Frostbite or something else?

[Australorpfamily]

<shakes head> This weather has been brutal. It's 20° here in SE Missouri tonight, about the first double digits we have seen in over a week. And thank God the wind quit, whew!

Yup. Today here was first time since last Friday we've been above 10. The girls generally cluster in two groups, maybe the wind got through before we blocked, I know some in one corner had snow sprinkles on them(that came in from the northwest corner and only once- I fixed just that one spot next day) but combs were fine. Most of them sleep with heads in wings, maybe she doesn't? Lol

Guess her name can be upgraded from Nugget (1-3) to Funky Girl

 

[Australorpfamily]

Updated pic of Nugget. The first day of the lovely artic blast it had rained all day at around 50 for us and the about an hour before bed stopped and then dropped to 20(and kept dropping overnight) so, I not sure if we could have prevented it unless we had an insulated coop idunno, just a best guess, hope to be more prepared to block at least the wind next year since artic blast/polar vortex seem to be a normal event now lol

 

[Eggcessive]

Having high overhead ventilation is important, especially in warm weather, but I close up a lot of ventilation windows or at least put plastic over the bottom 2/3’s in freezing weather. My coop has never been insulated, just 2 inch thick wood, but spaces between the boards. It is hard to completely prevent frostbite when it is zero and windy.

 

[Australorpfamily]

Having high overhead ventilation is important, especially in warm weather, but I close up a lot of ventilation windows or at least put plastic over the bottom 2/3’s in freezing weather. My coop has never been insulated, just 2 inch thick wood, but spaces between the boards. It is hard to completely prevent frostbite when it is zero and windy.

Yeah, we've learned that there was probably nothing we could have done, the wind for us was out of the southeast -- completely out of norm, 25-30mph gusts and bitter cold. We had blocked it with cardboard as best we could. Had that section open due to location lol go figure it bites us in winter haha but, live and learn and we will be better prepared. And since the artic blast it's been 45-50f days and 30f nights so yeah lol

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I feel really bad for my rooster, his wattles are frostbit. We water in heated buckets so ice does not form in them, but his wattles do get wet, and then when it is 8°F for a high all day, there is nothing that can be done to prevent frostbite once they are wet. Poor guy!

 

[azygous]

You can give him aspirin or ibuprofen for pain. My rooster recently got one of his wattles and his comb frostbit from a ten below zero night. The ibuprofen really did make him feel much better. I use one quarter of an ibuprofen tablet twice a day or one chewable aspirin twice a day.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Thanks, @azygous. He doesn't seem to be in pain, that I can tell.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Should I assume that he is and treat him anyway?

 

[azygous]

The way I discovered my rooster was in pain was by his change in behavior. The morning after that cold night, he didn't want to come off his perch in the coop. I had to coax him out. Then he moped around, not himself.

If your rooster is behaving normally, eating as usual, etc, he's probably not in any real discomfort. Although, frostbite is every bit as painful as a bad burn until the tissue either dies or heals.

 

[Australorpfamily]

Update... Seems good as new, minus a few points lol didn't touch or do anything just let her heal