Why did all my baby ducks die after eating.

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Paul1980

Paul1980

Chirping
11 Years
Aug 3, 2009
24
1
79
Houston
Yesterday I went to feed my 3 day old baby ducks. They were fine till about 15 minutes after they ate. All a sudden they started falling and kicking. One by one they all died. Could it be something in the water or is there a disease that kills them after eating? Maybe too much chlorine or something in the chick starter. I have always fed them chick starter medicated and non medicated (depends which one I have currently). All my other animals seem fine. This was really strange and I am confused as to what happened.

Someone said that maybe because they were thirsty they drank to much or ate too much, but would ALL of them do that.
 
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ducks need water to swallow. ducklings can get an impacted craw from eatting and not having water avalible. could they have not had water? could they have had some issue getting to the water dish?
just a thought but seems to fit

no medicated feed is a good rule for ducks
 
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I am so sorry for your loss!
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Some ingredients in medicated chick feed are poisonous to ducklings. Did you recently change brands? Or perhaps the company just changed their recipe. At any rate, it is generally recommended to never use medicated feed, because of the dangers to the ducklings. If I had to guess, I would say that is what happened to your ducklings, but of course there are many potential factors.

I hope you're able to figure it out. If you have Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks, there is a section in there about performing a "post-mortem" that might help you determine what happened.

That really stinks, and I feel for you. Good luck.

Heather
 
They did have plenty of water available. So to much chlorine in drinking wouldn't kill them? It must have been the chick starter. It was as if they were poisoned. Wasn't a pretty sight to see them go like that. I have fed ducks the same way for years and never had this happen.
 
I am so sorry for your losses. It sounds like moldy or bad food. The medicated starter, if the wrong medication in it, would take longer than that. How old were the ducklings?

My first thought was choking i.e. not having water available for them when they ate but as you had water aailable, I would be looking at the food as the source.
 

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