Muscovy hen bald on neck— mating or other issue??

[Kaitlin H]

Hello everyone, I’m new to Backyard Chickens and this is my first post. Hoping to get some opinions...

We have 13 chocolate Muscovy ducks that we hatched from eggs last summer that are almost a year old now—10 hens and 3 drakes. We’ve had ducks for about 20 years but this is our first time with muscovies (we’re completely smitten with them!).

I noticed that one of our sweet girls is balding very badly on her neck. My first thought was it was from the drakes mating because I had seen this happen with our other ducks in the past. But this looks different than what I’ve seen before and I’m suspicious it might be something else. I’ve never seen a hen with this bald of a neck—it’s all over, not just in one spot on the back of the neck like I’ve seen before from mating. Also, none of the other hens have any missing feathers on their necks, just this one. She seems normal and healthy other than the missing feathers, although when she was preening tonight I noticed that she did seem to be scratching at the bare skin quite a bit like it was itchy.

I’ve attached photos. Could this be from mating or something else?

 

[CluckerFamily]

Welcome to BYC!!
It does look like it isn’t from mating.
Have you checked for parasites like mites?

 

[Kaitlin H]

Welcome to BYC!!
It does look like it isn’t from mating.
Have you checked for parasites like mites?

We didn’t see anything crawling on the bald spots but we didn’t look through her feathers. I’ll have to check her more closely tomorrow and see if I can find anything!

 

[CrazyCochin]

Is she the only one? Perhaps she is getting into fights with her fellow flock members?

 

[bhaugh]

Is she able to swim?