Please help if you can with duck's cause of death - necropsy photos included

[Miss Lydia]

Yes, yesterday afternoon I got what's still considered an interim report back from the facility. The material matched the nesting pad sample we took in. I missed the doctor's call because I was on a conference call, but I'm thinking it's considered interim because a couple of the toxicology results still aren't back from the lab. They typically wouldn't declare a cause of death until all results are back even if they're 99% sure what the cause was.

I feel so guilty over this. I was the one who researched nest pads and bought these. I'm terribly upset over it. Once I can get my thoughts sorted out, I'm going to search back through my BYC posts to find the ones where I've said what a huge fan of nesting pads I was. I need to put a caution in those about what happened to us. I also have no idea what we're going to use for nesting material next year. I'm afraid of pine chips for the same reason, don't like using pellets in nest boxes, and all I can think of is straw, which I also don't favor. We'll probably go with straw even though it's not very absorbent and degrades quickly when it gets wet. I'm hoping that won't be a problem since ducks normally don't use the bathroom in nests, and at least straw pieces are too big for them ingest a lot of it.

I am glad you at least know, what are these nesting pads made of? One thing you did not know your was your lil one would eat it. I use pine shaving and have never had a problem with any of my ducks/chickens or geese eating it it's large flake too. The kind used for horse stalls. I'm so sorry this happened but I would diff warn others.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

I am glad you at least know, what are these nesting pads made of? One thing you did not know your was your lil one would eat it. I use pine shaving and have never had a problem with any of my ducks/chickens or geese eating it it's large flake too. The kind used for horse stalls. I'm so sorry this happened but I would diff warn others.

It's these exact ones--> http://smile.amazon.com/Precision-P...p/B00CAVMIK2/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8 .

I'm going to warn others on here and also update my Amazon review. I'm not going to knock the product, just warn others of the risk. When I was researching them, I never found a single comment about anything ingesting the material. It must not be a common thing for something to ingest enough for it to cause a problem, but the possibly small risk is still worth a warning. I do not want this to happen to anyone else. My nerves have been torn up about it for a week.

I just can't understand what would have caused her to eat all that. Our ducks always have feed and grit available 24x7. It's not even like she was nesting and didn't want to get off the nest to eat. We keep an eye on them for that when they're laying and scoot them off the nest at least once per day, but all of them stopped laying 3 and 4 weeks ago.

 

[Miss Lydia]

It's these exact ones--> http://smile.amazon.com/Precision-P...p/B00CAVMIK2/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8 .

I'm going to warn others on here and also update my Amazon review. I'm not going to knock the product, just warn others of the risk. When I was researching them, I never found a single comment about anything ingesting the material. It must not be a common thing for something to ingest enough for it to cause a problem, but the possibly small risk is still worth a warning. I do not want this to happen to anyone else. My nerves have been torn up about it for a week.

I just can't understand what would have caused her to eat all that. Our ducks always have feed and grit available 24x7. It's not even like she was nesting and didn't want to get off the nest to eat. We keep an eye on them for that when they're laying and scoot them off the nest at least once per day, but all of them stopped laying 3 and 4 weeks ago.

It will be interesting to see if anything else shows up in the report but probably un likely. I wonder if like dogs when they have a tummy upset if they just randomly eat things. my dogs will go out and eat green plants that normally they wouldn't touch, One morning my dh and I were eating at the breakfast bar when out Dachshund walked over and started nawing on the wood of the breakfast bar He is 6 yrs old so not a puppy and doesn't normally chew on the furniture but when he came back a second time after I scolded him to do it again I thought I wonder if he is in pain I did give him 2 activated charcoal capsules and I have not seen him do anything like that since. Animals have their own way of dealing with stress, pain and wonder if it could have been a reaction to either. I just can't imagine her eating it because it tasted good. or resembled food.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

It will be interesting to see if anything else shows up in the report but probably un likely. I wonder if like dogs when they have a tummy upset if they just randomly eat things. my dogs will go out and eat green plants that normally they wouldn't touch, One morning my dh and I were eating at the breakfast bar when out Dachshund walked over and started nawing on the wood of the breakfast bar He is 6 yrs old so not a puppy and doesn't normally chew on the furniture but when he came back a second time after I scolded him to do it again I thought I wonder if he is in pain I did give him 2 activated charcoal capsules and I have not seen him do anything like that since. Animals have their own way of dealing with stress, pain and wonder if it could have been a reaction to either. I just can't imagine her eating it because it tasted good. or resembled food.

I'm not sure if ducks will do that like dogs and cats will. I can't remember every reading anything about it one way or another. Once I get the final word, I'll come back to post what I find out. I'm going to ask the vet if she has any idea what would make a duck that has food, water and grit available 24x7, and that also gets to forage for at least several hours per day, decide to eat nest pad material instead.

I don't know if this vet will be willing to speculate about it. She seems to be very knowledgeable, but she doesn't have the best bedside manner. I was crying when we took our little girl to deliver her for the necropsy, and the vet was just like, "Okay, let me have her and take her away." We have a wonderful regular vet, and everything from NBC is being copied to him as well. He'll be more willing to spend some time discussing it if he has any thoughts about it. I just wish it had turned out to be a plant in the yard we could get rid of instead of something I introduced into their environment myself.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'm not sure if ducks will do that like dogs and cats will. I can't remember every reading anything about it one way or another. Once I get the final word, I'll come back to post what I find out. I'm going to ask the vet if she has any idea what would make a duck that has food, water and grit available 24x7, and that also gets to forage for at least several hours per day, decide to eat nest pad material instead.

I don't know if this vet will be willing to speculate about it. She seems to be very knowledgeable, but she doesn't have the best bedside manner. I was crying when we took our little girl to deliver her for the necropsy, and the vet was just like, "Okay, let me have her and take her away." We have a wonderful regular vet, and everything from NBC is being copied to him as well. He'll be more willing to spend some time discussing it if he has any thoughts about it. I just wish it had turned out to be a plant in the yard we could get rid of instead of something I introduced into their environment myself.

I know but just remember this, you did not do this on purpose. Forgive yourself.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Not sure if anyone is still subscribed to this thread, but I got another interim necropsy report back today, and I found it very alarming. I do already have a call into the pathologist and have for hours, but I'm not sure I'll hear back from her today.

The report said her liver was slightly enlarged, which previous reports had said, but this one seems to indicate heavy concentrations of some potentially harmful bacteria as well. The report doesn't say what the normal concentration range is, so maybe that only comes out in a later report. That's one thing I wanted to ask the vet about.

What I'm already finding most alarming is that the cadmium in her kidneys was very elevated, almost twice the top of the range that's considered acceptable. The bird had never in her life been anywhere but in our house and in our backyard, so I've been racking my brain all afternoon trying to figure out where she would have been exposed to and consumed enough cadmium to have that level in her kidneys.

 

[Amiga]

My first thought - a camera battery.

 

[Honey Maid]

Hey JadeComputerGirl, what about grass hay for the nest box? I dnt know if you keep your ducks in the house or out in a coop, but I use grass hay, works great. I always have it on hand because thats what my one horse, that can still eat hay, eats.

 

[casportpony]

Are there any old mines near you?

-Kathy

 

[JadeComputerGal]

My first thought - a camera battery.

Thank you so much, dear Amiga. Batteries of all types have come to my mind, but we always securely dispose of our batteries of any kinds. Metals, paints, I just couldn't think of anything. Scott is very good about cleanup after projects and usually does them in the workshop anyway, and it's extremely rare for me to find anything unusual in our grass. I've also been looking for magnetic sweepers in what little time I've had today so we can sweep the yard. I haven't found one yet because everything I've looked at gets awful reviews for use on grass and uneven turf.

So something hit me just as I posted the last message. The cadmium level in her liver wasn't elevated, yet the level in her kidneys was extremely elevated. Kidneys mean liquid, and liquid in the case of a duck means water other than the water that comes from whatever plant matter they eat. Should that lead me to believe it might actually be a high concentration in our water? Our indoor water is filtered but not the outdoor water because we use so much of it.

I'm not sure how I'd have that tested. Maybe I can call the county co-op to for direction? There are tons of places around here that do water testing, but that's just for the pH, sulfur, lime, things like that, and ours has been fine when we've had it tested. I have no idea how to get a test of every possible harmful thing that could be in our water.

<Sigh>