Duck not thriving

[austroberta]

How old is Edda?
That is exactly the behavior we experienced this summer with one of our Indian Runner ducks: We bought six of them at the local farm-supply store, five were eating machines and grew like inflating balloons, the sixth one did as you described. Taking a bite here and there, then just standing, staring in one direction then "waking up" and take the next bite. And i have read this symptom over and over here in the forum.
We, sadly, lost our straggler to hypothermia (in August!!) during a sudden "cold-snap". She was just too weak to withstand temperatures around 15°C (59F), by the time i took her in it was too late, she was just 2½ months old.

What would i do different after this experience? I would separate Edda together with the second smallest bird back into a make-shift brooder in a place where they cannot hear the others - that's important, otherwise they won't calm down.
Then try to feed as much protein-treats to Edda and her room-mate as they want. Vitamin C gives my ducks »the munchies«, Niacin of course and Vitamin E.
Do you have a kitchen-scale? Get Edda's weight daily and see if she makes progress. Monitor her behavior, maybe you are raising the new Einstein duck?

Finally GOOD LUCK!!!

I did try and bring Edda into the bathroom and set her up in the bathtub with shavings and food, but she seemed so stressed by the experience, she wouldn't even eat the big pile of red wrigglers I had scavenged for her. Unfortunately, the places where I can put her are places where she can hear her sisters, who are so loud! (Good god are they loudk I can hear them 2 blocks over.) Her sisters also get really loud when there's any sort of separation (someones's in the front and someone's in the back.) Right now, I'm trying tube feeding and throwing her all the earthworms/slugs I can find.

I have a postal scale, but she's so skittish, I think it would be difficult to get an accurate weight.

My gut feeling is that there's little I can do for her if she doesn't eat, and unless I tube feed her, that one is out of my hands. I do wonder if I try tube feeding to get her weight up if she'll develop an actual appetite. I'm also wondering if there might be something physiological (obstruction in her throat, etc) that makes swallowing/eating difficult.

 

[austroberta]

Another strange thing about Edda is I don't ever hear her quack. Her sisters are loud mouths, but she's pretty quiet. I don't think that's a recent change. She has always been pretty quiet.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Bless her heart it sounds like she has failure to thrive. I had a Muscovy duckling that was very similar. No vets around here who will look at poultry so I just did what I could this was about 8 yrs ago and I had never heard of tube feeding any animals before, My duckling was hatched under a duck and mama was very attentive but finally the little duckling just gave up. She was about 3-4 months old. I always felt it was a heart problem, of course I don't know that for sure. But any way @casportpony can give you the best advise on tube feeding and I thought I had it book marked but I couldn't find it. So I will give you this which has info also and hopefully she'll be on later.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...nd-supportive-care-updated-5-14-2018.1048620/

I am sorry It makes us feel so helpless when we can't get them to feel good.

 

[austroberta]

Bless her heart it sounds like she has failure to thrive. I had a Muscovy duckling that was very similar. No vets around here who will look at poultry so I just did what I could this was about 8 yrs ago and I had never heard of tube feeding any animals before, My duckling was hatched under a duck and mama was very attentive but finally the little duckling just gave up. She was about 3-4 months old. I always felt it was a heart problem, of course I don't know that for sure. But any way @casportpony can give you the best advise on tube feeding and I thought I had it book marked but I couldn't find it. So I will give you this which has info also and hopefully she'll be on later.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...nd-supportive-care-updated-5-14-2018.1048620/

I am sorry It makes us feel so helpless when we can't get them to feel good.

Thanks so much for the emergency care link! I do feel helpless!

 

[casportpony]

Can you post some pictures of her poop?

 

[austroberta]

Can you post some pictures of her poop?

I'll try and get a picture of her poop, if I catch her pooping. When she was in the tub, her poop looked normal, but tiny.

 

[casportpony]

Can you post a picture of your food scale so I can make some suggestions on how to get her weight? It would be helpful for me to see the size of the weighing platform and LCD placement.

When I have one that won't sit still on the scale there are a few things I'll try.

• Place scale in dark room and place bird on scale.
• Place large glass dish or clear plastic container on scale, zero weight, place bird in container.
• Place bird in cardboard box, weigh bird in box, then weigh just box. The difference between the two is the bird's weight.

 

[chickens really]

Have you tried wetting her feed? Make it a bit soupy...

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Another strange thing about Edda is I don't ever hear her quack. Her sisters are loud mouths, but she's pretty quiet. I don't think that's a recent change. She has always been pretty quiet.

Exactly what we observed with our little one! All the other were »Peep, Peep, Peep, Honk!« She said nothing, just an occasional »peep?«

 

[austroberta]

Just an update... Edda's labored breathing got better, but I still have noticed the same very limited appetite and the same slowness when eating. Recently our drake took to trying to chase her off when she was around, so in addition to everything, she has been experiencing that stress.

This weekend a cold, wet, windy storm came and yesterday we saw that was wobbly on her feet. We immediately brought her inside, put her in one of those tall plastic totes, put lots of pine shavings and then put a heat lamp on. Yesterday she was standing a lot in the tote, but late at night she started to lay down and she hasn't gotten up since. I've given her water with nutridrench and homemade ACV and some of her Mazuri kibble. She is eating the kibble and drinking periodically. Yesterday she seemed to be pooping fine, and she still seems to be pooping, but her poops smell very strong. They are solid, and look like the kibble she is eating (but digested) and have a bit of the white urates. They are definitely not cecal poops, but they smell like them. I have given her (and she has eaten) a few worms. Could the high protein from the worms make her poop smell so bad, or could it be something else?

Her eyelids are droopy and I've noticed they are weepy as well. I've taken some tissue doused with vetracyin to clean them.

A little big ago, she pooped on her foot and it smells really bad. I'd like to give her a warm bath, perhaps with epsom salt, to clean her off, but I don't know if that's a good idea. How does everyone clean a sick duck?