help! my roosters wattles are frozen solid!

[FractiousCat]

I believe its ok my bf built it to spec off a chicken coop site..lol..its 4'-6' and about 7'high...it houses roo and his 4 girls. It has two roosts that are about 2ft off ground over the sloped roofts of the Nests box.
The one heat lamp is over the main area/wall mounted feed area.
I was thinking about adding one more over the roost area.

 

[mithious]

One suggestion, check out the threads from the Alaskans'. They have some really great posts and lots don't heat their coops, even in their terribly cold environment.

One thing I have learned is that ventilation is paramount and if done right, will prevent the frostbite.

It seems that the moisture is the problem, more than the cold is. Having the right ventilation, that will help get rid of the moisture the chickens produce, will help even more than heat.

One thing I read and it made sense to me was; if you heat your coop, in a northern cold climate, and the electricity goes off....chickens will die with the drastic temp drop. Their bodies acclimate to the winter temps and with the correct ventilation. They have feathers and lots of down too!

I have read post after post of OP's from Alaska, that have no problems with the cold and don't heat their coops. The bantam's are more fragile, so not sure on them and heat, and that brings up another thought.

Picking breeds that are cold tolerant is a must for those of us that live in the northern regions.

I agree on the heat lamps also. MOST coop fires are in the late fall, early winter, as people attempt to "heat" their coops with the heat lamps.

Just some food for thought !

Sooo sorry about your Roo

Poor guy!!!!

 

[FractiousCat]

Ah thanks for the great tips. I will check with my bf about the ventilation....as far as the breeds go these guys were abandoned and we rescued them about 7 years ago, so sadly I did not get to pick them. My roo is an andalusia. My hens are a barred rock, Astrolorp, Easter egger and a bantam fetherfoot. They all seem to do fine. We are in oregon and its been getting -10° at night and around 15° during the day. I am not letting them out so they are not in this stuff. My bf tied a safety line to the lamp to a eyehook so it can't get knocked down into the straw and cause a fire.
I really appreciate everyone's in put.. I was so scared that the frozen wattles Were going to have to get cut off...it was horrifying. I hope with the additional heat lamp over the roosts will solve the problem..it seemed to happen when he was sleeping cause he was fine last night. And he don't sleep with his head tucked like the girls....when he sleeps his wattles are just hanging out on his chest...they are pretty big. Poor guy.

 

[mithious]

Good or you on the rescue! I hear ya on the temps...we are having some of the same temps here also. We had a few nights at -16 F. Days have been teens and 20's and a few single digits also. This week is going to be awfully cold too.

Yeah, I knew since you already had chickens, that picking a cold tolerant breed, was not an option

but thought I might add it for others that were reading your thread and thinking about getting chickens.

When I first found BYC, I read tons before my first post. I learned sooo much from everyone! There is an answer for pretty much everything on here. So glad I found this forum!!!!

I wasn't quite ready for such an early winter this year. We have been lucky the past couple years with such temperate weather.

I hope your Roo feels better soon! I gave one of my pullets a "spa" this week also. Thought she was egg bound but turned out she was constipated???? She LOVED floating in the warm water and stood perfectly still for the blow dryer, spoiled girl

After her spa, she let go the biggest poop I had ever seen LOL!

I also give my flock some scratch, late afternoon, to help keep them warm at night...poor Roos' seem to get the frostbite so much easier, due to their large combs and wattles. Cracked corn works too for extra warmth. Won't help with the wattles, just over all warmth at night.

Hugs to you and your Roo

 

[SIMZ]

Here is a picture of our rooster from last winter. It was HORRIBLE! He couldn't eat or drink on his own for a while, but after about 3-4 days the swelling went down. He was back to his wretchedly mean self in a few weeks.

Before - I believe this happened because I took them fresh water in a bowl when it was frigidly cold. Big no-no! I think he dipped his wattles into it.



After a few days inside the garage with a heat lamp (around 45-50 F), hand feeding and electrolytes. We also put neosporin on his comb & wattles. Here the swelling is down. He lost the tips of his comb and possibly the ends of his wattles, but that was about all. It took the swelling quite a while to go away.

 

[FractiousCat]

holy cow Sims! That poor guy. Yeah your little man look pretty darn rough. Well that's helpful but I do feel so sorry for your man. Yeah I gave him a delousing bath and keep him in all night and powdered him really well and i put the mammas bee ointment on his wattles this morning before I took him out to his girls. Yhea mithious I agree my roo loves his spa treatments.. Lol...whenever he's feeling low I bathe him and he perks right up.....its like he knows he's all clean and sexy again :-D

yeah I agree I was bringing out bowls of water for them because I was having to do it 2 to 3 times a day and lugging they're big waterer in and out of the house was getting really irritating... But its not worth it that my poor roos wattles are paying the price for me being lazy. I won't be doing that any more, I will just fill the waterer half way so its not 50lbs frozen....

I am 7 years new to chickens ..I really am just learning because my chickens are always such great health... The hens are friendly but they kinda just do their own thing but the rooster is very very personal with me... He follows me around wants to sit on my lap and be held all the timebut to be honest he hate my boyfriend and everybody else on the property but he's my other guy and I love him so much... My boyfriend truly is a saint because about 2 years ago my rooster mauled him very badly on his leg and roo is still around today which is pretty unheard of... But he knows how much I love him so he just deals with it...really he thinks roos friendship with me is just weird enough to keep around.

Thanks for everyones helpful responses I'm going to keep an eye on his wattles and comb and when summer comes around I'm going to take pictures so people can see what I went through as well like Sims so that people won't get so afraid when things like this happen to their chickens... Cause honestly I was terrified and now I feel much better... I have to wait till Wednesday to get the other heat lamp... But if roo has to sleep in the house every night until then then I guess that's just we're going to have to do... And hopefully with switching back to the old water he won't be submerging his wattles in his water bowl anymore.

 

[MelissaTXRn]

I had to haul water out to mine too. Wattles got wet, but thankfully none froze. Good luck

 

[tiny529]

I'm dealing with this right now. The photos of the roo with the swollen wattles look just like my Karl. I'm grateful to have come across this post because most of what I am seeing is to dub the wattles and I really don't want to do that. Karl's wattles weren't frozen solid, but they are huge and swollen right now. He seems okay otherwise. He's crowing and eating and comfortably situated in an unused room in the house until he looks well enough to go back outside. I'm just so confused as to why it happened this year. Last winter was every bit as cold here, but Karl only got frostbite on the top edge of his comb.

 

[windy acre farm]

INSULATION AND MORE HEAT LAMPS POOR OLD GUY SORRY FOR YOUR TROUBLES...

 

[COChix]

Hi,

Thought I would jump in and give my experience, this is my first winter with our flock. Our roo's both got frostbite on their wattles and comb this earlier this year. I will concur with the statements on humidity is more of an issue in the coop than the cold. If you are using a heat lamp it does cause the birds to release more moisture In the air. Do you have a humidity gauge in your coop so you can monitor the humidity levels? If not I would recommend one or two. One located lower in the coop and one high near the roosting areas.

Our boys got frostbite on their wattles due to using heated water bowls and the roo's dipping their wattles in them in the below freezing temps. One roo's wattles were swollen for a few days and he did drop some weight. The wattles and combs are painful right after frostbite and I read not to directly touch the injured area right afterwards. I guess touching them can cause the damage to spread. I read that after I applied a light layer of bag balm on their injured areas. After that I applied once more when it was suppose to be cold overnight. I used a heat lamp one night. I also read that often the issue happens when the birds are used to being warmer in the coop and then going outside into the elements. This is harder on their bodies as they never really acclimate to the cold weather. Remember I am passing on my experience and what I have read. I am in no way saying I handled this like a pro, but did the best I knew how at the time.

Anyway, I started adding Sweet PDZ, a horse stall item that helps wick moisture out of their dropping which helps reduce any damp issues in the coop. I did not treat the boys further and their wattles did recover. It takes about a month for them to start looking better, they will look worse before better. Watch for signs of infection and assure that your boy is actually eating. On another thread there was a lady whose roo's wattles look as bad as yours and hers stopped eating due to the pain. She ended up having to hand feed. Luckily ours never got that bad, but one did drop some weight after the whole thing. Here are some before and after, good luck.

This is a few days after it happened, his wattles were still swollen with fluid but were starting to go down.

One month later