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?

 

[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.

 

[rainplace]

Quote:
What kind of medications were you given and what are they for?

I let her come out on her own this morning and she went straight for her feed. She wanted to escape afterward so I've run her a warm bath and she's seem to have mellowed in the water... doing regular duck stuff. The grinding/clunking sound in her gut still concerns me. It is LOUD.

The good news is she dropped a beautiful perfect egg in the bathtub, so our fear of her being eggbound or having a broken egg in her has been put to ease.

Last night when I had her out she gave a nice large squirt on the wood floors before tumbling down the stairs. We checked it out thoroughly of course

There didn't seem to be a lot of substance (they look different when they splat compared to when there's less distance... lol) there was some solids to it though. The next one she put in my lap and it must have been one of those "seventh poos" where she released all the yuck... you know the ones, they stink to high heaven (cecal cleaning maybe?). Looking through the carrier I don't see much in the way of poop, I'll take the lid off for a closer inspection. She had one in the bathtub and it was pretty wet... not sure if it was lots of mucus or if that's just part of the uric acid. I have her in the bathroom now so I'll keep looking.

I never would have thought I would know so much about duck poop. Sheesh.

 

[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.

 

[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.