Dog opened up incubators

[Miss Lydia]

Looking forward to pics too!

 

[member 569347]

I can't believe we have 17 ducklings after all they've been though!! They are healthy, happy, fluffy balls of energy!! So super excited to watch them grow! Enjoy the video! 17 Ducklings enjoying their starter home!

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s so awesome! Such cuties too! What are you going to do with 17 ducklings besides enjoy them?

 

[member 569347]

That’s so awesome! Such cuties too! What are you going to do with 17 ducklings besides enjoy them?

We are keeping 4-5 for ourselves to keep our .85 acre neighborhood pond clean. We made sure we had worthy adopters before we even started incubation, and ended up finding another worthy home as well. A hobby farm who teaches 4-H kids is taking any excess and another home who's been researching and planning for a couple years is adopting 2 females.

I'm keeping a "journal" if you care to follow! Diary of a Duck Virgin

 

[Selene uwu]

Short update I was woken up at 4 am by a really tiny duckling crying and being unresponsive, it was cold and pretty limp so I moved them into the heat and it looks to be doing better. While I was making sure that little duckling was doing well I was watching the other ducklings sleep and saw a particularly cute one wake up and open its eyes and then I watched its neck go limp and fall backwards.
The ducklings head kept falling even after adjusting and as I looked at them closer the duckling's legs shot out and stayed straight like in the middle of a big stretch. I moved him under more direct light but the duckling just sat there, unable to bend its legs chirping and desperately flopping its head around. The duckling slowly became more and more limp but it seemed to want to kick its legs. I picked up the duckling when the other ducklings wanted to peck at his eyes and feet and as I did so the duckling kicked its stiff legs back and forth really rapidly and its body began shaking until it stopped and its heartbeat slowed to a stop.
Even before I felt the ducklings heartbeat stop it couldn't blink or bend its knees.
This is very concerning- should I be worried about the other ducklings? it looks just like Viral Duck Hepatitis should I do an autopsy on the duckling?

 

[Miss Lydia]

So sorry. Maybe it was just too chilled. @Isaac 0 knows more about DVH than I do or @casportpony How does it's navel area look.

 

[Isaac 0]

Sorry for your loss, DVH is highly contagious so unless you start to see symptoms within the rest of the flock in the next few days it would be quite unlikely that they have it. Since the babies were crushed near hatch there is a quite high likelihood that damage to the brain or spinal cord occurred with that specific baby. I would continue to look out for any signs of lethargy within the flock and of course seizures, sorry again.

 

[Selene uwu]

Sorry for your loss, DVH is highly contagious so unless you start to see symptoms within the rest of the flock in the next few days it would be quite unlikely that they have it. Since the babies were crushed near hatch there is a quite high likelihood that damage to the brain or spinal cord occurred with that specific baby. I would continue to look out for any signs of lethargy within the flock and of course seizures, sorry again.

Thanks for the support, I will keep an eye out on the rest of the flock. I suspect this was one of the surviving babies that were crushed since its umbilical area had a large thick cord on it and you could still see a very small yolk being absorbed @Miss Lydia .

 

[Isaac 0]

If the duckling was still absorbing the yolk sac, contamination of the naval area may have lead to a yolk sac infection. Was its abdomen area swollen at all, or taking on some discoloration?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks for the support, I will keep an eye out on the rest of the flock. I suspect this was one of the surviving babies that were crushed since its umbilical area had a large thick cord on it and you could still see a very small yolk being absorbed @Miss Lydia .

When they hatch with yolk still outside of the body they need to be placed in a cup or small bowl on a soft dry paper towel and kept in the bator till the yolk has completely absorbed so not a contaminate it or rupture it.