck back and forth as if to get it down to his crop. I'm not sure of his water intake. I haven't seen him at the waterer at all before he goes to roost. Or when he's been first down (but then I've been busy this weekend in the mornings especially) We offer water in a bowl up here in the house and he doesn't dip for any. So I'm hoping he is getting some. I did have my daughter syringe some in any way just seeing the way he waggles that neck back and forth. The last thing I need is for this thread to turn into a Sour crop thread ...lol ....Nope not even gonna go there! This gal has had enough doctoring this chicken!

Oh yeah. Gave him aspirin tonight too. he hasn't had it for 2-3 days and I'm hoping this will help knock down swelling and inflammation in the wattles.

All other chickens doing fabulous. Tough as nails.

 

[Happy Chooks]

His toe looks a lot better - looks like he's healing well.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Yes, thank you happy chooks. I'm pleased with the toe progress. Now gotta get that wattle swelling Down.

 

[shell3]

great news for the toe yay! maybe asprin will take some discompfort away in the wattles and he might want to drink more.im sure the movement to dip for water must uncomfortable. is he running around much? they are tuff arnt they, which is a good thing for us all right now! has he got any colour back in the wattles? or comb? your temps are ridiculous, poor you its a lot to contend with! he could do with a little knitted snood!lol. now my chicken wardrobe ideas are getting crazy! ill check in later for an update x

 

[Bogtown Chick]

-22 fahrenheit this AM. Wattles at noon check were complete ice cubes. Frozen solid. heavy. He's a mess. Even though temps are up to 8 degrees now...he's in the house thawing. Wattles are red at this point and basically friday on. But all the lymph and fluid within the wattles could not be kept at body temp apparently. Hi's of mid twenties and and lows in single digits all for this coming week. I think I will start a new thread so as not to make somebody with a frozen toe problem go through all this mess of reading about ice cube wattles. Will start fresh thread for those wanting updates on the wattles tonight. I have pics.

I will keep with update toe pics and might finish this thread this week hopefully showing final healed toe at end.


And he almost looks smaller right now. Crop --empty-ish. He's getting very little food on his own, near as I can tell. He loves to be hand fed right now. (He and I had oatmeal and a scrambled egg, spinach leaves for lunch.)


Yay. ***sarcasm***