It appears our Welsummer rooster developed some frostbite overnight on his comb and wattle (I think the latter as when he drinks it gets wet accidentally,etc). Funny was I had just recently read to put Vaseline on to prevent frostbite and I knew it was getting cold this upcoming week so was going to try to do that (he's skittish so wasn't sure if he'd cooperate) so I am surprised to see this develop so quickly (and it is 28 degrees, so not that cold for MI. When it was in the teens before Thanksgiving he was fine. We've had cold temps for quite a while). What am I supposed to do to treat now? They say Vaseline doesn't treat it (just help prevent it). He is very mellow now (sitting in my daughters lap which is highly unusual). We've never had chickens in winter so please provide any advice! Thank you!
(Another side is they have an enclosed coop with an attached run...we live with lots of predators, they are never truly free range. For the attached run about a month ago we put up plastic tarp on 2 sides to help block the wind. The front door is not covered......I think I should as maybe the wind was blowing from that direction. When it's really cold or windy they don't even come out their coop very much during the day....the door is open to give the option but often they are inside. But I think I'm going to block off the wind from the front....the plastic tarp goes from the bottom up to about 6 inches from the top to allow some ventilation. Maybe this was part of the issue yesterday??? It's supposed to be getting really cold by Christmas, only highs around 21 and low around 10. We also are thinking of insulating the outside of the coop with straw bales. I read straw is really bad for the inside for a variety of reasons, but was going to stack up bales around the walls on the outside to help).
Thank you!
(Another side is they have an enclosed coop with an attached run...we live with lots of predators, they are never truly free range. For the attached run about a month ago we put up plastic tarp on 2 sides to help block the wind. The front door is not covered......I think I should as maybe the wind was blowing from that direction. When it's really cold or windy they don't even come out their coop very much during the day....the door is open to give the option but often they are inside. But I think I'm going to block off the wind from the front....the plastic tarp goes from the bottom up to about 6 inches from the top to allow some ventilation. Maybe this was part of the issue yesterday??? It's supposed to be getting really cold by Christmas, only highs around 21 and low around 10. We also are thinking of insulating the outside of the coop with straw bales. I read straw is really bad for the inside for a variety of reasons, but was going to stack up bales around the walls on the outside to help).
Thank you!
