Hello all! It’s been a while. In general, all ducks have been doing great! However, I just came home from a family crisis situation to find that my 7 year old Muscovy duck had fallen ill. My husband, who was home taking care of the animals, said that she developed neurological symptoms quite suddenly after being broody and extra crabby all week.
He said that she came back from loosely supervised free ranging, and fell over onto her side, and needed to use her wings to get herself upright. She continued to have no ability to walk, and made strange movements with her head and neck.
Hubby is not one to deal with animal medical crises, so he let me know when I was almost home, which was late at night on Friday.
I took a look, and agreed that she was in poor shape, but it was late, she was safe, warm, and comfy in the barn, and the emergency vet no longer has exotics care, so I took a “wait and see” approach, honestly expecting her not to make it through the night.
Well, she did make it through the night, and the next day and night too! She’s actually slowly improving. Although she’s not super active, she is able to walk pretty steadily, and she ate a little bit this morning. She has been drinking throughout, but her appetite was non-existent initially.
At any rate, she has made it clear that she’s not giving up, and also that she would prefer to stay with the other ducks.
I would just like ideas to help support her as she (hopefully) recovers. Also, any ideas as to what causes neuro symptoms in adult ducks? I assume some form of toxicity or a stroke. No other ducks have shown any symptoms.
I’m in Vermont, and haven’t heard any reports of current HPAI outbreaks. It has been very dry this summer until about the past week. I try to keep things very clean, and although my husband didn’t dump the big pool while I was gone, it was just dirty with no algae when I got home.
At no point did she seem paralyzed.
For handling, she gets quite stressed, and I’m a firm believer that stress affects healing. Because of this, I do not have her isolated from the others.
Sorry if this rambling is confusing. Her illness is just the latest of the many awful recent occurrences.
The picture is of her in better times. I guess she still looks the same, just thinner.
He said that she came back from loosely supervised free ranging, and fell over onto her side, and needed to use her wings to get herself upright. She continued to have no ability to walk, and made strange movements with her head and neck.
Hubby is not one to deal with animal medical crises, so he let me know when I was almost home, which was late at night on Friday.
I took a look, and agreed that she was in poor shape, but it was late, she was safe, warm, and comfy in the barn, and the emergency vet no longer has exotics care, so I took a “wait and see” approach, honestly expecting her not to make it through the night.
Well, she did make it through the night, and the next day and night too! She’s actually slowly improving. Although she’s not super active, she is able to walk pretty steadily, and she ate a little bit this morning. She has been drinking throughout, but her appetite was non-existent initially.
At any rate, she has made it clear that she’s not giving up, and also that she would prefer to stay with the other ducks.
I would just like ideas to help support her as she (hopefully) recovers. Also, any ideas as to what causes neuro symptoms in adult ducks? I assume some form of toxicity or a stroke. No other ducks have shown any symptoms.
I’m in Vermont, and haven’t heard any reports of current HPAI outbreaks. It has been very dry this summer until about the past week. I try to keep things very clean, and although my husband didn’t dump the big pool while I was gone, it was just dirty with no algae when I got home.
At no point did she seem paralyzed.
For handling, she gets quite stressed, and I’m a firm believer that stress affects healing. Because of this, I do not have her isolated from the others.
Sorry if this rambling is confusing. Her illness is just the latest of the many awful recent occurrences.
The picture is of her in better times. I guess she still looks the same, just thinner.
