White Crested with Strange Lump on Head

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Took Mrs. Drysdale to our vet yesterday. i love our vet. She said that when our pet sitter took her in on Tuesday, she was quite insistent on antibiotics. But my vet didn't see any infection and didn't want to throw antibiotics at her if they weren't necessary. So my vet convinced my pet sitter to leave the duck with them. Sounds like she got the royal treatment with a large pen supplied with all the food she wanted and a tub of water for swimming. Every day they filled up the big tub in grooming for her to have a really big swim. She got lots of pets and tons of attention. i can really tell since she is very tame with me now.

Anyhow, my vet had aspirated the lump and found nothing of concern. She said it was just a fatty lump and we aren't sure how long it's been there, since it had previously been covered in feathers. So this lump may not be unique to her. She said to just watch it and if it gets bigger or our duck experiences any problems, we can talk about having it removed. How the feathers went missing is still a mystery.

i still need to pick up my other two crested ducks to see if they have a bump or just feathers. But since Mrs. Drysdale seems to be doing fine and acting normal, i'm not going to worry about it. Phew!

 

[Bleenie]

Some crested ducks do have a lump of flesh that their crest grows on/off of. I have had a few that were this was, usually ones with bigger crests. birds with smaller crests don't seem to have it. I used to have a small flock of crested pekins and an owl ripped one's "crest lump" open but it was just fleshy inside (nothing bizarre like brains or anything). I cleaned the gash, applied neosporin, gauze and gave her head a wrapping of Vet Wrap.

The lump is normal.
Put sone Neo on it and seperate her if you'd like but the boys will keep pulling the feathers out when they breed her. I don't like to keep boys that breed agressively enough to rip out feathers... so maybe something to think about.

 

[Bleenie]

Just saw where you said your vet opened the lump. Is your vet used to treating ducks? I'm not trying to offend anyone here but I would really expect a Vet to know that the lump is normal on a crested duck. Hopefully she learned something new though.

Anyway, keep it clean and apply neo if you think it's needed. but keep her seperate until it's healed.


I had a drake with an ENORMOUS crest, we considered having some of his crest surgically removed because it was so heavy and made him walk wrong. Your girls crest is tiny compared to our guys so don't even worry about it.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Thanks, Bleenie. My vet has many waterfowl herself, including ducks, but said she is not familiar with the crested variety. That's why she admitted she just doesn't know if the lump is normal or not for this breed. i really like her down to earth approach.

We don't have a drake, but the girls will occasionally play "Women's Prison" in the pool. The crested girls can end up with bald spots from their friends holding on. Just never saw all the feathers missing before. No one is bothering her, so i have her outside with everyone else. i'm keeping a close eye on them and everything seems fine.

i guess you just never know what's going to happen when you go away for vacation!

 

[tbitt]

The crest is a fatty tissue that protrudes past the skull and under the skin. Could the shin have been torn exposing the fatty tissue?

If so then that is what needs to be cared for, an open wound.


I have bumped into sites about it and am going nuts trying to find them again....this is what I have found so far (I wish I could fine the one that posts pictures of the actual crest and skull...if you know what I mean:

http://www.domestic-waterfowl.co.uk/crested.htm


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[Bleenie]

Thankfully when I had to deal with a split open crest it wasn't deep enough to expose the skull, just a lot of fatty tissue and wide open. Very scary looking! A few years ago I adopted a batch of babies and one was crested and most of them were bald(badly cared for babies!), the little girl with the crest lump grew all her feathers back nicely.... turned into a beautiful crested Khaki.

Some things just have to be learned when they come along