Crunching like sound coming from inside of sick duck?

[rainplace]

I noticed a runner duck hen not walking so brought her inside. I do not see anything wrong with her legs, no wounds, nothing of that sort. While examining her I can heard a sort of crackling/crunching sound coming from inside her... not out of her mouth, but from inside... if that makes sense. She does not seem to be with egg, though I could be wrong... she isn't large down below like I'm use to when they are with eggs. I have a call into the vet, but he hasn't called back yet. Is anyone familiar with this sound and know what causes it?

 

[Dora'smom]

I don't know about ducks, but in a human, that crackling or crunching sound might make me think of fluid build-up in the lungs. Does your duck have respiratory symptoms?

 

[rainplace]

it's not with her breathing... it seems to be coming from lower down? She does not have a respiratory infection as far as I can tell.

 

[newduckie]

I have no idea but just wanted you to know that I read and didn't just ignore. Hope it improves.. and the vet calls.

 

[pardygwyn]

Digestion in healthy ducks can sound like that. If it's not her breathing, that would be my first guess.

 

[rainplace]

Quote:
Wow... I had no idea. I wonder why she's not walking then...

 

[Goat_Walker]

I had a duckling like that once! Scared the living daylight out of me! He was about a month and a half old and i brought him inside and put him in the tub and heard this almost crunching sound from inside. I could even feel it when i held him! He turned out to be fine but it still scared me.

 

[Orca]

I know from butchering free-range turkeys, that they often had a lot of gravel and grit in their gizzard (sometimes nails, coins, etc too - it was always interesting to open them up). The crops felt and sounded pretty 'crunchy' when we took them out, I believe ducks and geese consume quite a bit of coarse grit as well. That's the first thing I thought of when I read your post. Maybe it ate something weird?

 

[Orca]

Also, I've heard that geese will often limp if they've eaten something they shouldn't have.

 

[rainplace]

Quote:
My husband asked me if she had been eating rocks... so it seems likely the crunching sound is unrelated to the reason I brought her inside.

I was doing chores and saw her stand up to get out of my way, she took a few steps, fell onto her belly and used her wings to scoot away from me. She would stand again take a few steps and do the wing/scoot thing. She kept this up till she gave up and laid there, which allowed me to pick her up. I brought her inside and examined her. Her legs moved fine, looked fine and felt fine. I looked at her vent area... looked normal. Felt her abdomen gently squeezing trying to see if I could feel an egg... I've never actually felt an egg in a duck before, but nothing felt hard and roundish.

Fast forward to hubby coming home. I bring her out set her down on a towel and she gets up and runs like mad... falling down the stairs. She picks herself right back up and stands straight in the corner. I pick her up, check her out again, sit her back on the towel and she just stands there, heart racing a gazillion miles a minute shaking with fear... but she's standing. She was so stressed by our attention that I put her back in the dog carrier with a blanket over it.

So now I don't know what's going on.