4 week old pekin sick

[cswanson1941]

My daughter has 2 Pekin ducks, 4 weeks old, in a small flock of chickens the same age, from the same local hatchery. All birds have been doing great, eating 21% starter chick feed mixed with a little 16% starter (Chickens are layers and broilers). They are in a large pen in a retired barn, concrete floor with clean, dry straw and wood shavings, deep waterers and access to food. The smaller duckling last night was not able to stand or walk and looks to be "gasping", head is swinging around and just kind of sits on her back end or flopes around on her side. Does not look well at all. When we took her out and put her in a pool of fresh water (very hot outside, but barn temp at 80F so not too bad) she swims very well and the gasping goes away and head swinging slows down. Have been swimming her every couple hours and she is isolated in her own pen with fresh water and feed. Any idea?

 

[Amiga]

I do not have a sense of certainty about what is wrong, but here are some ideas to consider.

First, thanks for joining us and asking for help.

80 may be too warm for the ducklings at four weeks, and while we often make statements about what ducks do or don't do, each duckling could be quite different from the average. So heat may be a problem for this one.

Head flinging may be an indication that something is stuck in the throat, or that the duckling is trying to regurgitate something nasty.

Some silly ducklings eat shavings and they get stuck and that can be fatal. Has she been eating shavings?

Some poultry vitamins in water may help and won't hurt her. I would give them to try to give her some strength and boost her system.

Some ducklings have neurological problems on chick feed only, as it has a third of the optimal niacin for ducklings. Get her some brewer's yeast sprinkled on her food or, better, dissolve some plain niacin (no special non flush or time release) in her water, 100 to 150mg per gallon of water, a.s.a.p.

Hope we can help her out.

 

[pastrymama]

i just had some similiar symptoms with 2 of my ducklings last week at age 4.5 weeks. sudden onset of unable to stand, drunken stance and a bobble head like movement. it took me quite some time to figure it out, a lot of google time, phone calls to holderreads and it is botulism. not quite sure where they got it and why only 2 out of the 15 ducklings are sick, but i suppose thankfully it's only 2 out of the 15 and not all of them. i have tried the molasses flush for a few days and now am on to the epsom salt flush and am now seeing a tiny improvement. i hope they recover. i found in my research that if they survive the first 48 hours they have a good chance of recovery, unless it takes over their respiratory system. look up the symptoms of botulism and see it if fits, it is progressive and will get worse as time passes.

i am taking a crash course in duckling rearing.

 

[Amiga]

Hang in there, pastrymama, the learning curve is steep but there are wonderful moments along the way!

And hot weather, especially hot dry weather seems to produce more cases of botulism.

For botulism the treatment is to give a laxative and lots of fresh water to flush the system

Use 1 pound of epsom salts or 1 pint of molasses in 5 gallons of water, according to Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. Another option is 1 teaspoon of castor oil. Make sure the duck has access to lots of clean fresh water.