Swollen oil gland and tiff off thick feathers growing out of it

[Kbduckmom]

How’s Dasher doing? I’ve been thinking about her and hoping things are improving.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

How’s Dasher doing? I’ve been thinking about her and hoping things are improving.

Thank you for asking
We are on week 7 of fungal meds and finally this week seeing a great improvement
I haven’t cleared gleet for a week
First time in 5 months
She is still acting normal
Never lost weight
Laid eggs everyday even when the avian vet tried ti give hormones to stop her to give her vent a break
She still laid daily
We have taken her off them as it did cause a new issue of really thin shells that break as she laid them
Her mind told her she wasn’t laying eggs from the hormone but her body continued so she didn’t eat oyster shells
I’m now giving her 1ml durvet calcium broke into 2 times a day
The shells are getting better

 

[Kbduckmom]

Thank you for asking
We are on week 7 of fungal meds and finally this week seeing a great improvement
I haven’t cleared gleet for a week
First time in 5 months
She is still acting normal
Never lost weight
Laid eggs everyday even when the avian vet tried ti give hormones to stop her to give her vent a break
She still laid daily
We have taken her off them as it did cause a new issue of really thin shells that break as she laid them
Her mind told her she wasn’t laying eggs from the hormone but her body continued so she didn’t eat oyster shells
I’m now giving her 1ml durvet calcium broke into 2 times a day
The shells are getting better

I’m glad things are improving. That whole thing just sounded awful. Are you still wanting to get her to stop laying? I’m currently treating one of my girls with an egg motility/gleet problem and I’m currently in the process of making her go broody. The hormones are starting to kick in, so I’m hoping the eggs stopping isn’t far behind. I got ideas from Tyrant Farms here:
https://www.tyrantfarms.com/why-and-how-to-make-a-duck-go-broody/

 

[Puddin816]

Good morning
A little back story leading up to what I found last night
Dasher was born dec 25/2021
I incubated her from my pekin mom and khaki dad
She has been a perfectly healthy bird up until 8 ish weeks ago
She started to lay eggs in April of 2022 and has laid one a day since even through all her issues the past 2 months
She has been acting normal , eating. Drinking , preening and running with her flock not staying behind
First time I noticed something was I heard a wet type poo while cleaning the pen and grabbed her and had a look. I saw what I thought was poo stuck all over her vent area and a slight prolapse. Being -35-48 C. I thought frozen poo
I brought her in and did several baths and trying to loosen it
But it wasn’t budging
So we went to the vet
They cleared her and put the prolapse back in
A week later we were back to the vet as she was built up with gleet again and her urethra would slip out with every poo but she would pump to get it back in
Her eggs would at times have a blood streak on them from being swollen down there and pushing
Vets put her on an antibiotic and medicam
She takes her meds very well and I would clean her vent 3 times a day with iodine , first aid spray for birds and cream for yeast infections
After course of antibiotics she still had the gleet and my vet said it’s time for avian vet
So we travelled 3 hours to the avian vet who took X-rays , blood work and poo samples. They found an intestinal bacterial infection and said she was a bit anemic from the blood on eggs and found little bits in her poo
But a few days before we went to the avian vet I noticed her feathers felt very dry and rough. My birds are usually very soft and silky
I told the avian vet this but she figured she wasn’t preening well enough not feeling good
We started new antibiotics and my vet office got results and followed the avian vets suggestions.
First 6 days things looked to be clearing up in the vent area but feathers still rough and when she would try to preen in her water dish she would get soaking wet
But the vet office only had enough meds for 6 days and I needed to grab the last 4 days worth on day 6
The second set was different
One was white and now it was brown
Said it was the same thing just one was compounded other wasn’t
But then the gleet was packing up again
Finished antibiotics and back to square one
Back to the vet we went more blood work and more poo samples ( waiting on those results ) again I said her feathers feel rough and dry and she gets soaked when trying to wash herself
Once again chalked up to she isn’t preening enough
My girl is still in high spirits and acting normal but I’m sure she wishes mom would not be invading her vent 3 times a day for the last 2 months
I have also been giving her probiotics 1/2 tsp as recommended on some peas that she happily gobbles up
Last night I found her soaking wet again and cold brought her inside and watched her preen
So I checked her oil gland ( why didn’t I do this before
Better yet after over 1700 dollars on vet bill why didn’t either of my vets check her in the exams
She has a rock hard and swollen oil gland with a thick short tuff of feathers growing out the centre of it
I tried looking online and can’t find anything like this
I stared warm wet compresses last night and we are back to the vet in a few hours and if my regular vet can’t deal with it then we are headed back to the avian vet
I have 16 ducks and nobody else is having issues so this isn’t contagious
She must have ate something she shouldn’t by digging
I clean my pens daily I don’t add more over top I clean every poo
I rinse and refill waters twice a day and in the evening when I’m cleaning the pen I bring a third fresh water out that they enjoy while I clean
I get them fresh feed morning and late afternoon and wash the bowls out each evening so fresh start in morning
They are given treats such as spring mix greens daily in winter and then dry cat food , peas and fruit a few times a week not large amounts just treat size that they gobble up right away so nothing is ever left to go bad
Any tips or advice would be great
She is such a lovely girl and has such a great fight in her
I don’t care what the cost is we will keep going to the vets till my girl is back to normal
I’ll attach pics of her oil gland

I had a question about the little feathers coming out of her gland. My duckling she’s about 6 weeks has this same thing. I’m not sure if it’s normal or if I need to get them plucked too. She preens but her feathers are still a little Damp as well. She also has the stinky poo you’re talking about, we might just be raising the same duck haha

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

@casportpony
@HollowOfWisps
@Miss Lydia
Any ideas? Or know who else we can tag

 

[ruthhope]

Wanted to update miss dasher
Her results came back and she has aspergillosis not in her lungs
Her lungs sound great. Her heart is good and her X-rays didn’t show any lung issues
We started new meds for this yesterday
Was told 60-90 days
While waiting for these meds to get in I started to give her silver 10 ppm. 1ml 3 times a day as well as cleaning her vent then adding monistat cream inside and silver spay 40ppm outside. We did see slight improvements
Not as much gleat build up per day
Here is the meds she was put on
The cost was crazy but really I’m so far into this has to be 3000 or over by now that I’m not worried about cost to save her
She is still acting normal
She eats , drinks , runs with her mates , preens and still lays an egg daily
I have her inside with daisy as I need to be able to catch her to clean her vent so much plus she still has wet feather and our temps are freezing so I can’t chance her getting wet outside
Not sure why we have wet feather
She preens
Maybe it’s the aspergillosis that’s causing her oil to be off
Only time will tell
When all this started she didn’t have wet feather. I was bathing her to get the build up off
It was after meds and about 3 weeks into all of this
We are now over 3.5 months at this
She did finish her baytril and amoxicillin for the elevated bacterials they found and her poo no longer has the bad smell

Is she continuing to improve, @New duck mommy 2021 ?

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Is she continuing to improve, @New duck mommy 2021 ?

No not really
But just started the fungal meds a week ago
Her oil gland is unclogged now but she continues to get soaking wet no matter how much she preens
I just don’t know how much she is actually putting oil on herself

 

[ruthhope]

No not really
But just started the fungal meds a week ago
Her oil gland is unclogged now but she continues to get soaking wet no matter how much she preens
I just don’t know how much she is actually putting oil on herself

I hope you see improvement soon. My special needs pekin has wet feather as he has a deformed bill and doesn't adequately preen himself. Well he is preening all the time, but not stimulating the gland or spreading the oil. But I hope your little girl is over the aspergillosis soon

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I’m glad things are improving. That whole thing just sounded awful. Are you still wanting to get her to stop laying? I’m currently treating one of my girls with an egg motility/gleet problem and I’m currently in the process of making her go broody. The hormones are starting to kick in, so I’m hoping the eggs stopping isn’t far behind. I got ideas from Tyrant Farms here:
https://www.tyrantfarms.com/why-and-how-to-make-a-duck-go-broody/

I did try to get her ti go broody
Mom was even sitting on eggs and she would sniff around but never attempted to sit herself

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I had a question about the little feathers coming out of her gland. My duckling she’s about 6 weeks has this same thing. I’m not sure if it’s normal or if I need to get them plucked too. She preens but her feathers are still a little Damp as well. She also has the stinky poo you’re talking about, we might just be raising the same duck haha

It is normal to have a little feathers there but not a big clump
If you can get oil on your finger then she should be okay
If no oil comes out you may need to thin the feathers out
At 6 weeks she will be getting her adult feathers so things may seem wet as they come in and she starts to preen them