Hello, I have 4 ducks and 1 drake. They were born in May 2016 so 9 months old. Curly the male has been mounting the females for some time now. They started laying in Dec and I have hatched babies from them. Today when they were taking their baths in their pool we (my daughter and I) noticed black on their backs! So we started the chase lol caught each one and 3 out of the 4 females have a bald spot on their backs. We flushed, cleaned and put a honey wound gel I have on the wounds. (Blukote was at home 9 miles away) Does this mean I need more ducks for my drake? Do I need to seperate so the girls can heal? Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!!
Is that their backs? Overmating usually causes bald spots on the back of the head or neck That looks to me like the oil gland. Is it raw there? I don't see any redness...
I wonder if the oil glands have some kind of issue going on. Sounds like you are observant - good job! Could we consider it may not be from mating - that does usually show up (problems with overmating) with missing feathers and raw skin on the back of the neck, as @Bills vs Beaks noted. Do you suppose they are getting into something dark and greasy with their bills, then rubbing that off on their preen glands? Does it smell like petroleum? Is there a fire pit where they might be picking up charcoal? What else is black that they might be getting on their bills? Just trying to think sideways about this.....
