What to do for an oil gland that isn't working well

@servpolice
One place I visited called it "Sooty Mould Exposure," but when I used the search criteria "sooty mould exposure" + geese, the only hits were back to the website that gave me that name to begin with. When I removed the quotation marks and + sign, I got hits for fungi that infect citrus and olive trees... no willow there. Replacing mould with mold didn't yield me anything better.

Again, I don't know what I think about the "mould" thing. I keep running into writings of it, but could not find any sources or instances where waterfowl were infected with and treated for this problem. I spent about 45 minutes yesterday trying to run something down. If you find something, or if due to all your willows, your geese succumb to this "willow mould" please pm me as I would be interested in putting that into my files!

Doh, maybe I should have searched for ducks, and Victoria Roberts, and plant spores... if I have time later I might do so.

@Miss Lydia
Regarding wheat. I don't know how much help I can be. The wheat I buy is grown semi-locally. I talked to the farmer and know that he sprays a pre-emergent herbicide at planting, and then does nothing else. I have the name of the herbicide somewhere, but when I researched it, I wasn't too concerned. I do try my best to buy organic products, but can't always afford to do so. Occasionally I am able to pick up some organic wheat from the local organic distillery, but I knew the owners already from taking away a lot of their spent grains (mash) to supplement pigs and lambs.

Wheat seed can be treated with anti-fungals, but I do not know if they have to be labeled. Your state's wheat growing happens mostly in the coastal regions and are harvested June-July. It looks like there are a lot of organic wheat producers out there. You may want to reach out to them at some point and see if you can get any or if they sell to any smaller farms who resell it for forage systems. Summer through early fall may also be a time to look at your local craigslist to see if anyone is selling it.

Another source of wheat are breweries who make wheat beer. Not only do they have spent grains, but if they are already set up to get those spent grains to farmers, they may be willing to sell some of the fresh grain to them also - often at cost.

And I'm sure you already know this, but I'm putting this in for anyone who may come across this thread at a later date: Wheat should not be the only food stuffs available to waterfowl especially geese.
You are a wealth of info @rainplace today just to get some wheat into Babe I bought organic in the bins at the grocery store. I know they can't eat it solely I feed fermented feed so this will go into the ff. Hopefully it plus the Nutritional yeast and greens will get him back to well oiled feathers. This will give me time to find wheat that I know is food grade . I saw on the Sams Club web site they had 40lb for 38.90 little less than 1.00 a pound I'll keep looking though.
 
I saw on the Sams Club web site they had 40lb for 38.90 little less than 1.00 a pound I'll keep looking though.

Goodness gracious that's expensive. I wonder if you called the person from the craigslist ad you could get not only information about the wheat he's selling, but also he may know where you can acquire wheat closer to home.

I called the farm my grains come from and this is what he told me:
I get field run grains, meaning he does very little post processing which is why they still have dirt and field debris mixed in them. There's not much. I do a lot of sprouting for the animals, and find my grains are mostly dusty, sometimes have a couple of small rocks, and chaff. He said what you're looking for is either field run or feed wheat, but never seed wheat (which has often had fungicide and/or pesticide treatment). Food grade wheat is of course the cleanest of all the grades, and because it's handled more, costs more.
 
Goodness gracious that's expensive. I wonder if you called the person from the craigslist ad you could get not only information about the wheat he's selling, but also he may know where you can acquire wheat closer to home.

I called the farm my grains come from and this is what he told me:
I get field run grains, meaning he does very little post processing which is why they still have dirt and field debris mixed in them. There's not much. I do a lot of sprouting for the animals, and find my grains are mostly dusty, sometimes have a couple of small rocks, and chaff. He said what you're looking for is either field run or feed wheat, but never seed wheat (which has often had fungicide and/or pesticide treatment). Food grade wheat is of course the cleanest of all the grades, and because it's handled more, costs more.
Okay so that is expensive I'll go to craigs list around this part of NC and see if I can find some field run or feed wheat. I have been painting the inside of my house so just haven't taken the time to look on there plus I can ask at my feed store if they sell or know of anyone in the area who does. Do you sift to get out the dust etc?
Thanks for taking the time to do all this searching.
 
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@servpolice

One place I visited called it "Sooty Mould Exposure," but when I used the search criteria "sooty mould exposure" + geese, the only hits were back to the website that gave me that name to begin with.  When I removed the quotation marks and + sign, I  got hits for fungi that infect citrus and olive trees... no willow there.  Replacing mould with mold didn't yield me anything better.

Again, I don't know what I think about the "mould" thing.  I keep running into writings of it, but could not find any sources or instances where waterfowl were infected with and treated for this problem.  I spent about 45 minutes yesterday trying to run something down.  If you find something, or if due to all your willows, your geese succumb to this "willow mould"  please pm me as I would be interested in putting that into my files! 

Doh, maybe I should have searched for ducks, and Victoria Roberts, and plant spores... if I have time later I might do so. 

@Miss Lydia

Regarding wheat.  I don't know how much help I can be.  The wheat I buy is grown semi-locally.  I talked to the farmer and know that he sprays a pre-emergent herbicide at planting, and then does nothing else.  I have the name of the herbicide somewhere, but when I researched it, I wasn't too concerned.  I do try my best to buy organic products, but can't always afford to do so.  Occasionally I am able to pick up some organic wheat from the local organic distillery, but I knew the owners already from taking away a lot of their spent grains (mash) to supplement pigs and lambs.

Wheat seed can be treated with anti-fungals, but I do not know if they have to be labeled.  Your state's wheat growing happens mostly in the coastal regions and are harvested June-July.  It looks like there are a lot of organic wheat producers out there.  You may want to reach out to them at some point and see if you can get any or if they sell to any smaller farms who resell it for forage systems.  Summer through early fall may also be a time to look at your local craigslist to see if anyone is selling it.

Another source of wheat are breweries who make wheat beer.  Not only do they have spent grains, but if they are already set up to get those spent grains to farmers, they may be willing to sell some of the fresh grain to them also - often at cost.

And I'm sure you already know this, but I'm putting this in for anyone who may come across this thread at a later date:  Wheat should not be the only food stuffs available to waterfowl especially geese.


I will update you
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I'm going to do research also because it's interesting of how it happens especially if you never heard of it before.
 

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