Hay causing sore skin?

[fee12345678]

Hi All, I'm after some help and advise please. My three ducklings (12 days old) look like they have slightly matted fluff on their bellys which looks a bit sore.
I would like to bathe them to get a better look but shall I just do it with water or is there anything mild enough for them?
Also could them being on hay cause this??

Sorry for all the questions
Thank you x

 

[BonRae67]

Just water is fine but I use baby shampoo on chicks and silkies. Is there anything in the fluff on the bellies? You can try some pine shavings to see if they get better.

 

[Orca5094]

Have you been allowing them to bathe daily to keep clean? Is it maybe just dried poop on their bellies that they've sat in and just need to clean off? I'd give them a nice warm (but not hot of course!) bath and let them clean themselves off. Just plain water, no soap. Then you can better see what's going on.

 

[fee12345678]

Thank you for your super speedy replies. I was told not to bathe them for a few weeks so that they don't get too cold. I've just bathed them in warm water which they loved and the skin doesn't actually look sore.

However on the two cherry valleys, they have lost some of the fluff on their wings. Is this where the feathers will be coming through when they are older?
As you can tell I am new to ducklings!!

 

[Orca5094]

Ducklings can (and should if you ask me) be allowed to swim and bathe from about 2 days old. You just have to start out with very low water level and short bathing sessions, dry them off with a towel, and put them right back in their brooder under a heat lamp. As they get older you can make the water deeper so they can actually swim. At 12 days they can have water deep enough to swim and dive in, just keep the sessions short so none of them get waterlogged or too cold.

They will start getting feathers in very soon, so I would thing the missing fluff probably is just due to that. Can you post pics at all? Just to be sure it's not something else going on.

And glad their skin looks ok! I imagine they just got a bit too dirty, ducklings are extremely messy little buggars.

 

[buff goose guy]

could the hay be pokeing them in the stomach?

 

[Amykins]

I'm with Orca, as long as you get them warm and dry as soon as possible afterward, it's good for ducklings to start swimming in warmish water from early on! It helps kickstart their oil gland production and prevents their fluff from matting with mud, poop and whatever else they can find.