Hello , I have a 4 week old Welsh Harlequin (Harley) and 3 days ago she sounded like she was losing her voice. We read that this can happen when they are getting their quack and she was acting fine otherwise so we didn’t think anything else of it.
The next day she had completely lost her voice and though her energy level was still ok, she was struggling to breathe and it sounded like gurgles when she took a breath and she wasn’t dunking her head to clean when she swam. She’s usually pretty feisty and hard to keep still but she let me hold her and stroke her quietly so I knew something was wrong.
We separated her from the flock (7 other ducks in brooder ) and brought her inside. That night she was open mouth breathing the whole time and clearly struggling. Called the emergency vet and they said we were doing the right thing to keep her separate with clean food and water etc for the night until a local vet could see her.
The next morning she was a bit better , still struggling a bit to breathe but not open mouth panting , regardless we got an appointment (yesterday) with a vet on another town (who knew that duck vets are hard to find!)
We suspected Aspergillosis even though unsure how (brooder cleaned out completely weekly and fresh litter added daily with water changes 2x a day). No other ducks in the same group are showing any distress.
The vet said Aspergillosis is hard to diagnose and that just treating her with anti fungal if she didn’t have it could do more harm than good(there are also rules in Canada about what drugs food producers can and can’t have). She indicated it could also be a respiratory infection (no other sinus or eye involvement ) and put her on a broad spectrum anti biotic for now. She also couldn’t hear fluid in her breathing when checked.
This morning she has lots of energy but still won’t clean herself when swimming (just sits and drinks the water and dips her bill but won’t dunk her head or swim). And she still has no voice although she opens her mouth to yell so pretty sure she has choice words for me
. She’s back to being squirmy when I hold her as well.
Has anyone had a duck with a respiratory infection that causes these symptoms that seem like Aspergillosis that were cleared with anti biotics? I’m super concerned that we may see a temporary improvement that isn’t actual cure and not sure what damage may be done by delaying anti fungal treatment. I’ve done hours of searching and can’t find anywhere that has the same symptoms that aren’t Aspergillosis.
Any experience or insight would be helpful, thanks
The next day she had completely lost her voice and though her energy level was still ok, she was struggling to breathe and it sounded like gurgles when she took a breath and she wasn’t dunking her head to clean when she swam. She’s usually pretty feisty and hard to keep still but she let me hold her and stroke her quietly so I knew something was wrong.
We separated her from the flock (7 other ducks in brooder ) and brought her inside. That night she was open mouth breathing the whole time and clearly struggling. Called the emergency vet and they said we were doing the right thing to keep her separate with clean food and water etc for the night until a local vet could see her.
The next morning she was a bit better , still struggling a bit to breathe but not open mouth panting , regardless we got an appointment (yesterday) with a vet on another town (who knew that duck vets are hard to find!)
We suspected Aspergillosis even though unsure how (brooder cleaned out completely weekly and fresh litter added daily with water changes 2x a day). No other ducks in the same group are showing any distress.
The vet said Aspergillosis is hard to diagnose and that just treating her with anti fungal if she didn’t have it could do more harm than good(there are also rules in Canada about what drugs food producers can and can’t have). She indicated it could also be a respiratory infection (no other sinus or eye involvement ) and put her on a broad spectrum anti biotic for now. She also couldn’t hear fluid in her breathing when checked.
This morning she has lots of energy but still won’t clean herself when swimming (just sits and drinks the water and dips her bill but won’t dunk her head or swim). And she still has no voice although she opens her mouth to yell so pretty sure she has choice words for me
. She’s back to being squirmy when I hold her as well.Has anyone had a duck with a respiratory infection that causes these symptoms that seem like Aspergillosis that were cleared with anti biotics? I’m super concerned that we may see a temporary improvement that isn’t actual cure and not sure what damage may be done by delaying anti fungal treatment. I’ve done hours of searching and can’t find anywhere that has the same symptoms that aren’t Aspergillosis.
Any experience or insight would be helpful, thanks
