Are these angel wings?

[keyt1969]

This is my 1 yr old male call. I've had him and his 2 male brothers since they were a week old.

Last summer when he was about 3 months old, he had bleeding wings which looked like he got in a tangle with someone, but at the time he was only with his brothers. That was when I learned he had angel wings. I wrapped them with vet tape and haven't seen a problem since, they always looked normal. But recently I was noticing he would get in the pond and float, but not wash up like all of my other ducks, and he was looking really grungy. We have had a lot of rain here so all my ducks are dirty, but today I picked him up and noticed it wasn't just dirt. I cleaned him up to make sure it wasn't (the reason he's wet in the pics). His feathers, especially on his chest are like pins, not silky like all of my other ducks. Plus the middle of each wing is hard as a rock!

You can also see the bare spots which looked worse today than it had in the past which made me wonder. I have 22 ducks of all shapes and sizes but no one picks on him and he has a well-rounded diet. I hope he's not sick! Any ideas?

Bottom left

 

[Horsefly]

Thats really weird. I don't think it is angel wings, you would know if it was and they get it when they are growing in their first feathers. It's when the flight feathers grow outwards instead of tucked up against their body. Maybe he has mites or something? I seem to recall a thread from a awhile back about an older duck who stopped preening himself and became all scraggly like this but can't remember the outcome. Where the wing is hard can he still move them freely? Does he behave different than the others any? Someone with more experiance will reply soon and can give more help I'm sure.

 

[keyt1969]

Quote:
He flaps them normally, he runs around and eats normally and I looked for bugs and didn't see anything but dirt. But once my dogs both had fleas so bad and I remember the dirt from that so maybe...

I feel bad that I didn't look closer sooner. Like I said, we've had a lot of rain and melting snow, etc so all of my ducks have been filthy. But we've had warm weather for about a week now and almost everyone is completely clean except Sammy. In the last pic his brother Oliver (the other white call) is a little dirty but that was a few days ago, now he's snowy white.

If it's not angel wings that's causing him to lose the feathery part of his feathers and cause him to feel so prickly, then I don't know what to do! My calls are the sweetest little things so now I'm really worried! a

 

[mominoz]

Angel wing is when they hang down and can't fold up normally, they droop all the time. Usually connected to too high protein... feed imbalance. Looks like he isn't preening . See how the feathers are separated? May be to an illness or parasites....

 

[keyt1969]

Quote:
Yeah I have a cayuga and a muskovie with severe angel wing, but I got them when they were older from a friend. Sammy definitely had angel wing, with the hanging down, etc, but when I wrapped them they got better.

So if it's mites how do I treat it?