I think my boy has frostbite.

[Dottie the Chicken]

Good morning, everyone,

I walked into my chicken coop a little while ago, and saw my almost year old cockerel, Maxwell, shaking his head (which he is continuing to do). Upon further "inspection" (although really it didn't take much to notice it) I saw that around his wattles he had some dark red area. I have him in the house now and have also noticed that his wattles are swollen, one more so than the other seemingly. I'm thinking I should try to put some salve on it? Anything else? Also should I keep him inside where it's warm for a while?

 

[SueT]

My rooster got bad frostbite on his wattles last year. A lot of head shaking had me worried, but a wise BYC member said it will heal on its own. It did, but part of the wattles fell off. He has one wattle shorter than the other now.

 

[SueT]

Here are some photos of my rooster and a hen both w frostbite, hers on the comb. It healed by itself but they lost some of the tissue. On the rooster, you can see he already lost part of the other wattle as well. The hen had lost comb points in previous winters, and lost one more last winter.

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

Would it hurt to put some salve on it?

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

My goodness, he crows loud in the house.

 

[JedJackson]

Would it hurt to put some salve on it?

Neosporin is a good idea.

 

[SueT]

I don’t know if salve or bringing the bird inside would help, but I did neither and they healed anyway.
It takes a while, it seemed like a couple weeks. How long are you willing to keep a chicken in the house> and then would they have a hard time acclimating to the cold temps when they finally go back out?

 

[Eggcessive]

I would not bring him in the house or put any ointment or creams on it. Those can also freeze making frostbite worse. He will heel over time without any treatment, but the wattles will become more rounded off. You may want to elevate his waterer so that wattles don’t get into the water.