Need help...

[caddsgn]

Our drake has slowed down the last week. We thought he was just tired of all of the heat. See photos. These appear to be cystic with no stalk, and only in the skin. We put some hydrogen peroxide on it. Does anyone have any idea what this is and how to treat it? Thanks!

 

[Debbie292d]

Are these like tumors underneath the skin that grew outward, or are those growths attached to its skin?

Do your ducks have access to natural ponds? I'm wondering if it's picked up some type of bacteria or water mite. Before knowing how to treat it, we'd have to try figure out what it is.

I'd start giving him some vitamins to at least help keep him strong. We use Poultry Cell for both the chickens and the ducks.

Let me see if one of our chicken experts minds looking at this as I've never seen anything like it. @Wyorp Rock @azygous @Eggcessive

 

[caddsgn]

We have a kiddie pool that gets rinsed and cleaned out at least once a day. We had nine other ducks that we recently gave to someone else, keeping our drake and two females. We raised these three, so we wanted to keep them. Their pen is a mix of hardened dirt and mulch. They have a 100' perimeter fence they stay in during the day. We have a lot of chickens, as well. All are healthy and well, except for this.

We'll begin the Poultry Cell in the morning. We should have some sitting around.

 

[azygous]

My first reaction seeing the photos was that they looked like multiple feather cysts. To find out, take a sterilized razor blade or an Xacto knife and make a tiny, shallow cut in the middle of one of them. If these are feather cysts, an ingrown feather will pop out, looking like a tiny curved stalk.

I've had experience with skin tumors, and these don't resemble anything I've seen.

 

[caddsgn]

Another group had a post saying it was a feather cyst.

My first reaction seeing the photos was that they looked like multiple feather cysts. To find out, take a sterilized razor blade or an Xacto knife and make a tiny, shallow cut in the middle of one of them. If these are feather cysts, an ingrown feather will pop out, looking like a tiny curved stalk.

I've had experience with skin tumors, and these don't resemble anything I've seen.

My wife says, "It's very nice of people to respond." This is her pet. We will take a stab at this in the morning. Pun intended. Thank you!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

My first reaction seeing the photos was that they looked like multiple feather cysts. To find out, take a sterilized razor blade or an Xacto knife and make a tiny, shallow cut in the middle of one of them. If these are feather cysts, an ingrown feather will pop out, looking like a tiny curved stalk.

I've had experience with skin tumors, and these don't resemble anything I've seen.

I agree, it looks like feather cysts to me too.

Keep us posted on how it goes, photos, if possible, there's always something to learn.

Another group had a post saying it was a feather cyst.

My wife says, "It's very nice of people to respond." This is her pet. We will take a stab at this in the morning. Pun intended. Thank you!

 

[Debbie292d]

Keep us posted on how it goes, photos, if possible, there's always something to learn.

Yes, please do! I'd love to know what you find out! I have both chickens and ducks, and in 9 years, never seen anything like it on mine or anyone else's in this forum.

Ask your wife to take good pictures of you doing it, or vice versa, as you two could be teaching us a lot!

 

[caddsgn]

UPDATE:

My wife and I performed surgery this morning. Our boy is doing well.

His belly was cool this morning, so the infection had subsided overnight. We think it's due to the hydrogen peroxide, which another group said to not use. Oh well.

He was very calm during the entire process, and only flinched once when I pulled out a good feather. Oops.

Attached are some photos, not too many though. Using a scalpel and tweezers from my medical kit (I've never used before), I was able to remove a lot of material from many of the cysts while my beautiful assistant held our patient. There was about 5x the amount of material extracted than shown in the final photo.

We are very relieved. Our boy is much happier. He knew we were trying to help. We used Vetericyn spray to help clean up the area afterward. And his females were happy to have him back. We will apply more hydrogen peroxide, Vetericyn, and ivermectin paste, as needed, over the next several days. We hope we will not need to perform another surgery on him, but we will if need be.

I hope all this helps!

Now, I need to attend to our newly hatched 15 chicks; 7 more eggs to go! They will join our other 29 chickens soon.