Aksarben Farms
In the Brooder
So I have seen many threads for seizures and wanted to add one of our experiences and solutions. In our location chickens, ducks and other domesticated foul are considered "exotic" and 0, I mean 0 vets will work with them. We have to go down to Georgia or up north to find a vet willing to help and the price starts at $250 for the visit if we want a vet to come here. Luckily we have one or two who will give us phone consults to assist with any endeavors that we cannot solve on our own.
Back to the ducks. We have some young Swedish Greys that we rescued and the runt of the flock "BB-8" one day suddenly started experiencing seizures every 45 minutes to every hour. These were violent debilitating ones that locked his entire body up and wrenched his head backwards so forcefully he looked like a garment bag on a coat rack. No one had any idea what to look for and so many thought it was genetic and he was dying. Even Hubby had lost hope after 2 days thinking it was time to put him down. Then on the 4th day of watching over him and slowly nursing him back to a point where the seizures were perhaps 5 times a day we got a call from a lovely veterinarian who spoke with the wife and between the 3 of us we figured out what happened and solved it. BB must have ingested a toxin. Our thoughts leg to 2 things, toadstool/poisonous mushroom or an actual toad. This toxified his body enough to cause the drop in his metabolism enough to cause the little guy to experience Hypoglycemic Seizures. We administered Baths and bowls of water with just one teaspoon of sugar added. One day later the little guy was back with his flock preening and washing himself and eating up a storm. He has since grown considerably in the last two weeks and is doing just fine. His temperament has changed slightly as he used to be the toughest one of the flock chasing ducks 3 times his size away. Now he looks to the other members of his flock to be his protectors and he no longer likes being touched. But we are just glad he has recovered.
Please share some other stories of yours. We love hearing the happy ending stories too. We need those sometimes to know that they aren't all bad and sometimes they help people who have a similar problem.
Back to the ducks. We have some young Swedish Greys that we rescued and the runt of the flock "BB-8" one day suddenly started experiencing seizures every 45 minutes to every hour. These were violent debilitating ones that locked his entire body up and wrenched his head backwards so forcefully he looked like a garment bag on a coat rack. No one had any idea what to look for and so many thought it was genetic and he was dying. Even Hubby had lost hope after 2 days thinking it was time to put him down. Then on the 4th day of watching over him and slowly nursing him back to a point where the seizures were perhaps 5 times a day we got a call from a lovely veterinarian who spoke with the wife and between the 3 of us we figured out what happened and solved it. BB must have ingested a toxin. Our thoughts leg to 2 things, toadstool/poisonous mushroom or an actual toad. This toxified his body enough to cause the drop in his metabolism enough to cause the little guy to experience Hypoglycemic Seizures. We administered Baths and bowls of water with just one teaspoon of sugar added. One day later the little guy was back with his flock preening and washing himself and eating up a storm. He has since grown considerably in the last two weeks and is doing just fine. His temperament has changed slightly as he used to be the toughest one of the flock chasing ducks 3 times his size away. Now he looks to the other members of his flock to be his protectors and he no longer likes being touched. But we are just glad he has recovered.
Please share some other stories of yours. We love hearing the happy ending stories too. We need those sometimes to know that they aren't all bad and sometimes they help people who have a similar problem.
