Chicken has frost bite!!!!!!!!!!

[aart]

I have been putting Vaseline and bag balm on their their Combs but the Vaseline freezes because of how cold it is

Did you do this before or after the frostbite appeared?
I leave hands off, before and after.
They've all healed up fine:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/frostbite-in-sw-michigan.74597/

 

[aart]

I don’t usually put anything on my chickens’ combs for prevention or for treatment.

But the CC link does recommend this.
I find that page rather contradictory.

 

[Chicken_lover1]

Did you do this before or after the frostbite appeared?
I leave hands off, before and after.
They've all healed up fine:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/frostbite-in-sw-michigan.74597/

I usually put it on their Combs every other day but it got so cold it would freeze so I stopped putting it on

 

[Eggcessive]

Oh yes, that boy has a huge comb! His points may be rounded off by springtime. With your temperatures I would not put anything on it. The Chicken Chick article is good, but there is a lot of difference of opinions about whether or not that putting something on the comb will prevent frostbite or not. Others have said that it (vaseline) freezes. The CC recommends a waxy type product in the article.

 

[vantain]

It is very cold in my chicken coop. I live in North Dakota so it's very cold here. This week it is in the -20s. When I went out to my chicken coop i noticed some off my chickens were starting to get frostbite and every day it gets worst. And I have to many chickens to take them inside my house.

I had this happen to my hens last winter. When temperatures get down that low, and there is a lot of humidity in the air itself, there isn't much you can do. I followed everyone's advice here and just monitored it, and let it work itself out. They all survived, and the points on their combs are now just rounded over. For the record, mine looked like this last year..one example anyway...with how her comb looked a couple of months ago...

 

[Duckfarmer1]

I have been putting Vaseline and bag balm on their their Combs but the Vaseline freezes because of how cold it is

Yeah...I read not to put anything on them...but..I’m new to this

 

[vantain]

Yeah...I read not to put anything on them...but..I’m new to this

I tried the vaseline thing, then bag balm on mine, and I honestly think it is what made things worse. If you look at the photos I attached of my hen's comb, it looks really bad, and that was after trying to be proactive with the salve. The black you see on the comb in my photo is not frostbitten tissue..it is actually dirt collecting on the vaseline/bagbalm. The white part is the damaged tissue. I stopped using the salves, and the frostbite never got worse. The wattles..well...I think THAT was caused by me giving them warm mash in the mornings, and the steam coming off the food. I also don't do that anymore. I haven't used anything this year, and they seem to be fine.

 

[Duckfarmer1]

I tried the vaseline thing, then bag balm on mine, and I honestly think it is what made things worse. If you look at the photos I attached of my hen's comb, it looks really bad, and that was after trying to be proactive with the salve. The black you see on the comb in my photo is not frostbitten tissue..it is actually dirt collecting on the vaseline/bagbalm. The white part is the damaged tissue. I stopped using the salves, and the frostbite never got worse. The wattles..well...I think THAT was caused by me giving them warm mash in the mornings, and the steam coming off the food. I also don't do that anymore. I haven't used anything this year, and they seem to be fine.

I suppose that’s a case of live and learn.....thank you for posting so we can learn....I’m glad your girls are doing well now and didn’t suffer long term effects

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I tried the vaseline thing, then bag balm on mine, and I honestly think it is what made things worse. If you look at the photos I attached of my hen's comb, it looks really bad, and that was after trying to be proactive with the salve. The black you see on the comb in my photo is not frostbitten tissue..it is actually dirt collecting on the vaseline/bagbalm. The white part is the damaged tissue. I stopped using the salves, and the frostbite never got worse. The wattles..well...I think THAT was caused by me giving them warm mash in the mornings, and the steam coming off the food. I also don't do that anymore. I haven't used anything this year, and they seem to be fine.

Good to hear. One year I planned on doing the Vaseline thing on a couple roosters and leave the others alone in the same building to test the theory. But it seemed like too much of a hassle. I've never had frostbite on hens of about 30 different breeds.
I used to use black rubber feed bowls with bird bath heaters in them but then I realized the roosters' wattles hung in the water which caused severe frostbite. I don't use them any more and stick with founts and nipple waterers.