Duck stopped eating.

[DuckyDonna]

You don’t mean an injection right? @DuckyDonna

No, I guess I was a bartender for so long I still have the lingo in my head. I gave Eva a ml of calcium gluconate in a syringe. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[PaulX]

She only ate 2 mouthfuls this morning. I'm not sure whether to consider that an improvement.

 

[Miss Lydia]

If you can get her to a vet that maybe best they can examine and determine if she is egg bound or has an infection. Can you see and discharge from her vent. I'd also be checking on calcium gluconate and keep that on hand.

 

[katiebrock]

I'm quite worried about my almost 6 months old duck. She already started laying on 31st July, but on this Tuesday she didn't lay in the morning, and when I checked later at noon she was limping, was putting her weight on her left leg and skipping the right. I thought she had a leg injury from jumping as she had limped the other leg before and healed up. Tuesday before dark her leg seemed a bit better, but it got worse again after Wednesday morning meal. Fast forward to Thursday, the last meal she ate was at noon, then she stopped eating completely. On Thursday afternoon I noticed her pooping watery white poop. And now it's Friday evening here, and she still hasn't resumed eating. I tried to place the food bowl in front of her, but she walked away. She didn't even eat the veggies she normally lunged at with vigor. Her right leg seemed normal starting Friday afternoon, but I don't know, it might get worse again tomorrow morning.

What worries me the most is that she's not eating, and together with other symptoms, I concluded from the information I could gather that she could be egg bound. But then I came across this video on youtube, which says egg bound ducks should act like this.

But she's not acting like this at all, she's been acting completely normal aside from the limp and the lack of appetite. She still nibbles around in the grass with her siblings, still preens, and just looked very slightly lethargic this afternoon, understandably so since she's gone for 1 1/2 days without food. The only other abnormal thing I noticed was that she seemed reluctant to sit down while the others did, she just rested while standing on her left leg, only laying down much later reluctantly.

I know I should try and feel her hind to see if I could feel anything, but she's the least tame of my ducks and I want to save the catching for the critical moment when I need to treat her. I hope to find out first what is wrong with her so I can know what to do. Any ideas?

She's an Indian runner, will be 6 months old in 4 days. She started laying 17 days ago but haven't laid any since Tuesday. Her name is Soufflé and this photo was taken this afternoon. She's always been the largest of my 3 runners, but smaller than my pekin of course.

View attachment 1879398

I cannot give any advice, but she is a pretty girl! Hoping she feels better soon.

 

[PaulX]

She ate 2 mouthfuls of feed at 8:30 am, 4 at 11, 4 at 1 pm, then I saw her pooped properly at 4:30 pm, and then she ate 8 more mouthfuls at 6:45 pm.

Seeing the proper poop for the 1st time in days I suppose she's getting better. The egg last night could indeed be hers. I'm keeping a close observation and hoping her appetite gets better tomorrow. (it's 10 pm here now) She is a bit lethargic but otherwise has been acting normal today.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s good to hear her appetite is picking up. I rec you get her additional calcium besides oyster shell. Runners lay a lot of eggs and can get depleted easily. Thanks for the updates!

 

[PaulX]

She stopped eating again on Sunday, so today I took her to the vet first thing in the morning. The vet couldn't find anything wrong with her so she only prescribed antibiotics and some vitamins. I thought I'd have to resign into losing her only to come back home and find that she can now eat like she's never been ill before! She ate as much as her sisters as soon as she came back and also in later meals.

On a side note today I found out her weight for the first time. Soufflé, my biggest runner, weighed 1.645 kgs (3.6 lbs) after almost 4 days of going without food. I assume she should weigh around 1.8 kgs or 4 lbs in normal condition.

This was Soufflé and her sisters from last week, a day before she limped and 3 days before she stopped eating.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well that’s great to hear both that the vet couldn’t find any thing wrong and that she is back like she was never sick. Maybe you should go ahead with the antibiotics just as a precautionary and the cuts too. @Runner duck mom had something similar with her Runner although in this case the vet said she would die.

 

[Runner duck mom]

They are such beautiful ducks I hope she is still feeling better and continuing to eat. We had not previously weighed our ducks until this most recent illness either. Our little runner is back up to 3.2lbs.
If it were me I would also give the antibiotics just to be safe and have all bases covered.
It's so crazy how they can seem just fine one day and sick the next. They sure do know how to make us worry!