Pekin duck wound?

[Voska454]

I have 5, month or so old pekins and when I came home my wife said that the largest one had some large bloody areas on his back, and when I went to inspect he has 2 nearly palm sized bald spots on both sides of his back that appear swollen & picked clean of feathers.

I'll be going to get some veterycin tomorrow and I wiped the spots down with warm salt water. From searching the web it kind of resembles ingrown feather spots?

But those cases seem to always indicate different areas instead of right behind where the wings lay.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Do you have chickens in with these ducks? Something has plucked those feathers clean down to the raw skin. Or a predator got hold of him.

 

[Isaac 0]

x2!

Keep applying the vetericyn to the bare spot once you get it, but you need to find out how this happened because it will happen again most likely.

 

[CoriM]

Is there a chance a predator got to him? Have you ever observed the other ducks pulling feathers? You might need to isolate him from the other ducks - like in a wire duck crate where he still feels part of the flock - so you can keep the area clean and the other ducks can't get to it. I have a pekin who pulls feathers from just one of my other pekins. It's caused a lot of damage and I'm finally just now figuring out that it was happening more than I realized. I've separated them and my duck is healing now.

 

[quackiemama]

OMG that poor thing! Keep him isolated and find out what the heck happened. I hope he heals up quickly

 

[Voska454]

They are kept without chickens, today it looks like it has scabbed over a bit & I noticed the second largest picking at him a little, I believe since they are the two largest of the group they are both males and being territorial?

There is no evidence of a predator they're enclosure is large & connected to their run & 150 gallon dug in pond without any openings or indication another animal entered.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Maybe keep this one separated but where they can all see each other it’s going to take a while to heal.

 

[Voska454]

I've applied now peroxide and wiped with warm salt water and was able to Acquire some Bannix which my feed and seed said was nearly the same as veterycin.

And been watching the afflicted duck and he seems severely itchy and nibbling at himself.

Could this be a Mite problem??

 

[Miss Lydia]

On a white duck mites would be easy to see pull feather away from skin and look for tiny blk things that crawl. I can’t imagine your duck doing that much damage to himself. And use peroxide only once it will damage good tissue.

 

[CoriM]

I think you have a problem with the two ducks. This doesn't seem like mites at all. The ducks can pull feathers from each other and cause a lot of trauma. I would definitely separate those ducks right away. I know which duck is pulling from my pekin and like I said, I currently have their sleeping and daytime areas divided to separate those two ducks. It's a hassle, but what happened to your one poor duck is awful and he could get an infection and I'm sure his skin is very irritated. Keep doing what you're doing to heal his skin (except not peroxide like Miss Lydia said), but I would separate the problem duck you suspect right away. I regret not doing it sooner with my ducks. In my case, I think my Penny has an underlying skin issue already, but Tuppins feather pulling was making it much worse. Also in my case those two ducks are best friends and it wasn't that Penny was really being picked on. But she is looking much better with her feather-pulling friend on the other side of the fence.