Sudden death in Ducks? More Dead!

[ThatOneGuy025]

Hello

I hope you can help me...

I have had two ducks die with no apparent reason, one saturday morning, a 6 week old Rouen, and then this monring, Monday a 6 week old runner? No symptoms at all, no indication that anythign is wrong?

No slime in the bill or nostrils, no feed jammed ion throat or crop, clean vent?


Any ideas, coudl they be a little cold its about 60 deg at night with 75 deg days...or is it they are not getting enough greens? they are being fed a mixture of meat bird and duck and goose. average 5 of protein about 20%.



this happened to us last year but the necropsy showed nothing, the pond they are on is clean with no contaminants, they are penned in so they can not eat something they shouldn't?


the only similarity is that they were bought form the same place as last year...


Has anyone else experienced this? I only have 7 geese and 4 ducks left...


Please help? /img/smilies/hit.gif


**Update**

This time it was my baby African Goose... getting a necropsy tomorrow? I'm thinking its water contamination, we have pulled them off the pond, they are living with the sheep./img/smilies/sad.png

I'll keep you posted

So yesterday I fed my ducks and their food and water was perfectly fine and then today I found my duck dead and it was partly eaten. I have chickens with my ducks but they are fine together. Any ideas why my duck could have died?

 

[Amanda1433]

I live in Texas and I also had two ducks die within 18 hours of one another. Both females, 6 months old. They displayed no visible symptoms other than suddenly they weren't interested in eating or drinking, didn't want to socialize with the other ducks or birds. The first one died yesterday after lying alone for several hours by herself, head forward, feet back, body mostly soft and pliable. There was no sign of discharge on the face and vent was clear. When I noticed her lagging behind and uninterested in eating, I checked her to make sure she wasn't egg-bound. Her abdomen was soft and her crop was soft. Her sister began displaying the same lethargic behavior about 6 hours after she did. The first duck died yesterday about 5pm, her sister died overnight last night.

I'm also worried because I have 18 other ducks, 24 chickens, 2 geese and a young turkey (4 months). When the two ducks began showing signs of sickness, I offered them apple cider vinegar water but they weren't interested. The other birds lapped it up right away.

Was this what happened to the NC birds? I would hate to loose my whole flock of birds to something awful. Please help, anyone who might know.

 

[kayla4691]

It is important for any diagnosis to provide the symptoms leading up to the death. If it was sudden and you did not see the death then what position was the body in? Was it stretched out and stiff, was it just clumped and limp, was the head stretched toward the front or back, etc.? Otherwise it is just a crap-shoot guess what it could be.

Example: Duck Virus hepatitis
Duck virus hepatitis is a highly fatal contagious disease of young ducklings, 1-28 days of age. Ducklings are most susceptible at the younger ages and gradually become more resistant as they grow older. The disease is rarely seen in ducklings over 4 weeks of age. The onset of the disease is very rapid, it spreads quickly through the flock and may cause up to 90% mortality. Sick ducklings develop spasmodic contractions of their legs and die within an hour in a typical "arched-backward" position. The liver is enlarged and shows hemorrhagic spots. To prevent this disease, keep age groups isolated and vaccinate breeder ducks with an attenuated live virus duck hepatitis vaccine (to produce maternally immune ducklings).

hi my duck is a 3 year old drake and a few weeks ago he started open mouth breathing and couldn't make his quack noise.. I thought he had a piece of food stuck and had hoped it would disintegrate and that hed be okay.. well after a week an a half I finally got the money to take him to the vet to be examined and they said he had a broken rib which is odd because no predators can get to him and he had no blunt force trauma.. well the they said that he had subcutaneous emphysema and air was gathering under his skin.. well they let the air out twice and then it came back both times.. well then they highly recommended that he have surgery so they could go in an find the spot that was letting air be released..so they did the surgery the day before yesterday and then they observed him for 24 hours and told me to come get him an sent me home with 3 medications that I needed to give by mouth after crushing and mixing with water.. well I asked the nurse if she was sure that he would need the second dose which would be the evening dose and she said yes give it to him at bedtime.. so I got the clavamox (375mg tablets) and the novox (25mg tablets) and broke down a half of each tablet and mixed it with water like I was told and then used a syringe to have my duck drink it.. well I come back the next morning to give his morning dosage of the same 2 meds and this time he would need the itrafungol (10mg liquid) and he would get 1ml of that from me for the first time since the vet had administered it before I picked him up yesterday... well I got the meds ready and in the syringes and I open the cage door and before I could give him any of his morning meds he lost his balance and threw both wings out to stable himself and then all a sudden threw his head back like you mentioned with these ducklings and started shaking/seizing and 2 seconds aftr that happened he was stiff and dead!!! im thinking the nurse told me to give him the wrong dosage or she told me to give evening meds after she had already done so and then what I gave him made him overdose and then die this morning.. I just want some advice! im so upset.. like are these 3 meds the reason he died? or did she tell me to give him too much? ugh today is just horrible.. I loved that little guy so much! had him since he was a duckling.. by the way he is a pekin and he weighs 2.20kilograms

 

[kayla4691]

hi my duck is a 3 year old drake and a few weeks ago he started open mouth breathing and couldn't make his quack noise.. I thought he had a piece of food stuck and had hoped it would disintegrate and that hed be okay.. well after a week an a half I finally got the money to take him to the vet to be examined and they said he had a broken rib which is odd because no predators can get to him and he had no blunt force trauma.. well the they said that he had subcutaneous emphysema and air was gathering under his skin.. well they let the air out twice and then it came back both times.. well then they highly recommended that he have surgery so they could go in an find the spot that was letting air be released..so they did the surgery the day before yesterday and then they observed him for 24 hours and told me to come get him an sent me home with 3 medications that I needed to give by mouth after crushing and mixing with water.. well I asked the nurse if she was sure that he would need the second dose which would be the evening dose and she said yes give it to him at bedtime.. so I got the clavamox (375mg tablets) and the novox (25mg tablets) and broke down a half of each tablet and mixed it with water like I was told and then used a syringe to have my duck drink it.. well I come back the next morning to give his morning dosage of the same 2 meds and this time he would need the itrafungol (10mg liquid) and he would get 1ml of that from me for the first time since the vet had administered it before I picked him up yesterday... well I got the meds ready and in the syringes and I open the cage door and before I could give him any of his morning meds he lost his balance and threw both wings out to stable himself and then all a sudden threw his head back like you mentioned with these ducklings and started shaking/seizing and 2 seconds aftr that happened he was stiff and dead!!! im thinking the nurse told me to give him the wrong dosage or she told me to give evening meds after she had already done so and then what I gave him made him overdose and then die this morning.. I just want some advice! im so upset.. like are these 3 meds the reason he died? or did she tell me to give him too much? ugh today is just horrible.. I loved that little guy so much! had him since he was a duckling.. by the way he is a pekin and he weighs 2.20kilograms

ps. right before he died he threw his head back and then flopped around and when it was all said and done he was laying out flat.. but then again he did have a bandage around him and he did have a tube under his left wing that was supposed to release any air build up.. which made no sense because the surgery was to find the hole that was causing the air to build up under the skin and fix it so it didn't happen again..

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am so sorry you lost your drake I cannot say if the nurse had you give too much I don’t know that much about dosages but @casportpony does. Maybe she can help you. Did they show you how to give the meds by mouth?

 

[casportpony]

I am very sorry for your loss.
The Clavamox dose was well within the normal range (my 4kg peacock was prescribed 500 mg twice a day). Don't know about the Novox or the itrafungol, but I will look those up.

 

[Tash76]

I just lost 2 female pekin ducks to sudden death in 5 days they both died in a clump with neck spalled out straight and to one side, both males and 2 females left alive at this stage, first duck had no symptoms 2nd duck had weeping eyes!

 

[Tash76]

And yes I’m looking for answers myself the dead ducks bodies remained limp, they were found limp but had been already dead for at least a few hours before I found them dead!

 

[Goosebaby]

Discharge from the eyes may be some sort of respiratory infection @Tash76

 

[Tash76]

The first one had no symptoms but the second one showed signs of breathing difficulties since the first one died, but 2 of my ducks grew up with ongoing chest infections of which I thought I dealt with I’m thinking maybe it just finally cought up with them and they passed, can’t confirm they were the two though or if it was just one that kept getting chest infections but I do know I used a lot of medications on trying to mend it or them, maybe they became immune to the medication maybe it was the medication finally killed them but there only theories!