My frozen chicken help..

[FernbergFarms]

My 10 month old black sex link chicken has been free ranging outside well it has been very cold and today I looked at her and she looked like she has frost bite on her comb and her eyes are like running with puss and swollen. It looked like she was gasping for air and is just frozen! It looks really bad. I just put a heat lamp on her here are some pictures

 

[Eggcessive]

Her left eye is swollen and has bubbles and thick drainage, which are signs of a respiratory disease, such as MG or coryza. Get her warm, but be carefull with heat lamps because they are dangerous. We hear of coop fires from heat lamps falling and catching bedding on fire, and some chickens get burned if the lamps are not kept 20 or more inches away. It might be better to bring her inside in a crate or basket.

Do not handle her comb, since frostbite makes them painful. It doesn’t look to serious at this time, and doesn’t require treatment.

I would try to get an antibiotic from your local vet to treat her for possible MG (mycoplasma gallisepticum.) Tylosin (Tylan) is one that can help treat symptoms.

 

[FernbergFarms]

Could that MG or Tylsin kill her? Will the heat lamp help with that? Is there anything at home I can do for her without bringing her to the vet..?

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

She doesn’t appear to have frostbite. She has some type of respiratory infection. The swelling of the sinus area and the eyes makes me think she has Coryza.

 

[Eggcessive]

MG or coryza could kill her, but most of the time the survival rate is good even without treatment. They may be less likely to thrive and lay eggs, and they can get sick again after times of stress. Some people strictly cull sick chickens. A vet would probably offer an antibiotic if they felt it was a bacterial infection such as MG or coryza. Tylosin (Tylan) is one of the common antibiotics they prescribe. If you cannot see a vet, I would order tylosin here:
https://www.jedds.com/shop/tylan-soluble-100-g/
Dosage is 1 tsp (5grams) per gallon of water for 5 days. Only treat sick birds.

Chickens with a respiratory disease need to be kept warm, since they have trouble regulating body temperature. Do you smell a bad odor from her face? Coryza is said to smell bad. If you see a lot of pus inside her eye, it should be removed, and sometimes squeezing is necessary.

Clean her eye twice a day, and you can use saline eye wash and apply some Terramycin eye ointment or plain Neosporin or Triple Antibiotic Ointment after.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here are two good articles about MG in chickens:
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/ext... Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) Infecti....pdf

https://thepoultrysite.com/disease-...tion-m-g-chronic-respiratory-disease-chickens

 

[FernbergFarms]

Okays so if I squeeze her eye I don’t wanna take it out... could I use a tissue to remove it? I don’t want to cull her. I’ll check on her now and see what happens when I clean it.

 

[FernbergFarms]

So I found these would any work ? I know you said triple anti biotic ointment and found some but there wasn’t a lot so would any other work?

 

[aart]

She doesn’t appear to have frostbite.

Spots on comb look more like dry pox than frost bite.
Either way, just leave those alone.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would use the bacitracin without the zinc. Polysporin is another ointment you can use. Feed stores sell Terramycin if you ask for it, and that is good for MG. You may be able to just clean out the eye with a tissue or QTip, but some pus gets more thick the longer it is in there. This graphic video is gross, but shows how it is squeezed out from around the eye in some cases: