Duck gasping

[Maryam.]

Thanks and thank you for the duck compliment! I am going to just attach one close-up photo of her for good measure and here is a video of her from a few minutes ago still exhibiting the full body, heavy open mouth breathing.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XC8XoUH47uH98uxk8

Now I am off to the store. Thank you again!

View attachment 2082085

She’s so beautiful
The egg might be softshell that she’s having trouble..
I hope the problem solves soon!

 

[eranr]

First off, thank you to everyone providing advice and support!

Just to update for others experiencing the same thing as us:

We gave her the 1 cc of calcium gluconate and some Vetrx in the afternoon, ~4pm. Throughout the evening our duck did not appear to get any better or lay anything.

Late that night (~midnight), I heard what sounded like a coughing/squeaking bout that wouldn't stop for like 90 seconds. She was chilling in her pond when it started and then I saw her run and hide into the corner of her house. She was breathing very heavy with a horrible horse noise with every breath. I gave her water in the house and then sat up watching her with our surveillance system til 3am (yes, we have a surveillance system with a camera pointed at the duck house). This duck in particular likes to sit by the window looking out while the other two ducks never do that. I watched her take heavy, full chest expanding breaths all night. In the morning she was soooo lethargic and still noisy, heavy, mouth open breathing. After reading about all the possibilities, I was convinced we had gapeworms.

However, considering that the the recommended liquid Safe-guard dewormer was $30+tax, I decided to call the vet just to see what that would cost. It was $75 for the visit (for those curious), which I thought was not bad at all. After spending $30 on syringes, needles, calcium gluconate, and vetrx, why spend another $33 on the goat Safe-guard dewormer which could also be wrong after which I would then likely spend $15 on Amoxycillin-clavulanate (that I am lucky to have access to) which also may have been the wrong antibiotic, and then potentially end up with a dead duck along the way?

So, we took her to the avian vet this morning. They said it was likely not gapeworm because that tends to be more severe than what he observed. Based on hearing noise in her chest, he prescribed a broad spectrum antibiotic (Primor - 120 mg tablets, 1/4 tablet every 12 hours for 14 days) which should help if it's bronchitis, bacterial pneumonia or other likely bacterial respiratory infection. He said he could do a chest x-ray to be more certain (for $170), but I declined that.

In the end, my recommendation to other duck owners who see what I saw in my video would be the following:

We could have had an egg stuck that required either nothing or calcium gluconate, we could have had a bacterial infection, we could have had gape worm, we could have had a viral infection, we could have had a fungal infection, we could have had a cold that relieved itself in 2 days, or we could have had something lodged in her throat. However, I can't tell the difference between them and playing a video may or may not help someone else diagnose. One could easily spend $80 after tax buying the safe-guard liquid dewormer ($30 at TSC), calcium gluconate ($7 at TSC), syringes/needles ($5), antibiotics (~$12 -$25 depending on access), and vetrx ($10) in the hopes of self diagnosing/guessing correctly and feeling one is saving money all along the way. However, if you can't recognize the difference between the potential issues, why not just spend $75 on a vet visit and then $10 -30 on whichever is the correct option? I only say this because, if you guess wrong, and it is one of the more severe issues (like a lodged item or gapeworm), they could be dead in a day before you get a chance to spend $10-30 on your next guess. I suppose the other option would be simultaneously give calcium gluconate, vetrx, antibiotics and dewormer to cover all bases (except fungal, viral or lodged item), but that just ends up saving ~$20 relative to our vet bill/antibiotics (assuming you do not have the items already). For me (having dropped $30 already) the extra $20 for the comfort of having an avian vet physically examining our bird would have definitely been worth it.

Now that I have many of the items (and perhaps a false sense of how to better diagnose which issue we might be having), I might take the give all 4 treatments approach in the future. However, I do that at my own peril... The only question I would still have is how long to wait before aggressive treatment or a vet visit, but 3 days of worsening symptoms with one awful evening was enough for me this time.

Don't just take my word for it - here is a reference on respiratory issues:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01652176.1998.10807420

 

[Maryam.]

First off, thank you to everyone providing advice and support!

Just to update for others experiencing the same thing as us:

We gave her the 1 cc of calcium gluconate and some Vetrx in the afternoon, ~4pm. Throughout the evening our duck did not appear to get any better or lay anything.

Late that night (~midnight), I heard what sounded like a coughing/squeaking bout that wouldn't stop for like 90 seconds. She was chilling in her pond when it started and then I saw her run and hide into the corner of her house. She was breathing very heavy with a horrible horse noise with every breath. I gave her water in the house and then sat up watching her with our surveillance system til 3am (yes, we have a surveillance system with a camera pointed at the duck house). This duck in particular likes to sit by the window looking out while the other two ducks never do that. I watched her take heavy, full chest expanding breaths all night. In the morning she was soooo lethargic and still noisy, heavy, mouth open breathing. After reading about all the possibilities, I was convinced we had gapeworms.

However, considering that the the recommended liquid Safe-guard dewormer was $30+tax, I decided to call the vet just to see what that would cost. It was $75 for the visit (for those curious), which I thought was not bad at all. After spending $30 on syringes, needles, calcium gluconate, and vetrx, why spend another $33 on the goat Safe-guard dewormer which could also be wrong after which I would then likely spend $15 on Amoxycillin-clavulanate (that I am lucky to have access to) which also may have been the wrong antibiotic, and then potentially end up with a dead duck along the way?

So, we took her to the avian vet this morning. They said it was likely not gapeworm because that tends to be more severe than what he observed. Based on hearing noise in her chest, he prescribed a broad spectrum antibiotic (Primor - 120 mg tablets, 1/4 tablet every 12 hours for 14 days) which should help if it's bronchitis, bacterial pneumonia or other likely bacterial respiratory infection. He said he could do a chest x-ray to be more certain (for $170), but I declined that.

In the end, my recommendation to other duck owners who see what I saw in my video would be the following:

We could have had an egg stuck that required either nothing or calcium gluconate, we could have had a bacterial infection, we could have had gape worm, we could have had a viral infection, we could have had a fungal infection, we could have had a cold that relieved itself in 2 days, or we could have had something lodged in her throat. However, I can't tell the difference between them and playing a video may or may not help someone else diagnose. One could easily spend $80 after tax buying the safe-guard liquid dewormer ($30 at TSC), calcium gluconate ($7 at TSC), syringes/needles ($5), antibiotics (~$12 -$25 depending on access), and vetrx ($10) in the hopes of self diagnosing/guessing correctly and feeling one is saving money all along the way. However, if you can't recognize the difference between the potential issues, why not just spend $75 on a vet visit and then $10 -30 on whichever is the correct option? I only say this because, if you guess wrong, and it is one of the more severe issues (like a lodged item or gapeworm), they could be dead in a day before you get a chance to spend $10-30 on your next guess. I suppose the other option would be simultaneously give calcium gluconate, vetrx, antibiotics and dewormer to cover all bases (except fungal, viral or lodged item), but that just ends up saving ~$20 relative to our vet bill/antibiotics (assuming you do not have the items already). For me (having dropped $30 already) the extra $20 for the comfort of having an avian vet physically examining our bird would have definitely been worth it.

Now that I have many of the items (and perhaps a false sense of how to better diagnose which issue we might be having), I might take the give all 4 treatments approach in the future. However, I do that at my own peril... The only question I would still have is how long to wait before aggressive treatment or a vet visit, but 3 days of worsening symptoms with one awful evening was enough for me this time.

Don't just take my word for it - here is a reference on respiratory issues:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01652176.1998.10807420

Hi,
How’s your duck today?

 

[eranr]

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse. She was breathing even worse this morning and looked like she lost weight overnight, so we took her back to the vet today to get those x-rays done. It turned out she has very bad levels of fluid or puss in her lungs.

The only option now was to give injectable penicillin and an oral anti-fungal and hope for the best. They did say taking her to animal hospital to placed on oxygen for a few days would represent her best shot (at a likely cost of $500 - $1000), but that more likely than not she will not pull through anyways. They also a recommended $330 injection of leuproline acetate to help reduce the size of the reproductive system temporarily, but with her chance of survival being relatively low, we decided to just go with the injectable antibiotic and the antifungal.

Once again, I wish I would have not been so optimistic about the antibiotic pills and just done the x-ray to begin with. It's been a very sad day so far, but we are still hoping she can pull through.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I hope she pulls through

 

[eranr]

Thank you all again for your help and support, but unfortunately our duck, K-Quack, did not make it. At times it seemed like she was recovering by eating a couple mealworms and drinking water, but this morning she was breathing so hard she couldn't even wet her beak without choking. After 8 more excruciatingly long hours, we decided to put her to sleep.

Maryam, I sincerely hope Daisy is recovering!

 

[Maryam.]

Thank you all again for your help and support, but unfortunately our duck, K-Quack, did not make it. At times it seemed like she was recovering by eating a couple mealworms and drinking water, but this morning she was breathing so hard she couldn't even wet her beak without choking. After 8 more excruciatingly long hours, we decided to put her to sleep.

Maryam, I sincerely hope Daisy is recovering!

Oh I’m so sorry for your loss
You’ve done everything you could ; Ducks can have a serious illness for so long and hide it and act so normal..
Did they rule out the exact cause of the infection ? how are the rest of your flock doing ?
Unfortunately, I lost Daisy two week Ago, she was misdiagnosed by the vets and as the infection was spread to all her organs, she couldn’t make it..

 

[Isaac 0]

I'm so sorry!

 

[Miss Lydia]

It’s heartbreaking when we lose them. I am very sorry for your loss

 

[eranr]

Thank you very much for the condolences.

I'm very sorry to hear about Daisy.

Unfortunately, I don't think we will ever know the cause of the infection. I thought we got antibiotics early enough to fight it if it were bacterial, but perhaps not. I guess that's why some vets refuse to treat respiratory illness. The other two ducks appear perfectly healthy, but we will be watching them very closely.

I do have a question for the experienced duck owners. I read a lot on backyardchickens how Baytril or Tylan are the strongest antibiotics for respiratory illness in ducks, but our clinic went a different direction. Is this just because those are available OTC as a cattle product or because they are actually somehow better? I did not want to second guess our veterinarians at the time and I do not think anything could have saved our duck, but I am curious about this.

Thanks!