Chicken back feathers wet/damp looking. smells bad, irritated and and bloody? anyone have any idea?

[oodle]

Hey,
A week or so ago, we had a snow storm and snow got into the chicken’s coop through a loose window. Some snow got onto the back of one of my chickens and those feathers haven’t been the same since.
So, basically, the snow-covered feathers froze and remained frozen for a few days. I would have brought the chicken into the house to let it defrost it’s feathers but I was pretty sure the quick temperature changes would make her go into shock. So I decided to wait until the feathers defrosted (a few times I breathed onto her back to try to thaw them with my breath, despite the chicken looking happy and warm, it wasn’t doing anything to the feathers). The feathers eventually “defrosted” but now her back skin is all irritated and the start of her feathers are irritated and some are a bit bloody. Over the past few days, those back feathers have gotten stinky and look wet/damp. At first I thought it was some sort of mite or something but all the other chickens are completely unaffected (none of the other chickens had snow fall on them). So I came to the conclusion that while this chicken’s feathers were frozen, other chickens pecked at it, it weakened the integrity of her feathers and skin there, or something else? I hope its not infected or something but.. it seems like it spreads every day. Does anyone have any ideas of what this is? Or how I could solve it? I have put some anti fungus/bacteria/infection wound-healer on the site already. Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[azygous]

A hair dryer would have expedited the thawing of those frozen feathers. It's also useful for rewarming a chicken suspected of hypothermia, which your hen may have suffered from in addition to frozen feathers. You'd be feeling pretty chilled after walking around for two days with a block of ice fastened to your back. You may want to treat her for hypothermia to be safe. Warm sugar water and a brief warming with a hair dryer on her wing pits and breast or wrap for half an hour in a towel warmed in the dryer.

You're doing all you can do by treating the wound. Whether or not the feather follicles have been permanently damaged by freezing waits to be determined. If no damage occurred, soon you should see pin feathers pushing through to replace the damaged ones. If not, she will have a permanent bald spot there.

 

[oodle]

Hey,
A week or so ago, we had a snow storm and snow got into the chicken’s coop through a loose window. Some snow got onto the back of one of my chickens and those feathers haven’t been the same since.
So, basically, the snow-covered feathers froze and remained frozen for a few days. I would have brought the chicken into the house to let it defrost it’s feathers but I was pretty sure the quick temperature changes would make her go into shock. So I decided to wait until the feathers defrosted (a few times I breathed onto her back to try to thaw them with my breath, despite the chicken looking happy and warm, it wasn’t doing anything to the feathers). The feathers eventually “defrosted” but now her back skin is all irritated and the start of her feathers are irritated and some are a bit bloody. Over the past few days, those back feathers have gotten stinky and look wet/damp. At first I thought it was some sort of mite or something but all the other chickens are completely unaffected (none of the other chickens had snow fall on them). So I came to the conclusion that while this chicken’s feathers were frozen, other chickens pecked at it, it weakened the integrity of her feathers and skin there, or something else? I hope its not infected or something but.. it seems like it spreads every day. Does anyone have any ideas of what this is? Or how I could solve it? I have put some anti fungus/bacteria/infection wound-healer on the site already. Any thoughts are appreciated.

I forgot to follow up on this, but the problem resolved itself. Perhaps I was reading too much into the feather thing.