Baby duck panting /rapid body motions

[Miss Lydia]

How is your little one today?
Ducks and chickens can cohabitate but it would be much better for there to be more than one duckling. Just like flock animals ducks do better if there are more than one. The duckling will have to be fully feathered and already introduced to your chickens with supervision many times before going out to live with them in a coop and pen. Chickens can be mean and I have seen times here on BYC where a rooster or even hens have attacked a duck and injured it pretty bad. So it can be done where they can live together just needs to go about slowly.
I hope you see improvement in your little one today.

 

[bhaugh]

I was looking for a pic to post of my set up and all I could find were quail but the idea is the same. I use the clip on light with an incidescent bulb for heat. Don't use led or the coated bulb. I ended up having to buy bulbs from Amazon as I couldn't find any locally. Ducks I find run hotter than chicks. If you use the rabbit cage you can cover with a towel to keep the heat from escaping.

 

[Stipenvlerk]

Would it be possible to make a video and post a link to the video here for us to see?

 

[phate008]

How is your little one today?
Ducks and chickens can cohabitate but it would be much better for there to be more than one duckling. Just like flock animals ducks do better if there are more than one. The duckling will have to be fully feathered and already introduced to your chickens with supervision many times before going out to live with them in a coop and pen. Chickens can be mean and I have seen times here on BYC where a rooster or even hens have attacked a duck and injured it pretty bad. So it can be done where they can live together just needs to go about slowly.
I hope you see improvement in your little one today.

Thanks for the information. I would definitely need to get him a friend because I assume ducks don't perch so wouldn't want him feeling like the ugly duckling (chicken).

Day 2 his breathing seemed a little less rapid. Seems like he is crying less. We hate having 2 stick a syringe down his throat twice a day, but he needs his meds and we have to be sure we're not getting any fluids in his trachea.
We asked the vet for some Meloxicam yesterday but haven't used it yet. He doesn't like to drink a lot but he does like eating the wet food. 2 days ago we couldn't get him to eat or drink but we catch him at the food bowl a couple times yesterday and today. Also saw him drinking water once yesterday.

2 days ago he was doing these chirps in bursts every couple of minutes. Now, those are more rare. His breathing is still visible, but it seems less dramatic. His whole body was convulsing pretty hard with each breathe. He still moves as he breathes but there is definitely an improvement.

For some reason this question got posted twice.

Someone asked for a video so I'm posting a 4 second clip showing his breathing.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/N8WPYNxMs7A6Ys5x8

 

[phate008]

Would it be possible to make a video and post a link to the video here for us to see?

Here is a small clip where you can visibly see his breathing

https://photos.app.goo.gl/N8WPYNxMs7A6Ys5x8

 

[phate008]

I was looking for a pic to post of my set up and all I could find were quail but the idea is the same. I use the clip on light with an incidescent bulb for heat. Don't use led or the coated bulb. I ended up having to buy bulbs from Amazon as I couldn't find any locally. Ducks I find run hotter than chicks. If you use the rabbit cage you can cover with a towel to keep the heat from escaping.

I brought the rabbit cage in. I almost ordered the pellets but wasn't sure which ones to get. My friend thought they the pellets I was buying were too small and they were scared he would try and eat them. I hooked up a second heat lamp. This one is infrared and I have the ceramic one higher up on the food half of the box. I do this because my house is cold right now so the ceramic heater keeps it in the 70's over the food area and the infrared lamp keeps it at 90 in their sleeping area. In constantly changing the paper towels I'm using as a liner. It is by no means ideal but I was scared this may have happened from him eating pine shavings. It could just be a freak respiratory issue but not sure how it could have been caused. My thoughts were he may have inhaled water while getting a drink or maybe the dust from the pine bedding .

 

[Stipenvlerk]

I'm so sorry for your little duckling.. How long did you take him out of the brooder to see if the rapid breeding went away?

To rule overheating out, you could give him a supervised swim in semi-cool to lukewarm water. See if the rapid breeding goes away.
If you feel like he's being very uncomfortable in the water, you can always get him out and dry again quickly.
He will maybe be a little scared if it's the first time he goes for a swim. You can use your hand as a swimming platform so he does't feel like he's drowning. But hey, it's a duck!

 

[Stipenvlerk]

O, I now see you this is a duplicate post! in you other one you mention you already went to the VET right? Let me see if someone can merge the two or delete this one...

 

[bhaugh]

I wouldn't give him the meloxicam. The theory is good but to dose it and not cause toxicity would be hard. He is breathing pretty fast in the video. All you do now is dose with the antibiotics and wait it out.
I haven't had any issues that I know of with any of my birds eating the pellets. They are the only thing that doesn't retain moisture and reletively safe for baby fowl. Two types of pellets one to heat with (not this one) and one for animals. If you want to stick with paper consider pet potty pads.

 

[phate008]

They gave us 7 pre-measured syringes for the Meloxicam. We gave him a dose with his antibiotics at 12. Just hearing him quiet down a bit, eat, and sleeping peacefully is an improvement but it hurts me to see him like this. With my chickens I used chucks as pads on the landing below their roost. It actually would be a lot easier for me to use those instead of paper towels.