Dog attack: injured oil gland on gander

[fowltemptress]

Speaking of your mink oil idea, I just had a thought; I raise my birds for meat and have some slaughter days coming up at the end of next month. I wonder if it would be possible to harvest oil from the carcasses? I'll need to think on this.

 

[alinas2010]

Speaking of your mink oil idea, I just had a thought; I raise my birds for meat and have some slaughter days coming up at the end of next month. I wonder if it would be possible to harvest oil from the carcasses? I'll need to think on this.

Oh wow that’s a good idea! Try it, it can’t hurt at this point.

My husband is much better at optimism than I am, and keeps telling me to give it time and maybe it'll get better. In the meantime, my brain is screeching at me that Tex may experience a buildup of oil under his skin that can't release itself and die of complications from that. I'm distracting myself by looking for goose diapers. At the very least, I can be prepared to bring him inside on rainy winter days, and maybe he'd be happier on such occasions if he had free reign of the house.

With something like mink oil, were you thinking of dabbing it where the normal oil would accumulate and letting Tex spread it himself from there? I wonder if that would make his feathers better or worse? Maybe it'll be worth trying later on. He's outside during the day now and his feathers look pretty good. He's drenched after he bathes, but he stands in the sun and preens until he dries. I'm trying to be hands off for awhile and let nature figure things out for now.

You know, I wasn’t thinking to have him spread it around himself, but if he shows interest to, then I would say let him.

I thought this was sort of interesting, I’m sure you’ve seen it already and been researching up and down, left and right about this issue:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/preen-oil-replacement.1433640/

Perhaps you could contact a wildlife rehab group in your area and see how they handle birds that need help with similar issues as Tex.

I think that he will need lifelong help, but he may lead a relatively normal, healthy life with your help. I think we should be optimistic about this I’m with your husband. It seems like this can be common (edit to add: I mean he common enough that there are ways for us to help), he won’t die, don’t worry.