Is this extreme frostbite or fowl cholera?

[dawg53]

You stated you are giving him water and electrolytes, that's why you havnt seen him drink any water. If he gets thirsty enough, he'll drink water on his own. You are also giving him nutri drench. Between electrolytes and nutri drench...that's too much of a good thing which can do more harm than good. Too much nutri drench will eventually cause diarrhea. Only use one or the other until he recovers. Do not give him catfood, it's too high in sodium and it'll cause more problems. Instead of yogurt, use buttermilk mixed with scrambled eggs. Buttermilk is easily absorbed whereas yogurt tends to pass through them. I'm just trying to help you 'fine tune' his treatment for a hopeful recovery. Good luck.

 

[SIMZ]

Chime in anytime because we're pretty clueless! We've not been very successful in getting much water or food into him, so he's probably only getting a teaspoonful of any of it at a time, so hopefully we haven't done any harm.

Thanks also for the water tip. I was baffled why he kept eating out of his bowl but wasn't drinking.

I will go ahead and stop trying to hand water him to see if he starts drinking on his own.

Really, thank you for your help! I really appreciate it, and it's what makes this website such a great thing!

 

[SIMZ]

Day 4 and he's doing MUCH better! He still has swelling, but it has gone down so much. He started drinking on his own last night and is also eating very well on his own. I'll even have to clean his cage this morning to get the droppings out.

As I type he's crowing away out in the garage. What a beautiful sound to hear.

Frostbite question: When can you put a frostbitten rooster back outside? We have another rooster that also has frostbitten wattles that we've had in as well as a precaution. Do we need to wait until it's above freezing to put him back in the coop? Our temps are in the mid-20's now and get down to the teens at night.

 

[SIMZ]

Yukon is doing so much better! The swelling is almost gone, but he looks like he's going to lose quite a bit of his wattles & comb tips. We'll definitely be taking much better care of our roosters during cold snaps in the future.

Here is a before picture of him. This was taken after the swelling had gone down some. Ouch!


Here he is now with my daughter. She did all of his syringe feeding and waterings before he could eat on his own.



Close up of him now:


We're still putting neosporin on his wattles. He has quite a bit of black tissue -- is there anything we should be doing?

 

[dawg53]

He looks much better. If I'm not mistaken, I believe the dead tissue will shrink some, then fall off. I havnt dealt with severe frostbite living down south...maybe someone that has experienced severe frostbite can comment. BTW; good job!

 

[SIMZ]

Thanks, Dawg53! You've been a huge help!

 

[SIMZ]

Conclusion:

He's back to his normal self today and trying to bully us again. We're going to put him in the outside garage with a few of his girls in a large dog run we've set up. He could go back into the coop, but we're going to have some wild temperature swings this week and lots of rain. It's probably better not to subject him to that when he's already on the mend.

Now I know that severe frostbite can swell up like that. It took him about 24 hours after warming up to show some improvement. With better management, this should be easily avoided, and we'll take extra precautions with our roosters for sure.

I'm glad we didn't cull him for this. It seemed pretty bad for the first 24 hours.

 

[dawg53]

Conclusion:

He's back to his normal self today and trying to bully us again. We're going to put him in the outside garage with a few of his girls in a large dog run we've set up. He could go back into the coop, but we're going to have some wild temperature swings this week and lots of rain. It's probably better not to subject him to that when he's already on the mend.

Now I know that severe frostbite can swell up like that. It took him about 24 hours after warming up to show some improvement. With better management, this should be easily avoided, and we'll take extra precautions with our roosters for sure.

I'm glad we didn't cull him for this. It seemed pretty bad for the first 24 hours.

 

[12321]

SIMZ, can you give an update on Yukon's frostbite? Did any of the black improve or do you think it's dead? Most of my roosters got some frostbite when we left for the weekend. They haven't started to swell up yet, just have some black.

 

[SIMZ]

Hi! The black is still there and I'm pretty sure it's all dead tissue that will eventually fall off, especially on his wattles. I have no idea how long that might take, though.

Our other rooster has gotten frostbite on his comb with black tissue that hasn't swelled up. It seems that some of that black tissue has improved. Or maybe the damage isn't as widespread as it looks. He still has points on his comb (although the tips are missing), and I know those have had black on them in the past. Your roosters may just lose the very tips.