So with the arctic cold, and daytime temperature yesterday of -20F, three of my four chickens have frostbite. And yes, my coop is well ventilated, and I have never seen any moisture anywhere in the coop. All of the eaves are open, all of the time. Probably doesn't help much, when outside humidity, even when well below zero, is near 70% or even higher.
In any case, my first to get frostbite actually happened about a week ago, when we had several extremely humid days in the teens.
Here she is, with fairly extensive frostbite on her comb and wattles. Now, she often dunks her wattles in the water if I use a dish or pan, so for winter I switched to a heated nipple waterer. But, the way she drinks it, it still dribbles down onto her wattles. She also often gets her head under the nipples when others are drinking, to catch the drops. Stupid, I know.
Here are two of the other who also have a little less, but still too much frostbite:
Now, one thing to note....the pictures make it look like the frostbite has moved to the blackened stage, but the black you see is merely dirt from when I was putting bag balm on them. It tended to collect a lot of it, and make their combs/wattles black.
How should I treat this? From reading here, it sounds like I should just let it go, and watch out for infection. The worst of the..the first picture...the tip is starting to blister. Also, one of the other chickens is starting to peck at the frostbit combs of the others, and I am starting to see some bleeding in the tips.
It's bad, I know, and I feel awful about it. I really don't think I could have done anything better though, as even the run, while covered In plastic, has plenty of ventilation. The eaves are open, there is a ridge vent, and the end of the run is open at the top. I think the wind blowing in there would have made things even worse at -20 temperatures.
Thoughts? I do have blu-coat, with an applicator, not the spray type, but am reluctant to put it on yet, for fear of it causing the flesh to freeze even more. Temperatures here are supposed to get to mid 30s to 40s for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so I would feel more comfortable putting the blu-coat on on Saturday. Later next week it is supposed to get back down into the teens and lower single digits again...sigh...winter sucks.
In any case, my first to get frostbite actually happened about a week ago, when we had several extremely humid days in the teens.
Here she is, with fairly extensive frostbite on her comb and wattles. Now, she often dunks her wattles in the water if I use a dish or pan, so for winter I switched to a heated nipple waterer. But, the way she drinks it, it still dribbles down onto her wattles. She also often gets her head under the nipples when others are drinking, to catch the drops. Stupid, I know.
Here are two of the other who also have a little less, but still too much frostbite:
Now, one thing to note....the pictures make it look like the frostbite has moved to the blackened stage, but the black you see is merely dirt from when I was putting bag balm on them. It tended to collect a lot of it, and make their combs/wattles black.
How should I treat this? From reading here, it sounds like I should just let it go, and watch out for infection. The worst of the..the first picture...the tip is starting to blister. Also, one of the other chickens is starting to peck at the frostbit combs of the others, and I am starting to see some bleeding in the tips.
It's bad, I know, and I feel awful about it. I really don't think I could have done anything better though, as even the run, while covered In plastic, has plenty of ventilation. The eaves are open, there is a ridge vent, and the end of the run is open at the top. I think the wind blowing in there would have made things even worse at -20 temperatures.
Thoughts? I do have blu-coat, with an applicator, not the spray type, but am reluctant to put it on yet, for fear of it causing the flesh to freeze even more. Temperatures here are supposed to get to mid 30s to 40s for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so I would feel more comfortable putting the blu-coat on on Saturday. Later next week it is supposed to get back down into the teens and lower single digits again...sigh...winter sucks.
