Choking/Foaming Duckling

[Flight Of Fancy]

I have not been on this site for years, married at chickenstock 2006 in TX at Allen Wranch's..., I was miss amara - official henbassador... LOL. anywho I had this issue with some duck babies I had and found little help here or anywhere. Hope I can give a head's up. If your ducklings are young and show distress with foam in the mouth and nose they are choking. First off if you run out of feed and water always rewater first before feed. That doesn't always work so if you still end up with chokers feel the neck. If unsure how it should feel grab a happy duck and feel his neck. Should feel smooth. The difference between him and the choking duck should be obvious. On the choker push the lump up. It is a jacked up Heimlich Maneuver. You will see the lump of feed come into the mouth and use a tooth pick or something to scrape out of the mouth. He will be all happy... and alive.

 

[sourland]

As you have indicated ducklings do best if fed and watered ad lib. If for some reason they do run out of feed - water first and provide wet mash for feeding.

 

[Flight Of Fancy]

Exactly, good point. I had a batch of particularly piggie ones and they would even choke on the mash, we had them on crumble soup for almost a week, it was crazy. I have kept ducks for some time and this was a first for me and seemed to just be this batch of birds. They ate like my dachshund does, scarf everything down.

 

[Amiga]

Thanks for this - I plan to add it to my list of helpful links.

 

[Flight Of Fancy]

Hey, Amiga, glad to be of help as I am sure the other poster is too I hope any others doing a google search find it helpful too, because when it happened to me and what we dubbed my "suicidal flock" I was in a complete panic and lost the first guy while hitting the net for help. We saved 3 after that with the push throat method same day. My goodness, I was holding them upside down, jiggling, poking... Truly a trial and error scene and not pretty. Also, we used a dropper to help siphon a choker (from my cuticle oil bottle no less after a hot water rinse) . I totally forgot that one. I bet a baby "snot sucker" from the hospital would work well since they are huge bulbs with long skinny "suckers". Remember to always squish the bulb out before inserting! On your kids too

And wow, the site has gotten big! As I said, been years but it is almost in every google search these days! Never thought we'd grow so large, cool beans! Happy to be back even if not in the same capacity.

 

[Just saved duck]

My five-day-old duckling ate out of my wife's hand and began foaming at the mouth and nose within seconds. The duck was making sounds still but we were very concerned be use it was shaking its head and foaming more and more. I found this site in seconds. THANKS. I massaged the baby's neck and from bottom to top and I then noticed a little piece of food coming out its nose. I wiped it clean and the duckling was back to normal. My wife isn't crying anymore either. Hopefully this post can help someone else.

This poor duckling was most certainly choking and now seems to be doing well. As the post I read to save my duck stated, do this and I believe you will have a better chance at keeping the little guy/gal alive.

 

[Flight Of Fancy]

It can be so scary trying to rescue a lil' critter... I am so happy it helped and cured a case of tears.

 

[fyrwife95]

Thank goodness for this information. Today I received 5 two day old ducklings. I've been keeping constant watch over them and discovered one of my girls foaming at mouth and nose. I knew right away she was choking but instinctively blew in hew mouth and rubbed her throat downward. I found this thread and realized I should have been streaking her neck upward.

 

[Amiga]

Thank goodness for this information. Today I received 5 two day old ducklings. I've been keeping constant watch over them and discovered one of my girls foaming at mouth and nose. I knew right away she was choking but instinctively blew in hew mouth and rubbed her throat downward. I found this thread and realized I should have been streaking her neck upward.

How are things?

 

[fyrwife95]

Doing well. I watched them closely the rest of the day. Last evening I realized a few of them were eating without sipping water at all and figured out that was why she choked. I decided to add water to their food until I'm positive they are all old enough to know they need to consume water with their food.