Cockerel Uncomfortable With Floppy Comb. Is There A Fix (Besides Dubbing)?

[Sassysouth]

Circumcisions are done without anesthetics. Babies cry from being strapped to the board and stop when picked up. Yeah, so, anyway...

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Don't worry, chicken blood clots like concrete. Besides, after all the extremely cold temps in the Eastern part of the country next week, mother nature may decide to dubb him for you. In fact I think that I already see a little frostbite on the lobes of his comb. Check out the last three images.

 

[apryl29]

Thanks. I watched a couple of dubbing videos on youtube, and anesthetic wasn't used. The birds scarcely made a sound! One video was of an old English game cockerel being dubbed, and the only squawk he made was when they pulled his wattles. But he didn't make a sound when being dubbed.

Cocks fight all the time, and their combs and wattles seem to be major targets in combat. My guess is that probably there are not a lot of nerves in them, or this would have been a serious liability, from an evolutionary standpoint.

Still, I can't imaging just cutting without using something do numb the tissue. I will use lidocaine as a topical and probably will let the cockerel stay outside for a while before dubbing so that the cold air causes enough vasoconstriction to reduce bleeding.

Thanks again, folks!

I have a bantam BBoe and that's when I first saw anything about dubbing them. Apparently if you want to show them they have to be dubbed. Both my cockerels have lost some comb tissue to frostbite and my Leghorn Cockerel has damage to his wattles from frostbite and other chickens picking at them. My female chickens actually grabbed a hold of his wattles and pull on them and will grab on to the back of his comb and shake their heads. I'm not sure if it's an act of aggression or if they think his wattles and combs are food and are trying to tear off a piece.