Frostbite Concerns
This morning when I let the chickens out, which I've been doing later than normal because of the weather, I noticed that my little crazy bantam Cochin named Screech (@ellymayRans ) wasn't herself. She normally greets us with a loud "screech" and races around. This morning, she stayed in the back of the run as the others ventured out to greet the new snowfall. I picked her up and noticed that her poor bald head had some faint white areas, which made me suspect frostbite. I've never had a chicken with frostbite, but have learned enough about it to be concerned. I brought her in to the basement and cracked the door to the outside a little so that the temperature change wouldn't affect her. She didn't eat or drink, so I mixed up some chick electrolytes and carefully gave her some drinks through a little syringe (I always save them from vet visits). Around 20 minutes later, she perked up and ate a few mealworms. Since frostbite is very painful, I looked up aspirin dosages and gave her a quarter of a baby aspirin that I hid in a craisin. She gobbled that craisin right down!I lightly patted (not rubbed) a tiny bit of vaseline on her exposed skin. About an hour later after I was sure she was eating and drinking and acting normally, I put a heat lamp in the garage where I had made a snow hideaway area for the chickens. Although it's warmer there than the outside, I wanted to make sure Screech was warm enough since she was already stressed. Since I work from home I can regularly check on my hens. (The other hens occasionally peck out Screech's head feathers when she becomes too assertive, but the areas on both sides of her head never have been sore or bloody at all —just bald).
I can monitor the coop's temperature and humidity levels from inside my house, and the humidity levels have been in the 40% range, which is fairly low from what I understand. Since I've opened the coop later than normal because of the recent weather, I've kept a heated water bowl and food in the coop so they have it when they wake up. The water bowl probably doesn't help humidity, but I went ahead and pulled back some weatherproofing at the top to allow more air in the top vents.
This photo doesn't really show the transparent white areas very well since it was taken after she felt better. I'm glad that I noticed from her behavior that something was wrong before she became worse. I can't have anything happen to my little baby Screech!
Just having her inside for an hour brought me back to my senses from yearning for baby chicks! I remembered that having chicks inside the house involves a lot of mess and clean-up time. For me, it was much more enjoyable to have baby chicks when I could at least take them outside during early spring days. It was even better when Bonbon had her own coop when she hatched eggs. I just keep reminding myself to wait!
@jchny2000 @SallyinIndiana
Goats in with the chickens.... Please comment a bit for me on the possibility of a chicken getting trampled underfoot.
When one of you girls can produce 2 wethers for me this spring, there is an area the chickens use that I'd like them to clear out the PI before putting them in their large wooded area.
Are the chickens safe from trampling if I let the goats in their small wooded area with them initially?
I have enough electronet around here...maybe I should train them to the net and just divide off a section of the little wooded area at a time and keep them separate while they're doing their work.
Thanks for posting this!
Oh my, really frizzled!!! How cute!The frizzled olive egger and all her fluff!
