Adult duck had seizures but miraculously recovered, what was wrong with her?

[white_meadowfarm]

Hello. I have been a longtime reader on the duck forum but have never had an account or posted, so hopefully I’m doing this in the right place. Firstly, this is not urgent. I have owned ducks for quite some time, they are the loves of my life. I generally have a good sense of when one of them is injured or sick and would say I am fairly knowledgeable about how to treat certain things.

I have a young female welsh harlequin (12 and a half months to be exact) who gave every sign of not feeling 100% mid August. I had been gone for the week (longest I’ve been away from them), leaving my flock in the hands of my sister, and the day I returned my girl would not go in for the night (they free range and have access to a large pond, and they have a predator-proof and weatherproof duck pen built inside of my barn). After a lot of effort, I got her in, and she just lied in my arms with her head on my shoulder appearing depressed and sad. The following day she did not want to come out of her pen. She ate and drank little and was sleeping while standing upright with both feet on the ground and her head resting on her chest.

This behavior continued for two days.

By the third day, she was not interested in food at all. I gave her electrolytes but she barely drank. That night I thought maybe she was egg bound because she hadn’t laid since I returned and seemed very lethargic but still able to move. I thought why not give her a soak in some warm water in my bathtub just to be sure. When I picked her up, she had a seizure.

I thought she was going to die in my arms.

Then she was in a dazed state and I took her into my bathroom and she seemed back to her normal self within a minute. I had never seen a seizure before and at the time was only guessing that’s what it was. She went into the bath, still lethargic and not drinking any water or preening herself.

I decided on calling my vet first thing in the morning to see if it might be metal poisoning from free ranging, despite always being vigilant to look out for non natural objects in my yard.

I took her out of the bath and she had another seizure that lasted close to 2 minutes. She ended up lying on her side with her head on the ground and her eyes were watery and staring off into nothing. Again, another death scare.

I stayed with her, wrapped her in a towel, and calmed her down until she snapped out of her daze and tried to move away from me.

I returned her to her pen and separated her in case whatever was afflicting her was contagious. She did not lie down, she remained upright and would fall asleep instantly while standing but not keeping her head up. She had no eye or nostril discharge. Her feet were not hot to the touch. She was not showing signs of a respiratory infection. I gave her water with activated charcoal and kept an eye on her throughout the night.

I got her to the vet the next day and told them her symptoms, my worry being that she had toxic metal poisoning. They checked for a bound egg and found nothing. They did an x ray and she had no visible foreign objects. They drew blood to check if she was anemic from toxins getting into her bloodstream. She came back clean.

I brought her home with the vet saying they’d seek out an avian specialist to look at her lab work and X-ray. That’s the last I ever heard from them.

I did some of my own research - was it a nutrient deficiency? Some strain of avian flu? I have male ducks. I’m out of ratio but during mating season they are separated within their pen space and only ever mate with each other while I am present, and I usually ward off aggressive attempts daily in the summer months. Was this a head injury from overmating?

I read selenium deficiency, niacin deficiency (which I’ve treated with two of my ducks when they were ducklings. My flock eats Nutrena Country Farms pellets, along with whatever they find free ranging. I also give them thawed frozen peas and romaine lettuce 1-2x a week as treats. I knew niacin affected walking, but I have never seen a deficiency in an adult duck so I wasn’t sure). I blended a small amount of her food, water, spinach (for selenium), romaine, some calcium, and liquid niacin.

I siphoned small amounts into a syringe and fed her the “smoothie” by hand. She likely only consumed 20% of what I gave her. I saw her drink a little water. She remained separated from her sisters.

The next day she still seemed the same. Minor head shaking, neck tucked into her body, standing upright. Feathers a little ruffled but when she’d shake, she would not move her head much.

For some reason I decided to elevate and tilt her food bowl with the pellet feed so it was directly level with her head and all she had to do was move forward to eat.

And… she ate! Quite a bit too. And drank water. I was happy and told myself the next day would be better.

The following day I heard her calling out from within the pen, rushed in to see if she was ok and my girl was on the other side of her makeshift quarantine pen, looking for her sisters. She had flown over. She was walking around. I brought the others in to keep her company and again elevated a food bowl and she ate.

The next day she went out with her sisters and took a bath. Having not preened in a while it took her a longer time to dry off but I made sure it was a warm sunny day because I knew she’d likely have wet feather.

She was still slower than everyone. Luckily it seemed mating season had just come to an end and she was not approached by any of my males.

As the days went by she gradually improved. I (still to this day) have been supplementing all my flock’s food with brewer’s yeast on top of their pellets. Just as a precaution, because why not?

I never heard anything from my vet.

So… my girl is completely fine now. She molted, is back to being her sassy self, eats and drinks normally, eager to go out, preens herself, swims, etc.

I’m curious what was wrong with her? Was it a niacin deficiency that caused her to have 2 back to back seizures and be so lethargic and have no appetite? From the way she only ate with the elevated food I am almost positive it’s because her head hurt too much to tilt downward to eat. Would minor head trauma like a bad concussion have appeared on her xray?

My only guesses are niacin deficiency that miraculously cleared once she got the supplement in her system (but my feed says it has niacin - 65 mg/kg - and she was not deficient as a duckling, but her blood related sister was), possible concussion from overmating that might have unknowingly occurred while I was gone and my sister was caring for them, or she was incredibly depressed for some reason??

Has anybody else ever experienced something like this with one of their ducks? My mother suggested I euthanize her the night she had her seizures. If this is something as curable as a nutrient deficiency, then I worry about others who think the only solution is to euthanize. While researching, I checked this site right after she had her seizures but couldn’t find anything other than take her to the vet asap and give her some Karo syrup in the meantime.

I’m incredibly grateful for my baby’s miraculous and short recovery, but I’m still left wondering why it happened in the first place. And I sometimes worry I might find her having another unexplainable seizure in the future. I prefer prevention to treatment, but I am clueless as to what was wrong with her.

I know this is long, but I thought including every detail was necessary. Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[Jenbirdee]

Hello. I have been a longtime reader on the duck forum but have never had an account or posted, so hopefully I’m doing this in the right place. Firstly, this is not urgent. I have owned ducks for quite some time, they are the loves of my life. I generally have a good sense of when one of them is injured or sick and would say I am fairly knowledgeable about how to treat certain things.

I have a young female welsh harlequin (12 and a half months to be exact) who gave every sign of not feeling 100% mid August. I had been gone for the week (longest I’ve been away from them), leaving my flock in the hands of my sister, and the day I returned my girl would not go in for the night (they free range and have access to a large pond, and they have a predator-proof and weatherproof duck pen built inside of my barn). After a lot of effort, I got her in, and she just lied in my arms with her head on my shoulder appearing depressed and sad. The following day she did not want to come out of her pen. She ate and drank little and was sleeping while standing upright with both feet on the ground and her head resting on her chest.

This behavior continued for two days.

By the third day, she was not interested in food at all. I gave her electrolytes but she barely drank. That night I thought maybe she was egg bound because she hadn’t laid since I returned and seemed very lethargic but still able to move. I thought why not give her a soak in some warm water in my bathtub just to be sure. When I picked her up, she had a seizure.

I thought she was going to die in my arms.

Then she was in a dazed state and I took her into my bathroom and she seemed back to her normal self within a minute. I had never seen a seizure before and at the time was only guessing that’s what it was. She went into the bath, still lethargic and not drinking any water or preening herself.

I decided on calling my vet first thing in the morning to see if it might be metal poisoning from free ranging, despite always being vigilant to look out for non natural objects in my yard.

I took her out of the bath and she had another seizure that lasted close to 2 minutes. She ended up lying on her side with her head on the ground and her eyes were watery and staring off into nothing. Again, another death scare.

I stayed with her, wrapped her in a towel, and calmed her down until she snapped out of her daze and tried to move away from me.

I returned her to her pen and separated her in case whatever was afflicting her was contagious. She did not lie down, she remained upright and would fall asleep instantly while standing but not keeping her head up. She had no eye or nostril discharge. Her feet were not hot to the touch. She was not showing signs of a respiratory infection. I gave her water with activated charcoal and kept an eye on her throughout the night.

I got her to the vet the next day and told them her symptoms, my worry being that she had toxic metal poisoning. They checked for a bound egg and found nothing. They did an x ray and she had no visible foreign objects. They drew blood to check if she was anemic from toxins getting into her bloodstream. She came back clean.

I brought her home with the vet saying they’d seek out an avian specialist to look at her lab work and X-ray. That’s the last I ever heard from them.

I did some of my own research - was it a nutrient deficiency? Some strain of avian flu? I have male ducks. I’m out of ratio but during mating season they are separated within their pen space and only ever mate with each other while I am present, and I usually ward off aggressive attempts daily in the summer months. Was this a head injury from overmating?

I read selenium deficiency, niacin deficiency (which I’ve treated with two of my ducks when they were ducklings. My flock eats Nutrena Country Farms pellets, along with whatever they find free ranging. I also give them thawed frozen peas and romaine lettuce 1-2x a week as treats. I knew niacin affected walking, but I have never seen a deficiency in an adult duck so I wasn’t sure). I blended a small amount of her food, water, spinach (for selenium), romaine, some calcium, and liquid niacin.

I siphoned small amounts into a syringe and fed her the “smoothie” by hand. She likely only consumed 20% of what I gave her. I saw her drink a little water. She remained separated from her sisters.

The next day she still seemed the same. Minor head shaking, neck tucked into her body, standing upright. Feathers a little ruffled but when she’d shake, she would not move her head much.

For some reason I decided to elevate and tilt her food bowl with the pellet feed so it was directly level with her head and all she had to do was move forward to eat.

And… she ate! Quite a bit too. And drank water. I was happy and told myself the next day would be better.

The following day I heard her calling out from within the pen, rushed in to see if she was ok and my girl was on the other side of her makeshift quarantine pen, looking for her sisters. She had flown over. She was walking around. I brought the others in to keep her company and again elevated a food bowl and she ate.

The next day she went out with her sisters and took a bath. Having not preened in a while it took her a longer time to dry off but I made sure it was a warm sunny day because I knew she’d likely have wet feather.

She was still slower than everyone. Luckily it seemed mating season had just come to an end and she was not approached by any of my males.

As the days went by she gradually improved. I (still to this day) have been supplementing all my flock’s food with brewer’s yeast on top of their pellets. Just as a precaution, because why not?

I never heard anything from my vet.

So… my girl is completely fine now. She molted, is back to being her sassy self, eats and drinks normally, eager to go out, preens herself, swims, etc.

I’m curious what was wrong with her? Was it a niacin deficiency that caused her to have 2 back to back seizures and be so lethargic and have no appetite? From the way she only ate with the elevated food I am almost positive it’s because her head hurt too much to tilt downward to eat. Would minor head trauma like a bad concussion have appeared on her xray?

My only guesses are niacin deficiency that miraculously cleared once she got the supplement in her system (but my feed says it has niacin - 65 mg/kg - and she was not deficient as a duckling, but her blood related sister was), possible concussion from overmating that might have unknowingly occurred while I was gone and my sister was caring for them, or she was incredibly depressed for some reason??

Has anybody else ever experienced something like this with one of their ducks? My mother suggested I euthanize her the night she had her seizures. If this is something as curable as a nutrient deficiency, then I worry about others who think the only solution is to euthanize. While researching, I checked this site right after she had her seizures but couldn’t find anything other than take her to the vet asap and give her some Karo syrup in the meantime.

I’m incredibly grateful for my baby’s miraculous and short recovery, but I’m still left wondering why it happened in the first place. And I sometimes worry I might find her having another unexplainable seizure in the future. I prefer prevention to treatment, but I am clueless as to what was wrong with her.

I know this is long, but I thought including every detail was necessary. Thanks for any thoughts!

Wow - very interesting story and I’m so glad that she recovered!! Amazing!
I have one question now how do you know that They only mate when you are present?

 

[white_meadowfarm]

Wow - very interesting story and I’m so glad that she recovered!! Amazing!
I have one question now how do you know that They only mate when you are present?

Thank you! Good question. I can’t say I do see each time they mate. I do know they cannot mate when they are in their enclosure because I separate the males to keep aggression in check. They only free range when I, or someone else on the farm, is home (which is pretty much every day). I think my idea was that I typically hear when my females are getting unwanted attention from the males and try to step in if it is getting out of hand. In the instance that she could have gotten hurt by one of them without me witnessing the actual injury, I figure I likely would have noticed she was injured following the incident. But maybe not. They do hide their ailments well. I guess “overmating” might not be the right term here since she did not have missing feathers on her neck. Mating-related injury, maybe? I do know that my males will chase the girls around and sometimes the chase escalates on land where they could get hurt running around.