coughing duck... is it serious?

[DeeJay]

Will do, thanks

 

[laurendoc]

I'm completely new to owning ducks and I'm also worried about my 3 month old female Aylesbury duck having spurts of coughing. It tends to be at about 9.30pm for the past 2 evenings. Whilst coughing she sounds a little wheezy, the rest of the time she is happy preening, eating and generally making a mess. She tends to breathe quite heavy on an evening but she has done this since we got her at 3 weeks. (It tends to be when she's settling for a sleep). She lives with another female Aylesbury who we got at the same time if this is relevant.

When taking the ducks the lady told us to start worming at 6 months then every six months after. After reading this thread I'm going to look into worming them this weekend though.

Any extra help or info would be much appreciated. (They have constant fresh water and the coughing isn't whilst eating)

Thanks!!!

 

[DeeJay]

Our 'scovy turned out to be making a 'protective' noise whilst laying, as she did it again this year - but if you have a listen to your ducks' chest is there any wheezing? If so you may want to get onto a vet visit to get her checked out.

When ours has her little cough warning noises (which the other two don't do... yet) we tend to add a tiny amount of apple cider vinegar into their bucket and it seems to help

 

[laurendoc]

Thanks for your reply.

I took them to the vet who told me she couldn't see or hear anything wrong with either of them. She prescribed some antibiotics for one of them and we also wormed them. The cough cleared up and its only every now and then now.

Thanks!!