HELP!! VERY swollen wattles on my rooster from frostbite

[naivetefarm]

I did see one person in that thread who drained their rooster's wattles. You might try direct messaging them to see if they can give you pointers on how to safely do that. Looks like it was @IndianaLeghorn They were toward the end of the thread, if I remember correctly. It might also be worth directly messaging @silkieluver_07 the person who started the thread and see how their rooster fared and what the ultimate solution was

When I first pulled my rooster indoors, he wasn't very interested in food, but I scrambled up an egg for him and he goggled that right up. I think the feed was pokey on his wattles and the eggs were enticing enough as a treat that he went right after them

Hope you find a good solution!!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have always just let frost bite run it's course, the swelling will go down and all dead tissue will blackened and fall off, messing with damaged tissue is a bad idea as you could cause more damage, I would leave him be and raise his food and water dishes up higher, you should also have a more narrow waterer so his Wattles don't get wet when he drinks, though if it's damaged enough the will be smaller when it's all done and healed.

Edited to add, the swelling is a normal reaction, it brings blood to the damaged tissues and helps with healing, I wouldn't try to bring it down, especially right away.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would not recommend draining swollen wattles. It's not like poking a hole into something hollow--it would just be painful and may introduce infection or cause more bleeding. Let his wattles go down and heal on their own, and perhaps try to tube feed him fluids and KayTee baby bird feed. You can take a piece of aquarium tubing (available in the pet section of Walmart) and melt the end going into the throat with a lighter to dull sharp edges which could cut the throat. Then connect it to a large 35 or 60 cc regular tip syringe from your feed store. That will suffice as a feeding tube until you can get something from a vet or online. Here is a good thread about tube feeding:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding

 

[ClaremontChicks]

****Update***

Peter is doing A LOT better now
His wattles have gone down completely and there is only a tiny but of blue on them. He is acting completely normal again and is back to scarfing down all his food and prancing around all his girls.

Thank you everyone for your help!!!

 

[Eggcessive]

Thank you for the update, and it's very good to hear that he is much improved.

 

[naivetefarm]

Hooray! So glad he is feeling better, @ClaremontChicks!!

 

[theAmethystGrov]

I'm so glad your roo is doing better! Our roo is having the very same issues and his wattles look almost identical to your roo that I can see from the pictures. Would you mind sharing all what you did for him?
We are in Minnesota and have very similar waether...it's been below zero several days now.

 

[holm25]

Glad he is better!!

 

[cluckey]

Do you think bringing him in helped? Our rooster has frostbitten swollen waddles too. It's supposed to warm up after tomorrow and cand decide if it's worth the struggle to get him inside.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They will heal up without any intervention, bringing them inside won't help dead tissue and the stress from it won't be helpful. One of my roosters has frostbitten wattles as well, he shakes his head a lot and rests more, but he will get better with time.