Injured (?) Duck Mystery

[DuckDuckJuice]

Yesterday morning, when we let the ducks out into the yard, my husband noticed blood splattered on the sides of two of our ducks. They had no visible injuries, but we found additional blood splatter in their bedding, near where the girls drop their eggs, and on the wall above. We carefully checked over all six and couldn’t find anything wrong. All are acting normally, so we’re pretty confused about what might have happened. Any ideas? It was a decent amount of blood and I’m just concerned we’re missing something that might require treatment. The two with blood on them were a male and female Pekin. The other ducks are another male Pekin, two female Silver Appleyards, and a female Khaki Campbell. Also, I am well aware of proper drake-hen ratios for ducks, but one of our drakes is disabled and cannot breed, and none of our ducks have ever fought each other.

 

[Isaac 0]

Odds are one of the birds broke a pin feather, which tends to bleed profusely due to the capillary actions pin feathers possess, it can also cause a splattered look on walls.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Yup a blood feather is the most likely cause, no worries.

 

[DuckDuckJuice]

Odds are one of the birds broke a pin feather, which tends to bleed profusely due to the capillary actions pin feathers possess, it can also cause a splattered look on walls.

That was my first thought, but I wasn’t sure, as none of the birds had an area of more concentrated blood on them. I figured a pin feather would leave a patch of blood, soaking the immediate area. Though, it’s possible the KC or one of the SAs had blood on their darker feathers that we couldn’t see.

 

[DuckDuckJuice]

Yup a blood feather is the most likely cause, no worries.

Great, thank you!

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Np.