bill problem??

[Hennyhandler]

My drake is right around 6 months old and right above the bean on his bill a whitish spot formed. I had read something awhile back (when I didn't have ducks) about this occuring to someone else's drake and remembered that they had found out by others that this was normal and okay. So I figured this was okay, well the other day when I looked at it, on the side of his bill right against the whitish spot the yellow was a different color and it looked like it was coming off a little. Kinda like when you get a sunburn, I guess.

There is nothing else that indicates a change and it does not bother him and he is not sick from what I can see. If anyone has had any experience with this or could know what it could possibly be, please let me know. Thanks in advance!

 

[Alicia G]

Its sounds like the skin is shedding or'molting' if you will. Its normal for their beaks to do that on occasion. kinda like when chickens leg shed a layer of dead skin. Your drake may have had a small abcess (hense the small white spot) causing him to lose the dead skin on his beak early. Keep an eye on the white spot, if it starts to swell up I would suggest cleaning his beak with warm water with epsom salts (you can get it at an pharmasy) it will help draw out the infection.

 

[Hennyhandler]

It is not small like a dot. It is more like a nickel size area that is a milky white over the orange and then the other spot beside that one that is also maybe the size of a nickel that is a lighter yellow that looks slightly raised and what a sunburn would be like on a duck. Either way though, from what you said I shouldn't be overly concerned about it. This is normal, yes? Thanks for helping too.

 

[Amiga]

Drei had a blistery spot on her bill - I think it began with an injury (poked herself on something pointed and sharp, I am guessing). I put antibiotic ointment on it for weeks and it did not do anything, except slowly get a little bigger. Then I started putting comfrey salve with pau d'arco (antifungal) in it and over several weeks it began getting smaller - now it is almost gone.

This is not science, I know, but it may help.

Sometimes they get fungal infections.

 

[Hennyhandler]

Do you think that I should try that, Amiga? I don't see anything that would be wrong with doing so, I don't guess.

 

[Amiga]

I don't think it could hurt. The salve is easy to make. Olive oil, comfrey, beeswax, a tad of vitamin E, and take a tablespoon of that salve and add a capsule of pau d'arco. You could even try just a capsule of pau d'arco (or a quarter teaspoon finely ground) and enough olive oil and/or vitamin E to make it into a paste. Apply it twice a day to the bill and see. It took weeks to see the difference, but it has seemed to make an improvement. Since this is not a double-blind scientifically designed trial, we could also guess that her immune system finally got the upper hand.

I make the salve in a kind of seat-of-the-pants way. So I add a good handful of wilted fresh comfrey leaves to a cup of olive oil. I heat that in a double boiler for about twenty minutes, then turn off the heat, cover and let sit overnight. I strain out the comfrey leaves in the morning and freeze them for compresses. I reheat the oil and add beeswax, about an ounce at a time, till the consistency is what I want (dip a spoon into the mixture and let it cool). Then I squirt a vitamin E oil capsule into the salve, and pour the salve into containers. Some of my containers are about a couple of tablespoons' worth. To that I add the contents of a capsule of pau d'arco.

Hope you find something that makes it all better soon!

 

[katharinad]

It's amazing how herbs can help. I would even use antifungal cream with vitamin E from the store. Beeswax is always good, because it is also antifungal, plus it seals the bill from more stuff getting into it. For that I would melt beeswax and add a little bit of lanolin to it so it stays soft once melted. I guess a little bit of pretroleum jelly or even the antifungal cream will do the same. Bag balm is also a good solution.