bfisher
In the Brooder
Hello BYC community! Any help is so appreciated. I am stressed to the breaking point and so sad for my duckling. Here are the details:
- Our Pekin duck is 8 weeks old
- She began having seizures at about 3- 4 weeks, had them for a couple days and then they stopped
- About a month later she started seizing again, much worse. Starting Saturday (4/23) night she has been seizing every 2-10 minutes consistently. The longer the time lapse the greater the seizure.
- She flaps her wings so hard sometimes she breaks her blood feathers. Both wings are wounded and one side has nearly all her blood feathers broken off. Her wings and underwing area of her body are blood-caked.
- Based on research I've done online & with neighbors with ducks, this is how I've been treating her:
- I cleaned her wounds with apple cider vinegar and put a tea tree oil anti-fungal wound ointment on them.
- I have her in a darkened, quiet workshop, keeping her warm and calm so she can rest, away from the other ducks so they won't peck her.
- She drinks a very small amount of water, but does not eat, even when I bring her greens, which she loves.
- I put blended spinach, honey, and Vitamin e in her water yesterday and she drank two sips, but then stopped (seemed not to want it- kept going to it and then stopping herself once she got her bill close enough to smell that it wasn't just water.)
- One duck-raising neighbor told me she used to have ducklings seize when she first started raising them. She said she thought it was because she let them go swimming to early and once she stopped doing that the seizures haven't happened to any new ducklings. We did let our duckling go swimming, because we had just finished building the pond. She only did it one day, but was in there a while and that night was the first time she had a seizure. I feel very guilty for having potentially caused all her suffering. I don't know what to am so grateful to anyone with advice. She seems like she is slowly letting go. I sit with her for hours after work. I just don't know what to do to help her recover.
-Newest Update: I just got her to eat a little mixture of macro green powder and nutritional yeast mixed in a little apple juice and water. It wasn't a lot, but it seemed to give her a little boost of energy. She drank more water after that.
Thank you to everyone, with or without advice-- if you could send some energetic support our way that would be so appreciated!
- Our Pekin duck is 8 weeks old
- She began having seizures at about 3- 4 weeks, had them for a couple days and then they stopped
- About a month later she started seizing again, much worse. Starting Saturday (4/23) night she has been seizing every 2-10 minutes consistently. The longer the time lapse the greater the seizure.
- She flaps her wings so hard sometimes she breaks her blood feathers. Both wings are wounded and one side has nearly all her blood feathers broken off. Her wings and underwing area of her body are blood-caked.
- Based on research I've done online & with neighbors with ducks, this is how I've been treating her:
- I cleaned her wounds with apple cider vinegar and put a tea tree oil anti-fungal wound ointment on them.
- I have her in a darkened, quiet workshop, keeping her warm and calm so she can rest, away from the other ducks so they won't peck her.
- She drinks a very small amount of water, but does not eat, even when I bring her greens, which she loves.
- I put blended spinach, honey, and Vitamin e in her water yesterday and she drank two sips, but then stopped (seemed not to want it- kept going to it and then stopping herself once she got her bill close enough to smell that it wasn't just water.)
- One duck-raising neighbor told me she used to have ducklings seize when she first started raising them. She said she thought it was because she let them go swimming to early and once she stopped doing that the seizures haven't happened to any new ducklings. We did let our duckling go swimming, because we had just finished building the pond. She only did it one day, but was in there a while and that night was the first time she had a seizure. I feel very guilty for having potentially caused all her suffering. I don't know what to am so grateful to anyone with advice. She seems like she is slowly letting go. I sit with her for hours after work. I just don't know what to do to help her recover.
-Newest Update: I just got her to eat a little mixture of macro green powder and nutritional yeast mixed in a little apple juice and water. It wasn't a lot, but it seemed to give her a little boost of energy. She drank more water after that.
Thank you to everyone, with or without advice-- if you could send some energetic support our way that would be so appreciated!
