Duckling eye irritation

[madiwhite00]

Hi there! My pekin duckling has a very red and droopy eye. It looks as if there is some crust starting to form around it. There’s no foam in/around the eye. The little one has been panting and breathing heavier than usual. I tried a clean separate water bowl and no food to keep the water clean to try to wash the eye out some. Does anybody know what this could be? I’m hoping just some sort of eye irritation. It is gotten worse over the past two days. I attached a picture of the eye.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Could little one have dust or feed In it’s eye? You can put little ACV into its water 1tea Ed quart of water you can rinse the eye out with saline wash which is 1/8 tea of salt to 1 cup warm water. There are products you can buy also Terramycin eye ointment. Veterycin makes an eye ointment. But is there discharge coming from nares? Heavy breathing seems to be pretty normal for Pekins are you using heat in your brooder do you know the temp?

 

[madiwhite00]

I have not noticed any discharge from the nares. The heat lamp temp. is around 80-85. Thanks for the help!

 

[Miss Lydia]

How old are your ducklings? They may not even need temps that high.

 

[madiwhite00]

They are 4 days old

 

[Miss Lydia]

Okay they need at least 85 with one end of brooder at that temp and other end cooler so they can get away from heat if they want. After their first week drop their temp 5* each week there after until they are at ambient temps.

 

[madiwhite00]

Okay they need at least 85 with one end of brooder at that temp and other end cooler so they can get away from heat if they want. After their first week drop their temp 5* each week there after until they are at ambient temps.

That was the plan! Our first pair we got in early march and sadly a predator got ahold of them last week. I am in animal science classes and am starting to learn more and more. Thank you for all your advice!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Good for you! Let us know how they are doing , very sorry for your loss.

 

[madiwhite00]

They are doing much better now! I’m the shape of the eye seems a little droopy but redness and crust has gone away. The vetraycin worked great