Duckling Deformity - Mass on head

[lericson]

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone else has ever seen a duckling with an odd red mass on the top of his head. He is acting like a normal ducking. he hatched out just a couple hours ago and is doing good. Anyone know what would cause this? genetics? back luck? bad incubation? Any chance that is will go away?

Parents are "feed store" stock pekin ducks, there is one blue swedish male that also runs with them, so could be a cross. I incubated him and 28 other eggs in an LG incubator, 5 total have hatched, the other 4 are normal, but they are hatching about 2 days late (day 28 was Saturday at noon, and these guys all started pipping Sunday morning, and hatching out today, Monday)

 

[Amiga]

Poor little one. I have not seen anything like that. Did you post this over on Thread Formerly Known as Hatch Day is Today?

Glad he is doing well otherwise.

 

[Kevin565]

Do any of your birds carry the crested gene?

 

[lericson]

Do any of your birds carry the crested gene?

Hi Kevin,

Not that I know of - I purchased the parents at a feed store, I think they get them from a hatchery but I am not 100% certain of that.

 

[Kevin565]

It looks similar to this ducking: http://www.faithvalleywaterfowl.com/crested_call_genetics.html

I've heard of a few crested ducklings that have hatched that way but I haven't heard of any other causes for that besides the crested gene. Hopefully, someone with more hatching experience can chime in on this.

 

[learycow]

It simply looks like a deformity, not like it was supposed to be a crested duckling.
I have never hatched any like that, but I have read that deformities like that can be a result of inbreeding.
One thing you might want to try, if you plan to hatch a lot more, is switch out your drake. That way you know for sure that there's no chance of inbreeding occuring. Just a thought

 

[hanjj033]

Hi, I know this is a super late post, but I have just had a duckling hatch with EXACTLY this condition, what did you do, what happened to your duckling did it end up dieing from the deformity? Any info would be amazing! Even if I have to put the poor duckie down, its better then it suffering.

 

[WVduckchick]

Hi, I know this is a super late post, but I have just had a duckling hatch with EXACTLY this condition, what did you do, what happened to your duckling did it end up dieing from the deformity? Any info would be amazing! Even if I have to put the poor duckie down, its better then it suffering.

Looks like the thread starter hasn't been on here since 2014. They also posted in a hatch-along, and never mentioned the duck dying, so maybe that's a good sign!

 

[Chickapuff]

Glad I found this thread because one of our ducklings just hatched with this same deformity. One of our ducks is crested so I'm guessing its hers. Hope he or she survives!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hope so too