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DuckyDoodles

No Idea What The Duck I’m Doing ;)
Feb 11, 2018
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Indiana
This is my first official duck post since registering and it’s just eating at me to get it out in the universe.

I have a female Pekin (age unknown) who has had a lame leg this past week. But! That’s not the issue (I’ve been handling the leg thus far with no issues).

While I was patting her down after her physical therapy bath (to ensure no moisture left anywhere; it’s Indiana and freezing) I found something on her breast bone that deserves to be identified.

I’m hoping that I can post the pic (being new to the board, I’d understand if I couldn’t) but frankly, after 4 hours of Googling a million different search terms, I’ve come up empty handed.

It looks and feels JUST like a Pore Of Winer (you can see them on internet and pimple popping YouTube channels but heads up to the squeamish).

I didn’t pluck it out because, frankly, I didn’t know what it was and didn’t want to hurt her before I found out.

Not going to lie though; I’m admittedly a pimple popper and love watching gross things getting plucked out. So it’s taken everything in me (my care and concern for the duck) for me not to snatch her from her slumber and pick at it.

Any suggestions or ideas? She didn’t indicate any pain when I was poking around it. Skin is not red, swollen or otherwise any indications of infection. It legitimately just looks like the biggest black head in the history of waterfowl.

Only other things I could think of were possibly a botfly :: PUKE :: or maybe she’d had a tiny nick there before and the resulting scarred hole filled up with crud?

Would love y’alls input. I’m eager to prod at it (I’m ridiculous).
 

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Not a botfly. Those burrow and leave a knot with a tiny breathing hole. Not sure what that is. Hopefully a duck person will waddle along soon to help.

Well, if nothing else, you’ve already eased my mind a tad that it isn’t one of the very few things that make me flee the country (lice, ticks, scabies, botflies, etc... basically the nasty burrower type parasites).

Thanks for that!
 
Oh! And I suppose I should add any other info that *might* get inquired about:

She’s only Layena pellets with a layer feed crumble/corn mix additive, fresh water daily, is not free range at the moment but has an entire screened in/tarped porch with straw bedding (housing, btw, is a long story LOL), I’ve made a duck run that’s 10’x10’ square and when weather has been kind, she and other(s) have been put out there for about 11 hours a day, she gets oyster shell and grit in a separate dish available 24/7, she lays an egg almost every day, no vent problems, no respiratory problems, clean eyes and nares and <here’s where my knowledge of her history ends> she came with the property I bought.

It’s 6 acres and has two separate ponds on property. One huge one and one smaller one. She was 100% self reliant and foraged all day and then camped out in a little patch of woods near the back pond. She had, for what I can tell, very little, if any, assistance from prior humans residing on this property. Within 75 days of us moving in, and providing her with feed and talking to her, she popped up on my back porch sticking her face to the glass and refused to leave. In fact, she had a watered down version of imprinting (LOL I called it stalking/being needy) to my 9 year old daughter. She’s been problem free, no signs of bumble foot history, all in tact and prior to me waking up Monday with her right leg being totally and unequivocally lame, she’s never had any other issues. I’ve been doing bathtub PT every day. Confirmed there’s no nicks, scrapes or other booboo’s that could’ve caused infection. Everything I’d read (which likely consisted of 90% BYC LOL) basically said just wait it out if there’s no other disturbances.

Other than mobility issues at this moment, due to the leg, she has had zero other symptoms of anything amiss.

If this turns out to be a big globe of dirt and yuckiness then our moniker for her (miss priss because she’s the cleanest of the ducks and constantly preening) will change to pimple butt. :p
 
Looks like it is separate from her skin, like an ingrown or infected feather follicle, maybe? Could have been an injury that got crud in it as it healed too... I would see if you could gently work it out... stop if it bleeds, etc...

Exactly my assessment of it. I poked it a tiny bit (I’m a pimple fiend so that didn’t bother me in the slightest) and it didn’t seem soft like it was a dome cover of any puss as well as the skin around it seemingly chill/it’s pore-like-Black-head-appearance.

I’m going to fangirl for a second; I am SO excited that you responded. I made it to page 57 of the saga of Steven and the baby mallard he pseudo incubated and hatched. I was so hooked and emotionally invested that I *had* to know the outcome! And I kept thinking, I need this @Ravynscroft to look at my odd little dirt plug.

I’m attempting to emotionally prepare myself for if it’s some sort of bug but I’m also curious; would a teeny tiny amount of blood be normal if it is just a clogged pore/blackhead type situation? Just thinking about potential irritation from removing it? Should I go at it from a pimple popping perspective of little downward pressure on outside perimeter or do you think I should just try to grab it in the center (not at the skins edge) and pull out gently?

Once it’s all out, hopefully with no irritation blood or attachment issues (I agree, if it’s somehow attached, I won’t proceed until further assessment is done) should I just Vetericyn spray it and dab some neosporin on it?

Future thought (acknowledging I’m ahead of myself) is if it’s just a former wound that got gunk in it and it’s just a concave little dimple, how would I, if possible, prevent another plug?

Ahhh, sorry too many questions. These two I have, and the eventual Cayugas, are companion flock and so I’m super sensitive to all I need to do LOL
 
regarding her leg, wonder if she has a niacin deficiency. I am not duck smart but, being on BYC for so long- I have heard about the niacin many, many times.

That was one of the first things I had looked into with respect to the leg. Not knowing her history or care prior to mid/late October, I can’t speak for her dietary input. I have been VERY liberal with giving them peas as I heard it’s an awesome source of niacin. I’ve also sortve done the probiotics, electrolytes, NutriDrench supplements once a week. I have heard about Brewers Yeast but, admittedly, I don’t have any on hand. She’s never shown any limping, leg lameness, deformities or reason to suspect it... at least not since October. Sunday, she was perfectly fine walking around and what not. Then Monday morning, wee hours while I was collecting their eggs, I noticed her poor little leg just jutted out behind her while she was sleeping. I checked her that day (immediately worried about that dang Bumblefoot) and there was no injury, no visible crookedness or *apparent* break in the leg but, notably, she hadn’t moved it while I was inspecting her. Only the ^faintest^ indication that she was trying to move it where it connects to her body. Otherwise it was just dangling. Has been pretty much a motionless dangling appendage since then. Even in the bathtub it just sortve floats along with her.

I WILL say that today she put it on the ground. Previously it was raised upwards/inwards and just hung but today, after her PT bath, she did put it on the ground. Not baring any weight or really moving much but I considered it a progressive step none the less.

I’d done a boat load of internet reading and the closest solution I’ve come to is she sprained it somehow (or lord forbid, she broke it) but her area is completely flat so there’s literally nothing she could’ve gotten on top of or justified sprain/break.

Other than her duck mate likes to mount her and get her girl-on-girl love affair started :: eye roll ::

So once I found other stories of the receiving end of mating getting legs injured, it’s the closest I’ve come to an answer.

I’ll post a pic of what it looked like on Tuesday (full 24 hours after onset). I didn’t get one of her today so I would have to update any pics later.

(One pic of her standing with the dangled leg and one pic of her laying down with her lame leg poking out from under her fluff)

But, @drumstick diva , I would like to sincerely thank you for even discussing the matter. I seemed to have backburnered the leg issue until I solved the alien-parasitic-but-likely-a-Big-old-dirty-pore-gate-of-2018.

❤️❤️
 

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Well, I suddenly feel extremely self-conscious, lol... :oops:
If you haven't finished Lucky's story, please continue it... Steven is still updating and it is truly an awesome journey...

Scrape the top of it a bit, see if it is gunky stuff, sensitive or super solid... I would prepare ahead of time and get some blood stop first though, just in case... along with gauze to tape over if needed... trim the feathers directly around it so you have clear space...

A bit of blood might happen, yes, but more than a few drops is what I would be careful of...

I would start with pressing down gently around it and try working it up and out, see how it goes... warm, wet compress on it first might help...

As for how to proceed, see how it goes first... get plenty of pics as you go to reassess as needed...

Just fyi, pus in poultry/waterfowl goes hard, not liquidy like with mammals... it can be cheesy to super hard... yellowish/whitish in color...

Diva brought up a great point, Pekins are also more prone to deficiency and/or leg issues... sprain or bad bruise may be the issue though and with the cold fronts a simple bump could hurt like crazy... are you using epsom salts in her PT baths? It really does help, from what my ducks tell me, lol...
 

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