emmabellybutton
Chirping
- Feb 11, 2021
- 15
- 13
- 54
Hi there,
I have a 4 week old Muscovy duckling, his name is Bald Eagle because of the bald spot he was born with on his head. He's always been a little funny, has some balance issues, spacial awareness issues, possibly vision issues. He has started doing it less now but will look around over and over, not really looking at anything but almost like he's dizzy. This is the 5th muscovy I've raised, never seen this before and neither has the duck lady I know who has a whole flock of Muscovies and several breeds of chickens.
I was worried about him from the jump, he's small and always needed more rest than his sibling. My biggest moral has been that I will do everything I can to support him and help him grow into a healthy young duck as long as he can function and is showing that he's happy, and so far he has been the happiest cuddliest duck I've raised.
That being said, last week we noticed he was closing his left eye. No discharge, signs of sickness like coughing/sneezing, no bubbling or anything, just tired and didn't want that eye open. So we thought maybe he got a little scratch, I rinsed with saline 2-3x per day and it got better. Something else I noticed was I could see cloudiness in both of his pupils.
He was back to his happy wiggly playful self until today, he is now closing his right eye, again lethargic and tired and something just seems wrong. I rubbed some VetRX on his beak/head just incase but am very worried about him and unsure what to do. One thought I had was maybe its an autoimmune thing but I don't know anything about that or what I would do to treat it. I don't have hundreds of dollars to be able to do a vet appointment, plus I already called and the ones in my area aren't taking new clients right now because of Covid. So any advice or support would be so hugely appreciated! I don't know where to turn, I keep researching as much as I can but would love to find someone who really knows what they're talking about or has experienced something even remotely similar!
Some other background info- he has had niacin in his diet since birth, since we only have 5 ducks and about a half acre, they have a very clean living area and for this baby and his sibling, they get fresh towels to sleep on every night. They get fresh water every morning and I scrub out their bins weekly with gentle soap. They have glass and plastic water bins, no metals that could be toxic. They get greens and are free rangers so have plenty of natural grasses/seeds/bugs to forage as well as access to appropriate duck feed at all times, with the niacin mixed in. Sometimes we give them turmeric water, they get lots of mealworm treats, in essence we try to enrich their living environments and meals as much as possible and keep them as clean and safe as possible so the likeliness of bacterial infection is very low, especially because none of the other ducks are showing any symptoms similar to Eagle.
Below are some photos of his bald spot, one from him a day old and the other a month old. Also attached are photos of his eyes, it's pretty hard to see the grey cloudiness in the pupils, hopefully these post high res
I have a 4 week old Muscovy duckling, his name is Bald Eagle because of the bald spot he was born with on his head. He's always been a little funny, has some balance issues, spacial awareness issues, possibly vision issues. He has started doing it less now but will look around over and over, not really looking at anything but almost like he's dizzy. This is the 5th muscovy I've raised, never seen this before and neither has the duck lady I know who has a whole flock of Muscovies and several breeds of chickens.
I was worried about him from the jump, he's small and always needed more rest than his sibling. My biggest moral has been that I will do everything I can to support him and help him grow into a healthy young duck as long as he can function and is showing that he's happy, and so far he has been the happiest cuddliest duck I've raised.
That being said, last week we noticed he was closing his left eye. No discharge, signs of sickness like coughing/sneezing, no bubbling or anything, just tired and didn't want that eye open. So we thought maybe he got a little scratch, I rinsed with saline 2-3x per day and it got better. Something else I noticed was I could see cloudiness in both of his pupils.
He was back to his happy wiggly playful self until today, he is now closing his right eye, again lethargic and tired and something just seems wrong. I rubbed some VetRX on his beak/head just incase but am very worried about him and unsure what to do. One thought I had was maybe its an autoimmune thing but I don't know anything about that or what I would do to treat it. I don't have hundreds of dollars to be able to do a vet appointment, plus I already called and the ones in my area aren't taking new clients right now because of Covid. So any advice or support would be so hugely appreciated! I don't know where to turn, I keep researching as much as I can but would love to find someone who really knows what they're talking about or has experienced something even remotely similar!
Some other background info- he has had niacin in his diet since birth, since we only have 5 ducks and about a half acre, they have a very clean living area and for this baby and his sibling, they get fresh towels to sleep on every night. They get fresh water every morning and I scrub out their bins weekly with gentle soap. They have glass and plastic water bins, no metals that could be toxic. They get greens and are free rangers so have plenty of natural grasses/seeds/bugs to forage as well as access to appropriate duck feed at all times, with the niacin mixed in. Sometimes we give them turmeric water, they get lots of mealworm treats, in essence we try to enrich their living environments and meals as much as possible and keep them as clean and safe as possible so the likeliness of bacterial infection is very low, especially because none of the other ducks are showing any symptoms similar to Eagle.
Below are some photos of his bald spot, one from him a day old and the other a month old. Also attached are photos of his eyes, it's pretty hard to see the grey cloudiness in the pupils, hopefully these post high res