Duck death

[weelilghosty]

I lost my khaki girl this morning. I’ve looked into the diseases that ducks and chickens can get and nothing stands out. I have two female ducks mixed in with my chickens and everyone gets along. My ducks have been laying for about a month. I feed an all flock with niacin, but everyone gets treats in the form of veggies and fruit. Sometimes mealworms. They also get scratch. Ducks don’t like it, chickens do. She layed an egg yesterday, was in good spirits. Not sluggish, no wheezing, coughing, no foot wounds, no eye discharge. I put them to bed last night and everyone was happy. This morning she was found dead in a nesting box. Anyone with similar happenings? Advice? Don’t want to lose my remaining girl. They finally made it to the I love the human who feeds us stage and will crawl into my lap for hugs.

 

[Isabella7Storm5]

i cant help but i'm sorry about your duck. It's hard to loose them

 

[CoMtns]

My Pekin passed away from what we suspect was a massive heart attack. It happened around the 8 week mark. I was no less attached to her than I am my dogs. They just wiggle they way into our hearts. I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[DuckyChan]

I lost my khaki girl this morning. I’ve looked into the diseases that ducks and chickens can get and nothing stands out. I have two female ducks mixed in with my chickens and everyone gets along. My ducks have been laying for about a month. I feed an all flock with niacin, but everyone gets treats in the form of veggies and fruit. Sometimes mealworms. They also get scratch. Ducks don’t like it, chickens do. She layed an egg yesterday, was in good spirits. Not sluggish, no wheezing, coughing, no foot wounds, no eye discharge. I put them to bed last night and everyone was happy. This morning she was found dead in a nesting box. Anyone with similar happenings? Advice? Don’t want to lose my remaining girl. They finally made it to the I love the human who feeds us stage and will crawl into my lap for hugs.

Oh, I’m so sorry to hear you lost one of your girls!
I’m new to ducks, myself; my two oldest boys will be reaching one year in a couple of months. I wish I had help for you, but I am not fully educated on their common diseases just yet.
I hope you find a strong diagnosis, and, if so, please share with us so that we can possibly prevent a loss of our own
Thank you, and keep your spirits up!
Sounds like you are a good Duck mama

 

[Isadora]

I'm sorry.
Without a necropsy, everyone can only guess as to what happened. My thought would be an egg or laying issue since there's no symptoms and she was in the nesting box when she passed.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Very sorry for your loss

 

[weelilghosty]

So between the 2 ducks, I knew one was an everyday layer and one was every 3 days ish. I didn’t know which one layed on which day. But it seems after georgias passing, my other female is the daily layer. That leads me to believe she was egg bound. I wish there were more signs so I could have helped her. Thank you everyone

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Very sorry for your loss
If you still have her body you could check to see if that was the issue
I lost one from a combo of heart issues and eating a penny
Ducks get a lot less issues then chickens but they still can get into trouble
Something the girls need is calcium when laying
I keep a bowl of crushed oyster shells out from the moment i let them out till they go to bed
Even if they are laying hard eggs right now they will slowly loose their calcium build up and could have issues in the future

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

I am sorry for your loss. I see this is an older post, but in the spirit of helping the girl you still have... I give the chicken shells to the girl duck. They eat them like potato chips.

Their shells seem so much thicker I suspect they need more calcium and they aren't always so eager in the oyster shell bowl as the hens.