Wet feather during storm

[kjackson1992]

A little backstory first.

We noticed one of our Muscovy ducks wasnt looking too great, feathers were clumped and they were dirty, we thought maybe he was just molting ready for winter, however after a couple of days this hadnt changed at all, so i went out caught him and he was soaked through, brought him inside gave him a warm shower to clean him off and hopefully warm him up, and noticed he had a big yellow spot under his feathers where his oil gland is, i figured it must be blocked and thats why his feathers have fallen into disarray, gave it a good soak and done my best to just massage it gently to try and clear whatever may be blocking it and then dried him off very gently with a towel followed by a nice session with a hair dryer until he was completely dry.

Sent him back outside on his way with a couple of nice days of weather for him to sort his feathers out and preen them again, however we now have a 10 day forecast of torrential rain and heavy winds and he is back to looking scruffy and damp.

None of our ducks will actively seek shelter and if we herd them in they just walk back out once we leave even if we block off the place they stay they find a way out. All our other ducks are fine and still water proof however our big boy Muscovy is not doing great, i'd rather him not get a chill and get sick, does anybody have any suggestions as to what we can do?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Has he molted yet my Muscovies molt in fall before winter. Usually once they molt those feathers are looking good again and water proof. Try adding some good quality cat kibble to his feed [high protein ] it's good for feathers. Dried meal worms is another. Muscovies aren't as water proof as other domestics anyway and that makes it hard on them right before molt since they feathers are usually in pretty rough shape by then.

 

[kjackson1992]

We're pretty sure they've all already molted as we've had to go around cleaning up feathers s couple of weeks ago

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well then check out his preen gland it should have yellow around it if working properly do you see him preening? There are other reason for wet feather if you google, hopefully just adding some good quality cat kibble and some vitamins will do the trick. Not a good idea to start into winter with out good feathering.

 

[kjackson1992]

Yeah his preen gland is fine and he actually looks a lot better today. I'll just keep an eye on them all over this rainy spell