meggles_b5309
In the Brooder
- Jul 25, 2022
- 10
- 13
- 34
Hi everyone! I’ve been reading on here for the past few years as a fledgling duck and chicken owner. I have learned a lot, and wanted to share a weird situation I had come up recently.
I have a welsh harlequin duck who is three years old, who has had thin walled or soft eggs for as long as I can remember. She is healthy otherwise and I suspect she is just a defective duck. Well, this year she never laid an egg and then in the last week or so I noticed she was getting a little pudgy. A year ago, I had a welsh harlequin with a case of water belly (ascites) that i attempted to treat but was too late and lost her. Because egg binding is it so quick to be fatal, I didn’t think that my current duck had a bound egg. She was also eating and drinking and pooping at least sometimes (I quarantined her to try and do a fluid draw for water belly and observe her for a few days when she began to separate herself from the flock which is never a good sign).
During her quarantine, I had her on garlic and oregano, because those are good for heart health and infection and I really didn’t know what was going on. She did really well for a day or two so I put her back with the flock and then after another day, she regressed, and was off by her self again. I called up a friend who helps me play veterinarian when I run into weird issues like this, and she suggested I rub sugar on her vent - apparently it has anti inflammatory properties. I mixed sugar with olive oil (in the event something was bound) and made a paste and rubbed it on her vent (which looked fine to me but Ive never had a reason to check out a vent before). Not four hours later, she passed this monstrosity. I’ll be keeping her under observation and on vitamin supplements, garlic and oregano to make sure she recovers from any infection, although if anyone has any antibiotic suggestions I’d love them.
Well I hope this is informative to y’all. Thanks for all the great support on here!
I have a welsh harlequin duck who is three years old, who has had thin walled or soft eggs for as long as I can remember. She is healthy otherwise and I suspect she is just a defective duck. Well, this year she never laid an egg and then in the last week or so I noticed she was getting a little pudgy. A year ago, I had a welsh harlequin with a case of water belly (ascites) that i attempted to treat but was too late and lost her. Because egg binding is it so quick to be fatal, I didn’t think that my current duck had a bound egg. She was also eating and drinking and pooping at least sometimes (I quarantined her to try and do a fluid draw for water belly and observe her for a few days when she began to separate herself from the flock which is never a good sign).
During her quarantine, I had her on garlic and oregano, because those are good for heart health and infection and I really didn’t know what was going on. She did really well for a day or two so I put her back with the flock and then after another day, she regressed, and was off by her self again. I called up a friend who helps me play veterinarian when I run into weird issues like this, and she suggested I rub sugar on her vent - apparently it has anti inflammatory properties. I mixed sugar with olive oil (in the event something was bound) and made a paste and rubbed it on her vent (which looked fine to me but Ive never had a reason to check out a vent before). Not four hours later, she passed this monstrosity. I’ll be keeping her under observation and on vitamin supplements, garlic and oregano to make sure she recovers from any infection, although if anyone has any antibiotic suggestions I’d love them.
Well I hope this is informative to y’all. Thanks for all the great support on here!
