Crested duck - feather loss on head, sores

[dreamofwinter]

I have a White Crested duck whose crest feathers have broken off over the course of winter. I think they've frozen and broken off. She now has one exposed fleshy spot and another that is slightly bloody as if one of the chickens or other (female) ducks has pecked it.

Have others run into this? My questions are:
- is there any way to prevent further loss of feathers?
- do you think BluKote will help keep others from pecking where she's got exposed flesh, or do I need to figure out a way to isolate her completely?

I did take a look and the more raw spot is not deep or bleeding actively, so for now I put some Vetericyn on it. I'm puzzling over how to isolate her and/or all three ducks, since they currently live with the chickens and enjoy being together. I suppose I could set up an area in my (not entirely predator proof) barn for them in the day and put them in the coop at night for warmth/safety... thoughts?

Thanks from this first time duck owner. I let my hubby talk me into a crested but I won't be getting any more, poor thing.

 

[indianaducks]

If you have a dog crate or something, you could bring her into a garage for a few days in a crate so she can heal. I'm sure others here have more expertise though than I do so hopefully others will chime in!

 

[dreamofwinter]

I put her in a large mesh-sided pet playpen, inside the run. She's not happy about it but also not panicked as she's been in it before and can see her flock. I guess I'll keep her in here during the day and in the coop with the others at night for warmth (we've been in the -5 to -15 range the past few weeks at night).

Next winter she may be a house duck, because the feather damage is from a combo of freezing the feathers and then breaking them off, and the appealing brown frozen mud on them being plucked off by the others. The more I learn about cresteds the better an idea this seems.

 

[indianaducks]

I have a female white crested but her crest is pretty small. We haven't had any issues so far, knock on wood. She's a family favorite and while we don't really name our ducks, she is called "floof" cuz of the crest lol

 

[Miss Lydia]

Def apply blue kote to keep the chickens off of her.

 

[dreamofwinter]

A quick update on this - after I got BluKote onto the raw looking spot, I kept her in the playpen for the rest of the day. Since then she's been back with the flock and no further issues. The worst to come of it was that I spilled BluKote all over my hands, which will now be purple until 2023

 

[Miss Lydia]

Been there done that.
I now buy the dauber bottle and use that so I don't spray the stuff all over me and everything around me. I still have to be extremely careful when using it though. That stuff really works at staying on for a long time.

 

[dreamofwinter]

This was with a dauber bottle! I would hate to see the mess I could make with a sprayer

 

[Miss Lydia]

I should have taken pictures then you could have seen just what you can do with blue kote in a spray bottle.