Duck Help

[Kerya]

Hello again,

I’m worried about my duck, as she’s suddenly acting strange.
I was trying to help her legs/feet become less dry last time I was here. I got a humidifier and some source of vitamin A.

I also learned because of the dryness and other factors, she started to get bumblefoot. Since then we’ve been treating that as I saw how to from here as well. (It’s getting a bit better so far, and wasn’t bad at all when I noticed).

Weird Behaviours:

She was perfectly fine most of the day yesterday, but suddenly starts running around, doing what looked like her opening her mouth for water, she was also pretty puffed up, and tail was a little droopy. Other than the brief puffed feathers and drooping tail, a bath seemed to be good and she went back to her normal behaviour.

This morning she was perfectly fine again, until she suddenly started acting strangely. She wasn’t coming when called, startled by little noises she is normally used to, and her balance was off. She shivered once or twice, and attempted to lie down more than usual.

Her nares are clear with no drip, her eyes seem healthy, aren’t cloudy, but seem a bit “blown”, although they still react to light a little (EDIT: they’re reacting normally but I’m not sure if it’s because she’s slowly going back to normal or if I should’ve checked sooner). Most of her feathers are healthy but with a small weird patch, her poop looks normal although she is peeing more than the usual amount.

She has had extra protein the past two days which I think is part of the issue but as for her occasional wobbling and weird skittish behaviour I’m not sure what to do.
It’s possible she accidentally had access to a small bit of my brothers marijuana crumbs, but unsure if she actually digested any (I’ve been careful with sweeping the floor more closely since and scalding my brother).

We have no poultry experts that I know of who can examine her. However, there is a poultry veterinary 2 hours away if we need to go. I’d first like to see here if there’s anything that can be done. She has only exhibited these weird behaviours for an hour or less—once a day—since yesterday night.

The first 3 images I’m including are right now as of posting, and the next two images of her are from at least a week ago. It’s possible I’m overly worried as I’ve lost a bunny this year with not so great vet help. So thank you.

 

[Isaac 0]

Could you post a few pictures of her feces? What is her diet, any treats, or supplements? If you gently palate her crop right (located on the right side of breast), or you able to feel the contents, if yes, does it feel hard, firm, or like liquid? If you palpate her abdominal area, how does that feel? If you open her bill, how does her breath smell?

Just judging from her symptoms, it's difficult to accurately pinpoint what her problem may be. However, since it appears she is of laying age, egg binding could be a potential possibility. That is often accompanied by lethargy, penguin-like stance, watery stools, heavy breathing, and distended abdominal area. Birds that are kept inside often don't receive enough vitamin D from the sun's rays; a vitamin D deficiency will directly affect the way the birds convert calcium into an absorbable form. Given the scenario, you may crush up tums, mix them in with water, and administer her a few drops orally. Alternatively, you could get some calcium gluconate 23%, and give her 1ml orally.

Weighing her daily to determine if there is active weight loss going on would be good as well. Attempt to pay close attention to how much she's actually eating, and drinking. If she continues acting poorly, a vet may be your vet best.

 

[Kerya]

Could you post a few pictures of her feces? What is her diet, any treats, or supplements? If you gently palate her crop right (located on the right side of breast), or you able to feel the contents, if yes, does it feel hard, firm, or like liquid? If you palpate her abdominal area, how does that feel? If you open her bill, how does her breath smell?

Just judging from her symptoms, it's difficult to accurately pinpoint what her problem may be. However, since it appears she is of laying age, egg binding could be a potential possibility. That is often accompanied by lethargy, penguin-like stance, watery stools, heavy breathing, and distended abdominal area. Birds that are kept inside often don't receive enough vitamin D from the sun's rays; a vitamin D deficiency will directly affect the way the birds convert calcium into an absorbable form. Given the scenario, you may crush up tums, mix them in with water, and administer her a few drops orally. Alternatively, you could get some calcium gluconate 23%, and give her 1ml orally.

Weighing her daily to determine if there is active weight loss going on would be good as well. Attempt to pay close attention to how much she's actually eating, and drinking. If she continues acting poorly, a vet may be your vet best.

We’re usually very quick to clean up after her but I’ll try my best to get a few shots! To describe them though, as of today they were mostly more clear with bits in them, possibly green-dark green. She hasn’t drank/eaten too much, so I wasn’t sure why they were more watery than other days. (She’s been weary of us, noises, toys and her food/water dish only today. We didn’t want to scare her, so we let her chill and she’s been calming down). Her feces usually reflects what she eats, but today is a bit different. Sometimes it’s little logs sometimes it’s liquid-y or a mix.

As for her diet, we give her a few greens (kale, romaine, “spring mix”), peas, corn, oats and sometimes blueberries. I recently have been adding carrot shavings I grated, a bit of dried veggie mix and just today some squash cubes. For treats we give her freeze-dried mealworms/crickets/grasshoppers & live super worms.

We’ve been adding a small amount of niacin each day and repti calcium once a week with the freeze-dried bugs. (The specific calcium has precipitated calcium carbonate and cholecalciferol in the ingredients, and we’ve only been using it for about a month now because we were slow on getting everything).
While going crazy searching for causes, we found we’re using the wrong brand of niacin, which says it isn’t harming her but also not doing anything. So I’ll be making a trip asap to get the correct stuff!

I’m not sure what I’m feeling for or if I felt the contents, but her crop right seems to feel the same as the other side but a tiny bit firmer. I believe it’s because she’s originally wild, but she doesn’t like her back end/wings/belly being touched too much. However, when we felt her abdominal area it didn’t seem “out of place”. It felt soft from the feathers, and what you’d imagine a duck to feel like when gently “squishing”.
For the egg binding thing, we’ve had her since the first few days of her life. We haven’t yet gotten another duck, so she’s never been with any other real ducks. She also doesn’t seem like she’s experiencing the other symptoms, aside from breathing heavy when too warm.

She hasn’t been getting enough sun lately though! (We don’t have the means to safely We had a tent to help protect her and be able to go outside (the sides were mesh so the sun would pop through a lot), but it got damaged by weather a while ago and we haven’t been able to replace/fix it yet. I’ll definitely make sure to try that, and get the tent fixed up as soon as I can so she can get some.

We haven’t been weighing her, but so far she seems to be the same/similar weight by looks, and eats more at night and an alright amount during the day (her food is mostly gone or half gone in both when we change it each time).

In the images I sent, they are rarely fully white like the second. Mostly they’re the greenish colours from eating the lettuce like things, or clear/milky with bits of green. (Bit hard to capture since she hasn’t eaten normally today).

Thank you for replying!

 

[Isaac 0]

The pictures you sent are a little concerning to me. Are those how her poops normally look, if not, I think a trip to a vet may be your best bet. Looking at the pictures of the duck, it doesn't look like she is feeling the best either. Her symptoms are fairly non-specific so doesn't tell us much about what might be going on with her internally. At a vet office, diagnostic tests, and a thorough physical exam can be done to further narrow down what be affecting her.

 

[Kerya]

The pictures you sent are a little concerning to me. Are those how her poops normally look, if not, I think a trip to a vet may be your best bet. Looking at the pictures of the duck, it doesn't look like she is feeling the best either. Her symptoms are fairly non-specific so doesn't tell us much about what might be going on with her internally. At a vet office, diagnostic tests, and a thorough physical exam can be done to further narrow down what be affecting her.

I was able to add/find a few more pictures as she ate/drank more today when she wasn’t lying on me.
She normally has mostly green/dark coloured poops, watery or not depending on how much water she drinks in that time.
She does have the whiter/milky ones randomly, but not very often. Although, in the past few days she has been having them more often rather than the greens.

We bought some Stress-aid to try and help out, and with the few vitamins she was lacking. We also got duck grower and hopefully those help her case, as her behaviour has improved today.

Do you have any advice on finding a good trustworthy vet?
We haven’t had good experiences lately with other vets in our area.
Thank you for all the help, I appreciate it a lot!