Leave it be. It will stop of its own accord.

Thanks Bressler, I'm really sorry to hear that. I'm guessing my tree has the same condition as yours because I'm in the Austin area as well, and I purchased my Canby oak from a well known nursery in Austin that had only within a week received the tree from a less well known nursery/grower in the Hill Country. Your tree in 2014 I'm guessing may have came from that same grower, given the proximity and limited availability of Canby oaks. After researching further, and hearing how your Canby didn't seem to be able to recover, I’m wondering if the problem might actually be a bleeding canker rather than bacterial wetwood. And in particular a bleeding canker caused by a fungus-like pathogen called Phytophthora. This is rather disturbing that a grower might possibly have been distributing similarly infected trees for several years. I sure hope not. I'm going to try to have my tree tested for Phytophthora since there may need to be some sort of soil decontamination done. Thanks too for the tip about the Mexican sugar maple.

The rows of holes do sound like sapsuckers. Although related to woodpeckers, they are not going after insects in the tree, but the sap (hence the name sapsucker). You shouldn't have to worry about ants. I've seen a lot of sapsucker damage, but never heard of them going after conifers. I see them on aspen, birch, mountain-ash, and some small maples like amur maple. I would be surprised if they ate pitch from a conifer. Typically sapsuckers feed for a couple of weeks and move on. The small wounds they make can heal over, although if there are a lot of them - several rows - then there is the risk that sections of bark will die and more serious damage occurs. If the sapsuckers are actively feeding, they will return to the same tree several times a day. If so, it is time to try the beach balls.

its dead under that bark ... given time.. it will open up ... return it immediately ... ken