Comb is green

[Pioneer Belle]

I live in MN it is cold. My leghorn chicken has something wrong with her comb. I thought it was frostbite but it is blistering white and green. No black. What is going on? Please let me know. My coop is not heated but has insulation. I have a covered run and a non covers run. They go outside most days. Please help. I will post pictures in a couple min.

 

[azygous]

She has severe frostbite. Most of that comb will turn black eventually and fall off. In fact, I would bet real American money that she's got frostbite on top of frostbite.

Large combs are vulnerable to freezing as warm water vapor is emitted from the chickens' breath, condensing on combs that are large enough they aren't getting heated by the chicken's body heat from her head. Then that moisture on the comb freezes, damaging tissue. It's extremely painful.

Once tissue freezes and thaws, it is even more vulnerable to additional frostbite.

Insulated coops are irrelevant. It's the temperature and the accumulation of water vapor in the air that causes frostbite. You will need to examine the airflow in your coop and add more ventilation to carry the moist air up and out of the coop as air flow acts on convection - cold air entering at a low point and rising as it warms, so vents up high are necessary to exhaust the moist air before it settles on the combs and freezes.

 

[LizzzyJo]

Everything @azygous said plus advice to not touch that comb. Leave it entirely alone. Don't add balm or vaseline or anything. It's only going to get colder this weekend. She will lose that part of her comb, but please don't touch it.

 

[PepsiCatt]

some of the comb will fall, but has there been a change in behaivor? Misshapen eggs?
away from the flock?

 

[Pioneer Belle]

No she is still her same self. My flock hasn’t laid for a couple weeks very cold get one or two eggs every once in a while. We have 10 chickens. She is the only one with any frostbite. My other leghorn has a bit smaller comb and she is fine. I have a question if next year she were in a heated coop would that be better. I have a more experienced chicken friend with 30 chickens in a heated coop. Should she move there or next year? Or should she stay in I heated coops from now on. I just bought a thermometer and a humidity measured. I am planning on adding that and more vents soon.Thank you.

 

[azygous]

Many folks don't heat their coops, and we're talking some in the most frigid areas of the planet. So I decided to try it myself. After one of my roosters suffered frostbite one night when the temp dove to the single digits, I now heat both of my coops to keep the temps hovering just above freezing. That, and I leave the vents open to the run, which is enclosed in winter. I've had no more frostbite at night in the coop.

The two roos, however, were driven off one evening two years ago by marauding dogs and they spent the night without any cover and both got frostbite as serious as your hen. They both healed just fine, losing the parts of their combs that had frozen. It took quite a long time for the healing, though.

 

[LizzzyJo]

No she is still her same self. My flock hasn’t laid for a couple weeks very cold get one or two eggs every once in a while. We have 10 chickens. She is the only one with any frostbite. My other leghorn has a bit smaller comb and she is fine. I have a question if next year she were in a heated coop would that be better. I have a more experienced chicken friend with 30 chickens in a heated coop. Should she move there or next year? Or should she stay in I heated coops from now on. I just bought a thermometer and a humidity measured. I am planning on adding that and more vents soon.Thank you.

No need for a heated coop. They cause more danger than they prevent. Better ventilation will help and she wont need to worry as she will have lost the most vulnerable comb parts.

 

[Pioneer Belle]

I just wanted to give an update. She lost the very tips of her comb but the rest is back to normal. She is laying eggs again and healed up well. Thanks got all the knowledge. I will add better ventilation. I also bought a humidity measuring thing to put out there. Here is a picture it is terribly though. She is the farther one.