Appx 6 week duckling died. Any ideas?

[babylady4]

Hi! I had three call ducks, two were about 6 weeks old and one is about 8 weeks. Over the last few days one of the 6 week old ducks started acting tired a lot more than normal and was off his food. No discharge from the nose, no funny behaviors, no crop impaction; just sleeping more than normal, green poo, and not eating much. I administered the cider vinegar, baby vitamins, and yogurt but nothing helped. Yesterday afternoon he passed on. The other two ducks that are housed with the one that died have no syptoms and are doing just fine.

Any ideas? I have ruled out anything that would be contagious since the other two would have it as well. The only difference that could account for the illness I can think of is the introduction of ducklings from a hatchery, but they have been here for 2 weeks now and this duck was from a farm so exposure to 'bird bugs' happened early for him.......... oh and none of the baby ducks are ill either.

I would love any information I can get since these ducks are very special and I want to try to pinpoint the cause of his death as soon as possible and to the best of my ability without doing a necropsy.

 

[AdamD77]

Sorry for your loss

Not sure what it might have been but hopefully someone else can help

 

[Sweetfolly]

Oh no!

Mine are doing great too, so it shouldn't be anything they picked up at the farm...
I'm going to say the most likely culprits would be either a nasty virus or bacteria that he was more susceptible to than the others, or a congenital condition that wasn't apparent at first and finally caught up with him.

I'm leaning towards something congenital (the green poop, in hindsight, might have been an indicator of a liver problem), because I know your ducklings are probably better cared for and cleaned up after than mine are, so an environmental bacteria seems unlikely, and a virus would usually have been more sudden, whereas he declined rather slowly.

Like you said, it shouldn't be anything contagious if all the other ducks are doing fine, and they're all eating the same thing (plus, you gave him vitamins) so it's unlikely that it was a vitamin deficiency. Definitely keep an eye on the rest of them for the next few weeks though!

I have a feeling that there was nothing you could have done - and you did everything you could!

 

[NanoByte]

Dehydration?

Ducks need an awful lot of water.

 

[raimnel]

Hi BL4, I havn't a clue, and I'm sorry for ur loss.

but wanted to comment on the last post that ducks need alot of water...... WELL if they wouldn't dump it ALL over the place they would have alot to drink..... BUT no they need to empty the thing as soon as I put it in there. it like they say " AAAHHHH she filled it SHE FILLED IT! LETS EMPTY IT!!!!"

Silly bird brains! I do really love these cuties. But still I think their really pigs in duck costumes!

 

[babylady4]

Lack of water was not an issue at all, they have a mortar mixing tub in their pen and a deluxe chicken waterer.

The vitamins were only given at the very end, like the last day or so. Nobody else seems to have any nutritional issues so I have not been giving them the vitamins.

Could it possibly be a minnow from the bait shop???? They eat those suckers like candy.

 

[newchickmom09]

I would guess it was something more along the lines of what Annarie said.

I have feed my ducklings all kinds of fish from streams, lakes, feed stores, and bait shops and non have ever gotten sick.

 

[Sweetfolly]

I don't think the minnows could have caused any harm, unless one of them died and "went bad", and then he ate it and got salmonella?

Found this quote on this website: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/poulsci/tech_manuals/feeding_ducks.html
"Salmonellosis is a common disease of ducks caused by a variety of serotypes of salmonella. Infected ducks are listless, dehydrated, exhibit diarrhea, and show signs of incoordination, and head tremors."

 

[Baybrio]

I'm so sorry to hear about your duckling.

My family fed my ducks minnows sold as bait - they all had so much fun (people and ducks). Daffy my crested duck who can't walk caught the most fish in the wading pool! All the time they were eating them I was worried that the ducks would immediately keel over due to some type of "treatment" added to the minnow water at the bait shop. Yes, I'm really good at thinking up all the bad things that could happen. That said, unless your duck was sick very soon after the minnows it probably was not that.

On thing that nobody has mentioned yet is what the Holderread duck book calls Hardware Disease. It is not a disease, but illness caused by ducks eating, well, hardware. I've noticed my can find any inedible item in a new yard area and they all then try their best to gobble the object down before the others get it. I've grabbed little wire ties, plastic labels, pieces of duct tape and unidentifiable "hardware" out of their bills.