caring for a sick bird in this HEAT?

[hfchristy]

I have my first duck illness this week, and everything I can find about caring for a sick bird says "keep dry. keep warm. keep away from drafts."
At the same time, it's beastly hot and humid here, and I'm doing everything I can to make sure that the others have means to cool off. Like lots of water to splash in, and moving air. I'm guessing the sick one shouldn't be encouraged to get overheated, either, right?

So, just how warm is "warm"?
She's isolated in the carrier we use for transporting the cat to the vet, so a small plastic crate with one end fenced and holes around the upper half of the other sides. Not exactly a cross-breeze happening there, and I'm guessing body heat will warm it up pretty good, too.
Should I find a fan? put it near the window where there's actually a small draft of cool air(!) for a change? Or is a draft really worse than excess heat?

Thanks!
Christy

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

I always wrap my chickens in a towel and bring them in the house. It is air conditioned, and they seem ok with it. I would get her a fan, I don't see why it would hurt, since overheating is probably as bad as getting chilled.

 

[froggiesheins]

You did right by isolating, in this heat you need to bring her into the house to get the body temp down, ducky might only be suffering heat stress....you gave few details, so I am guesssing here.
Heat can kill, and every bird has different tolerance levels.

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

I know one girl that had 2 hens die at the county fair. Although, they weren't giving them any water, so that might have been more of the problem (Don't worry, I gave the rest of them ice water and told the girl she should be taking better care of them.).

Point is, I would have all of my chickens walking around our nice cool house in diapers if I had the right of way.

 

[hfchristy]

Hah. I'm pretty sure it's cooler in the garage. It's nasty in here.

I described the specific ailments in a previous post, then realized that I had more general questions, too.

Main symptom is stumbling around like a drunkard, even in the water so I can't let her cool that way. She also spent nearly the entire day standing up but with her head down close between her shoulders - not a typical posture. Seems odd that she wouldn't sit down if her balance is off.
When I gave them food, she was in as much of a hurry as the rest of them. Not much interest in drinking, though, except as needed to wash down the food. Crop looked larger than normal, but with the weird posture I couldn't really tell. She also seems smaller than the others, but again, could just be the way she was standing. I was away for a few days during the worst of the weather, so I have no idea whether she was eating normally in the heat.
Tail is down. Feathers looked yellow to me at first, but now I'm wondering whether the underfeathers might just look that way? She was a soggy mess earlier. Don't think she's preening so a quick dip in the water dish left her totally waterlogged. Now that she's dry I'm not noticing the yellow. Then again, the lighting's not as good in here, either.

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

I don't know about ducks, but it sounds a little like an impacted crop. My chickens had impacted crops once and their balance was a little off. Does her crop feels squishy at all? That's all I can think of.

 

[hfchristy]

I tried feeling around for her crop this morning, but didn't know what I was looking for or how it would feel.
What do you do for an impacted crop?

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

There is a lot you can do. I would make her up some apple cider vinegar water (I put about a cup in my 5 gallon waterer) and make sure she drinks it. It just does a lot of good stuff for her; it levels out all the acidity in her system.

If it is impacted it will feel like a sponge.

You can massage whatever the "impaction" is out, but I don't know exactly how. Do some research, there is a lot of stuff here on crop problems.