Possible Wet Feather

[Ronnie_]

Hi all,
How do I determine if my Cayuga has wet feather? It’s a bit difficult as she’s all black, but compared to my 2 khaki campbells she seems to be more “wet” at a given time. It was dark tonight so I’ll check tomorrow to make sure she has no mites or anything under her feathers.

But she has patches of brown fluff on her center chest and near her back end- which I think might be her down and perhaps she’s finally molting? These areas don’t have her normal black feathers

They have access to horse buckets to dunk until temperature drop more. (pool was removed 5 days ago) I’m doing deep litter method in their coop, so it hasn’t had a deep clean (complete bedding removal) in 2 months- but i between layers of straw I sprinkle either First Saturday lime, DE, or coop deodorizer. - Maybe I should do a complete deep clean?

They are eating a mix of Mana Pro duck and goose egg layer pellets and Kalmbach duck pellets in a ratio for 16% protein and 3% calcium. Oyster shell free range with treats of green peas in the AM.

I’m just worried with the snow and cold rain coming in it will be more damp, and I don’t want her chilled. How do you tell if it’s wet feather or molting?

 

[casportpony]

Can you post a picture of her?

 

[Ronnie_]

Can you post a picture of her?

I’ll have to grab one in the morning, as it was dusk when I was putting them away.

 

[Jenbirdee]

You should check her oil gland, majestic waterfowl sanctuary has a great article about wetfeather and oil gland problems. Scroll down to Oil Gland
http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/mmissue71.htm

 

[Ronnie_]

You should check her oil gland, majestic waterfowl sanctuary has a great article about wetfeather and oil gland problems. Scroll down to Oil Gland
http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/mmissue71.htm

Thank you! How would I locate the oil glad on her tail end? I’m guessing it further up from the vent/cloaca on the skin, so I just feel around until I hopefully get oily fingers?

 

[Jenbirdee]

It is located on top of the base of the tail, on the lower back, just in front of the tail feathers.
You may have seen your ducks rubbing their bill in that spot to get oil on it and then they put the oil all over their feathers

 

[Ronnie_]

I’ll have to grab one in the morning, as it was dusk when I was putting them away.

Here’s my gal Toast, she’s only dunked her head in water so far before this pics. I placed her in the water afterward, and she is preening. @casportpony and @Jenbirdee I’ll be going out shortly to grab her with my husband to get a better look under her wings/armpit for anything as she’s picky about being handled a lot.

She doesn’t feel the same as my other 2 though when I do hold her.

 

[Ronnie_]

I’ll have to grab one in the morning, as it was dusk when I was putting them away.

Here’s my gal Toast, she’s only dunked her head in water so far before this pics. I placed her in the water afterward, and she is preening. @casportpony and @Jenbirdee I’ll be going out shortly to grab her with my husband to get a better look under her wings/armpit for anything as she’s picky about being handled a lot.

She doesn’t feel the same as my other 2 though when I do hold her.

 

[Ronnie_]

@Jenbirdee and @casportpony i checked her gland, you can definitely feel her glad (I’m assuming it’s supposed to be raised- almost like a chickpea size? I’m not sure how I’d diagnose if it’s clogged) I massaged it and had an oil on my finger.
I checked her armpits and didn’t see any lice. I was seeing occasional white bits but they weren’t uniform like rice grains or moving so that’s possibly dry skin flakes? She was shedding a lot of downas I handled her- is it possible she’s molting?

None Of my girls really molted in the fall (all 3 are 10 months old). I didn’t see any mites-or was bit by anything. I did completely deep clean their coop- swept it out and re applied base layer of DE and FSL before putting in new bedding. I did not see any moving bugs while deep cleaning.

Should I start giving nutri-drench? Is it a molt? My other girls do not look as shaggy as Toast, I’ll check them out later to make sure no one is carrying anything - I can’t see anything myself on them.


My thought is to bring all 3 into the tub tomorrow and let them soak and play before blow drying them and returning to the coop. We’re expecting a cold week here.

I can’t really afford an avian vet fee atm to take her in- maybe I’m just worrying and paranoid

 

[Jenbirdee]

Ducks rarely get parasites , they spend too much time in water for bugs to survive lol. I think you are right, molting! I once thought one of my runners had wet feather but she didnt either, she was molting . The nutridrench is a great idea, or "rooster booster poultry cell" is even better (to help new feathers grow in stronger and faster ) You can also try ti raise her protein intake a little, serve some scrambled eggs perhaps.