Flight Feather Issues

[jemjdragon]

Hey everyone,
I'm hoping someone can help me with ChaCha again.
I came home from Davis and it seems ChaCha's flight feathers seem really messed up.
She eats layer chicken pellets that are not medicated.
Has water, grit, and oyster shell available.
She drinks normally and has water available to wash.
She molted her flight feathers about 2-3 months ago.
She is going to be 3 years old at the end of July.
I wasn't here when she grew them back but now that I am back, they look bad. The shafts/quills from the feathers towards the middle of her wings seem stripped of vane. Her primary flight feathers still have vane. I looked at her wings and don't see any mites or parasites. But her feathers also seem really dry.

My questions are:
What should I do?
Can she get angel wing at 3 years old?
Should I still put mite powder or something on her?
Should I get a different food? She isn't laying, maybe I should get mazuri waterfowl because she technically doesn't need layer food? Or should I mix layer pellets and waterfowl food?
Is this a nutrient deficiency?
Or is it because the weather here is so dry so the feather vanes are breaking off? (in CA in the middle of the drought)
Or could this be stress related?
Do I need to clip the ruined feathers off?
And finally, should I take her to the vet? I can afford a check up but I don't think I can afford any extensive tests.

I will post pictures tomorrow. It is too dark for pictures now.

 

[jemjdragon]

Here are the photos:
Top of wing
Bottom of wing
How she looks like with wings folded

 

[jemjdragon]

I just wanted to give an update. I took ChaCha to the vet last week for a few reasons. I noticed that she had started to develop bumblefoot, which is the main reason I took her.
Good news, her bumblefoot is only at stage 1, so it is only inflamed and not infected.
Bad news, her bumblefoot was caused by 2 issues:
1. ChaCha is over weight so as a result she has too much weight on her feet
2. Her new kiddy pool we got for her ~1 month ago is too shallow and doesn't allow her to float meaning she is on her feet too much. Her old kiddy pool was deeper so she was able
to float but always had to replace it because it was the type that would rip often (have had to replace this pool about 10 times since we have had her)

Anyways, replaced the kiddy pool with a 115 gallon stock tank, which is 2 feet deep and won't get destroyed by her usage. We still need to finish making her a ramp to get into it but she likes floating around in it and doing duck things when we place her in it.
I changed her food to Mazuri waterfowl. I not sure how she will take to it since she has always had layer crumble/pellets but since she is not laying, the vet said I should switch to a maintenance feed and give her more green things to eat. What do you guys do when you change feeds that may look/feel different?

Now back to her feather issue. Apparently it is due to boredom/stress. She is preening too much and to the point she is stripping her feathers. I'm not really sure how to fix this. I am only at home during the summer and then I will be leaving to go back to Davis for school. I do socialize with her while I am here but during the school year when I am not here, my boyfriend and his family usually only do the basic chores for her (clean the pen, feed/water her, change her bedding, and change her swimming water). No one really will sit with her out side and keep her company.

So my new question is, what can I do to keep her from getting bored/stressed to the point she preens too much?

I looked up duck enrichment items online but most are not really specific. A lot say to tie lengths of rope/plastic chain on her pen so she can tug on it or look at it. Others say to put objects (to big for her to eat) in her pool that sink so she can find them. I saw at a pet store a metal ball you fill with lettuce that you then hang up and rabbits/guinea pigs will pull lettuce out of it, could that work for a duck? I also ordered her a new duck diaper (one that won't leak/is waterproof).

 

[Amiga]

See if you can get ahold of Kim Link's book, The Ultimate Pet Duck Guidebook.

One thing that came to mind is carefully tying a bouquet of greens to a cord suspended from the fence - something overhead, she can peck at for a while. I also have chopped straw as the base in the Day Pen (not under the swim pans - that is smooth pea gravel). The straw composts and attracts worms, that the ducks can noodle around for.