Dead duck 😢 help?

[allergymama]

Last night when my son put the ducks in one of our 18 month old girls was not acting normal. She would walk a step or two and then collapse, he said. I went out and she let me pick her up (not normal behavior) but by then she was walking fine. No injuries. Nothing hot on her. Nothing seemed to be painful. Checked legs, wings, crop area, egg area. Breathing ok. Separated her from the flock with some electrolyte water for the night. Came out first thing this morning and she is dead. Any ideas on what it could be? If it’s an illness, I would like to catch it before it gets anyone else.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hard to tell without a Necropsy. Could she have gotten into anything toxic? Any idea how long she’d been like this? Very sorry for your loss.

 

[Isaac 0]

Sorry for your loss. Birds often mask their symptoms until it’s actually a problem that can't be fixed so there may be the chance that this has been going on for a while. If you still have her body, you could send her either to your state veterinary necropsy lab or bring the body into your avian vet. I’ll provide some links below regarding keeping the body intact until it can be sent.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-to-send-a-bird-for-a-necropsy-pictures.799747/

Is there any information about her past history that may be of help? Has she been laying recently, were they deformed at all, do you have an open-closed flock, anything she may have eaten that would have caused this, have you had any problems in the past with this flock?

 

[allergymama]

Hard to tell without a Necropsy. Could she have gotten into anything toxic? Any idea how long she’d been like this? Very sorry for your loss.

Sorry for your loss. Birds often mask their symptoms until it’s actually a problem that can't be fixed so there may be the chance that this has been going on for a while. If you still have her body, you could send her either to your state veterinary necropsy lab or bring the body into your avian vet. I’ll provide some links below regarding keeping the body intact until it can be sent.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-to-send-a-bird-for-a-necropsy-pictures.799747/

Is there any information about her past history that may be of help? Has she been laying recently, were they deformed at all, do you have an open-closed flock, anything she may have eaten that would have caused this, have you had any problems in the past with this flock?

I can take her somewhere. Or I could do something to check too, if I know what that is. We have not done anything with her waiting to get some advice from you all.

The flock “free ranges” in a fenced area of about an acre. No one goes in except my children and us. And no one has taken anything in to there.We have had ducks for 6.5 years and this is our first death other than predator (or culling). right now we have 9 layers and get anywhere from 7-9 eggs per day so she was laying at least occasionally? We have had a couple abnormally small eggs in the last few days.

Isaac, I’m not sure what open/closed flock means.

 

[Isaac 0]

Call this place,

https://cvm.msu.edu/vdl/laboratory-sections/anatomic-surgical-pathology/necropsy-service