CayugaMama
Songster
This is our 3 week old Cayuga duck, Dupont:
I apologize for the blue tint, the room does not have good lighting.
We keep our ducks in an enclosed space inside the house at night and sometimes during the day although we frequently take them outside to walk around and swim. Last night when they were indoors I heard this high pitched screech, and when I ran over to see what was wrong Dupont was laying on his back with his neck bent all the way back towards his bottom and he was flapping his wings and flailing his legs violently. I initially thought that he had somehow just fallen over on his neck and couldn't get back up. When I lifted him, however, he was very stiff. After a few moments of flapping around he relaxed and shook his head a little like he was dazed. I was scared, but not too worried.
About 4 or so hours later, my boyfriend came home from work and he did it again. This time my boyfriend ran over there, picked him up and inspected him. He said that Dupont was having a seizure. My boyfriend said Dupont's eyes were empty, like nobody was there. So I began researching why ducks would be having seizures and 2 things came up, a Niacin (vitamin B3) deficiency or Pasturella. They have not had shots since we have gotten them. None of our other 2 ducks have had fits like that. We also noticed that it happens when he falls asleep or wakes up (which is why we are wondering if its nightmares) it has only happened 3 times, once within 4 hours of each other and then the third 24 hours after the second. All at around 11:30pm. We have no idea why this is happening. I am scared that my duck will die, please help.
I have two 3 week old Cayugas and one of them is doing this exact same thing! Were you ever able to solve it/cure it? It always happens at night and seems to happen when they have been asleep. She squealing and then darts around the brooder while real low to the ground. It always takes me a minute to calm her down. I have been adding brewers yeast to their food, so I don’t know what could be wrong with her diet.
