Anyone do a skin biopsy on their duck?

[CoriM]

@Ratchnick - ha, that was probably me. I've been dealing with this beginning of October!

 

[Ratchnick]

I was just reading over the old posts, quite a story.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...h-mystery-skin-ailment.1339290/#post-21925806

 

[CoriM]

@Ratchnick - yep, that's my Penny

 

[casportpony]

@CatWhisperer, here is some history

The anti-fungal I used is tolnaftate.

@casportpony
My duck started on Tylosin on Oct. 8 and then started on Cephalexin on Oct. 21.

Well the gal I spoke with this morning said the tylosin was 100 mg and the cephalexin was 500 mg. Other than that I don't think I can give you anymore information.

He said she has a really bad bacterial infection. He does not suspect parasites at all. He looked at some samples under the microscope and we sent away a culture so we'll know for sure just what type of bacteria and what type of antibiotic will be best.

We've started her on a 30 day antibiotic as we don't want to wait a week for the culture to come back, since things were getting worse.

"The culture grew heavy growth of Staphylococcus aureus (normal staff from people's skin) and light growth of Ecoli (common in feces of mammals and to a lesser extent birds). Either can cause infections once established in the skin, usually from some initial trauma or wound but not always. The staph I am more suspect of but actually both are sensitive on the antibiotic sensitivity profile to the TMS that I had you pick up at the QFC"

 

[CoriM]

@castportpony I detailed her first two antibiotics in older posts, can't remember at this point, but the 3rd one was sulfamethox for a month, via syringe, then most recently she was on tylan powder for ten days and three weeks of clavacillin (pill), terbinafine hydrochloride(pill), and ivermectin injections. If all that didn't work, do you think there's anything that will?

 

[casportpony]

Do you think you could call the vet and ask the to email you a copy of the culture/sensitivity report?

 

[CoriM]

I finally was able to talk to the vet just now. We're going to go ahead and do the biopsy Wednesday. He said results could come back inconclusive, or just indicating heavy bacteria, and then we'll kind of still be where we are. Or it could come back and say resistant fungal, or a rare disease that's not on his radar. I guess it's a shot in the dark, but I don't really have any other option at this point if I want answers. I'll update when I have any info, for those who are curious.

 

[CatWhisperer]

With the 2 bacteria that cultured out and all the antibiotics that have been given I think you can rule out a bacterial infection as the primary problem. While on that point I highly recommend you administer a broad spectrum probiotic, like probios or capsules made for people with multiple strains of bacteria. I think only the fact that you ferment feed has saved your duck from a life-threatening case of the squirts. This is a big pet peeve I have with people doctors and pharmacists. They put people on antibiotics, kill their gut flora and don’t advise people how to prevent that from happening. Now, let me get off my soapbox. All animals and people have basically the same anatomy, physiology, diseases and medications (relatively). What goes for a cat goes for a duck goes for a human (relatively). As I said , at this point I really think a biopsy is the way to go towards diagnosing your duck’s skin problem. Of course there are no guarantees in medicine and nobody can promise you a diagnosis from a biopsy nor that your duck has a curable problem. You may not find out anything useful, that is a risk. But it does look like the next reasonable step in diagnosing the problem. Problems that you haven’t treated yet could be viral, inflammatory, autoimmune, deep fungal, neoplastic, paraneoplastic or endocrine. Further diagnostics are warranted before continuing expensive antibiotics. M ROO’s suggestion of going to a veterinary teaching hospital if there is one nearby is a good one.

 

[CoriM]

@CatWhisper - Thanks, well at least there are other issues that the biopsy could reveal. I did start the ducks on a probiotic a few days ago, but was wondering if I should continue that leading up to the biopsy, or if it could at all interfere with the results? Doc said she should be off the anti-fungal and antibiotic for at least 5 days before biopsy or it could interfere.

 

[CoriM]

@CatWhisperer - the probiotic I have is by Duravet and it's just called Probiotics Daily for poultry. How do I know if this is a decent one? Thanks!