Expert: Abi - 2/25/2009

Question
Hi
I live in western North Dakota and own about twenty guinea hens. They are kept in a barn at night and usually in the day too even though they are allowed to go outside if they want to. They are fed general poltry feed and some grain, and they peck around outside alot to.
Okay, so I have guineas that are very cold. It gets to be about -10 degrees f. here regularly so that is why they spend most of the time in the barn. Since it gets really cold sometimes I will put a electric or propane heater in the barn at night sometimes. They seem to be doing fine.
Except for one guinea. He will be a year old in the spring. I think the poor thing froze his feet when he went outside of his coop into the snow. So I brought him inside and he appeared to get better so I put him outside again.
When I went to check on him a couple days later i noticed that his feet were worse,and he was acting very slow and tired, so I brought him in the house again.
His toes are black, and his feet are "bubbly" and have large bumps on them (about as big as a small grape). I think one toe already fell off!   
Please help!! I need to know what i can do to make him as comfortable as possible, but i really need to know how to treat frostbite in guinea hens. I really don't want his feet to fall off! Also, how can I prevent it from happening again?
Thank you!!!!!
Matt

Answer
Hello Matt,

Are his whole feet affected or is there some left for him to walk on? With frostbite you do just have to wait for the affected digits to fall off, and maybe treat him with an antibiotic solution to stop him from getting an infection. To save as much of his feet as possible (he won't like this) bathe his feet once a day in warm salty water, and apply an antibiotic ointment to his feet- stuff for guinea pigs and rabbits from the pet store works fine.

I would like to add that if there is not going to be any foot left, do you really think he will survive next winter or have a good quality of life?

You can only prevent it from happening again by stopping them from going out in the cold snow!

Thanks for your question.