I know other parts of the world have different options so use the reg iodine till you find out if you can get the clear. I tried reg once on one of my chicken hens didn't work near as well as the clear. it's the ammonia in the clear that really helps with the bumble. It's inexpensive here too so hopefully you can find it.Thank you Miss Lydia!
I don't see him mount Mei very often, he usually seems to prefer the muscovies (who don't like him). He does spend a lot of time with her though, they're usually together. I'll see if I can figure out a way to separate him to give her a break, see if it makes a difference. He actually doesn't mate in water, I've never seen him do it, always on land. The girls will mount each other in the pond but he just never does.
I can't see any parasites on them, we have a spray for lice and mites and things like that so I can just do that anyway. They are around wild birds a lot, there's a ton of brush turkeys where I live, and there's no real way I can find to keep them away, they come to steal the duck's food and eat their eggs if they can find any nests. There's also wild ducks which occasionally come into the garden.
His vent looks normal, nothing sticking out of it, just dirty and wet. I'll try to make sure he spends more time in the water, his feathers do feel stiff.
I'll check what feed options the store has next time I go, the only one I've seen before that's specifically for waterfowl is duck and goose finisher, which I assume isn't ideal for egg layers and pets. They do get oyster shell, not constant access but I give them a small bowl of it a couple times a day, and we also dry their egg shells in the oven and crush them up to feed back to them, which they seem to really like.
I can definitely do the epsom salt soak at least daily, they're not hard to catch, although they don't tolerate being held for too long. I don't know if I can easily get clear iodine, options are more limited in general in Australia, there may be somewhere online I could order it and I'll check in stores. Will normal iodine along with the epsom salt soaks work at least for now? Or is it important for it to be the clear iodine?
I really appreciate the help!
As far as your drake he may not be bathing to keep himself clean their poo is wet anyway and laying down and the wet poo may be his problem. I don't know if your climate is wet but sometimes there is a parasite problem[ worms ] so maybe if you have access to a vet you could take in some poo and have them check to make sure worms aren't the culprit.
Actually I use neem oil to keep mites out of my coops and duck/geese houses. From the Neem tree. It's a safe product to use and since mites like to stay in the cracks and crevices in our birds houses I just spray every thing down and let it dry for the day before letting my birds in for the night. Spraying top and bottom of roosts too if you have chickens.
As for feed I wanted to find a NON GMO feed and I did but they don't carry an all flock so I have been buying Broiler and Layer and mixing the two. Broiler is very similar to the All Flock Purina makes so I use it. That way my girls get layer and my boys aren't getting so much calcium plus they also have free choice Oyster shell. These are chicken feeds by the way no water fowl feed in my area. So look at the label of the finisher it may be okay to use for your birds.
I don't think any of us can keep wild birds -turkeys etc away when we have our own birds and food out for them it's just the way it is. [I enjoy having them around actually]
