Duck Respiratory Infection

[3xhhheather]

Trying to make sure I’m covering all the right steps, I’m so worried about my little Mabel and she clearly feels awful. About a week ago while I was hanging outside, Mabel (1YO Ancona Female) went to take a drink out of their pool and ended up coughing up a ton of water and mucus. I think she inhaled some water because a few days later she started acting seriously off, standing with her eyes closed and wheezing. I took her inside and put her in a warm epsom salt bath, gave her some nutridrench & ACV, oregano & garlic in her food. The next day I was able to get some oral syringes and gave her a .4ml dose of duramycin 72-200. She’s isolated inside and has been eating and drinking, but today when I woke up her left eye was swollen shut and super foamy. I cleaned it out with eye wash and applied some vetericyn eye gel. She’s still eating and drinking, I’ve been adding a bit of cat food and some treats like tomatoes to make sure that she eats. The wheezing sounds like its getting worse and more rattly/wet. I gave another dose of the duramycin this morning, is this something that I just need to wait and see or is there more I can be doing?

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I'm so sorry. I know it's worrisome whenever they're not feeling well. I'll keep you and your duck in my thoughts


@Miss Lydia @Isaac 0

 

[3xhhheather]

I'm so sorry. I know it's worrisome whenever they're not feeling well. I'll keep you and your duck in my thoughts


@Miss Lydia @Isaac 0

Thank you <3 means a lot with everything going on :/

 

[3xhhheather]

Mabel Update - Her breathing has gotten better (I think) it's no longer wet sounding or as loud. She's still not quacking, more just raspy breathing noises, but she's eating and drinking not as much as normal, but enough that I'm not too concerned.

Her eye is looking worse, so much so that I'm going to stop using the Vetericyn Eye ointment (directions say if the inflammation gets worse to stop) and switch to just saline rinses throughout the day. I was using an eyewash, but I'm not convinced it's doing enough. I will be setting an alarm to get up in the middle of the night to rinse it out, there was so much yellow gunk caked onto her feathers this morning.

Pics are of her before and after rinsing this morning.

 

[3xhhheather]

Another Mabel Update -- Yesterday I picked up Terramycin Eye Ointment, kicking myself for not just getting this from the beginning as it has an actual antibiotic in it versus the Veterycin wash. I've also started doing warm compresses twice a day before cleaning her with eyewash. It seems to be helping keep the gunk down.

Her breathing is getting better, she just sounds hoarse now and I'm so very happy that she is still eating and drinking normally. And while her eye still doesn't look great, the inflammation is down and her outer eyelid skin is returning to a normal yellow. I'm just hoping to see some more progress moving into the second week of Duramycin and now this new eye ointment.

 

[3xhhheather]

Mabel Update -- Her energy is returning, she was bathing and flapping around in the tub this morning, still no quack though. Her appetite is coming back up to normal, but I think she has permanent eye damage from trying to treat the foamy eye caused by the respiratory infection. I'm applying the Terramycin eye ointment once a day and will hopefully continue to see the inflammation and amount of gunk go down.

 

[3xhhheather]

Mabel Update -- Well, we ended up at the vet this morning. Her eye had a large white spot and was bright red/clear. The globe of the eye is extremely inflamed, so the doctor suspects that Mabel had an ocular ulcer that burst overnight. Now it's a matter of if the eye needs to be removed. She's at least partially blind, but most likely it's total. She prescribed Meloxicam to help with the inflammation, Baytril as an antibiotic, and Erythromycin eye ointment. I'm dropping her off again on Thursday to make a game plan for the eye, the doctor is going out of town next week so I guess we'll see what happens then.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Bless her heart. Did the vet think it was from an injury?

 

[3xhhheather]

It was a secondary symptom that went overboard. Happy to say she made a great recovery and was able to keep the eye which is only slightly cloudy. Only issue is her depth perception is a bit off and her quack hasn’t returned.