Duckling fur keeps going in eye

[tonufargo]

Need suggestions please...
We have 3 call ducklings hatched about 3 weeks ago now. Two of the 3 are fine but the last one which I call little girl seems to be plagued with problems. Firstly she was born with a slightly deformed beak.. It doesn't seem to bother her and certainly doesnt stop her eating the chick crumb or drinking, it's just slightly longer on the bottom and we watch her to ensure she's eating etc. We then noticed that although she's eating and pooping, although not as much as the other 2, she's hardly growing and the others are now twice her size. Finally this week she's begun continually wiping at her right eye with her feet. We took a look and the fur round her eye is sitting in her eye. We make sure everyday she goes in clean water so she can clean and wipe it out but it goes straight back in. It really seems to annoy her and now it's started to make the eye clam up. We've got some drops from vet but they've done nothing except gunk up the eye as the fur still there.
Any suggestions with regards to battling her lack of growth and eye problems much appreciated. Other than the above she seems to be fine and runs round with the others without problem.. tho she seems to get tired more quickly but we put this down to her size as she goes twice as fast as them to keep up.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Need suggestions please...
We have 3 call ducklings hatched about 3 weeks ago now. Two of the 3 are fine but the last one which I call little girl seems to be plagued with problems. Firstly she was born with a slightly deformed beak.. It doesn't seem to bother her and certainly doesnt stop her eating the chick crumb or drinking, it's just slightly longer on the bottom and we watch her to ensure she's eating etc. We then noticed that although she's eating and pooping, although not as much as the other 2, she's hardly growing and the others are now twice her size. Finally this week she's begun continually wiping at her right eye with her feet. We took a look and the fur round her eye is sitting in her eye. We make sure everyday she goes in clean water so she can clean and wipe it out but it goes straight back in. It really seems to annoy her and now it's started to make the eye clam up. We've got some drops from vet but they've done nothing except gunk up the eye as the fur still there.
Any suggestions with regards to battling her lack of growth and eye problems much appreciated. Other than the above she seems to be fine and runs round with the others without problem.. tho she seems to get tired more quickly but we put this down to her size as she goes twice as fast as them to keep up.

Bill deformities are unfortunately not rare in Call ducks. It's one of the prices we (and mostly they) pay for breeding for extremes of type, kind of like with Persian cats. It's also possible for them to be caused by nutritional deficiencies rather than genetics. Even though you see her eating, she's probaby not eating quite as much as the others, which would explain some of the other failure to thrive symptoms like slow weight gain and tiring easily.

To try to correct nutritional deficiencies, you should check your local feed and/or pet stores for products like Nutri-Drench for poultry. They might not have the specific thing, but they might have something along the same line in a vitamin supplement for poultry. All these products can be ordered on the Internet, but it really would be best if you can find something locally to get started. If you can't, you can give her one drop of Polyvisol without iron (liquid infant vitamins) twice per day. Give her the drop and get her to drink right after to make sure she swallows it. Regardless what you use, just bear with it and don't expect to see changes overnight. Things like that take time to see results.

As far as the down in the eye part, I've never seen that be a problem before. I doubt that's anything specific to Calls since all ducklings have down, but perhaps @Lacrystol has seen it. My initial thought is that it would clear up when she loses the down in a few weeks, but I'd be concerned about it dragging on that long. Did your vet seem sure it wasn't another irritation that was causing her to rub her eye, pushing the down in that direction to cause more irritation? Can you get a pic of this to post here?

 

[Miss Lydia]

@JadeComputerGal about the down[feathers] in the ducklings eye could it be clipped back to keep it from happening? and I second the Poultry Nutri drench great stuff.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

@JadeComputerGal about the down[feathers] in the ducklings eye could it be clipped back to keep it from happening? and I second the Poultry Nutri drench great stuff.

I thought about it, Miss Lydia, and found myself horrified at the thought of trying that. It's so hard to hold them completely still unless they're sedated, even if you have two people doing it. That isn't something I'd even be willing to try myself. I think even if I were in the room with my vet holding the duckling (which he often has me do since he works alone), I'd have to turn my head and hold my breath while he was doing it. I'm wondering if it would be possible to put a little patch over the eye that covers the eye but not the side where the down needs trimming. That would at least reduce the possibility of damaging the eye if the duckling jerked suddenly during the trimming.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I thought about it, Miss Lydia, and found myself horrified at the thought of trying that. It's so hard to hold them completely still unless they're sedated, even if you have two people doing it. That isn't something I'd even be willing to try myself. I think even if I were in the room with my vet holding the duckling (which he often has me do since he works alone), I'd have to turn my head and hold my breath while he was doing it. I'm wondering if it would be possible to put a little patch over the eye that covers the eye but not the side where the down needs trimming. That would at least reduce the possibility of damaging the eye if the duckling jerked suddenly during the trimming.

Or maybe a small towel just to cover the eyes , when I have had to work on one of my chickens it I lightly cover their heads they relax , I also wrap them in a towel too.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Or maybe a small towel just to cover the eyes , when I have had to work on one of my chickens it I lightly cover their heads they relax , I also wrap them in a towel too.

Yes, that might very well work. With all the things I do with ducks, I think I have an irrational skittishness about working around the eyes. I treat things around the eyes almost every day with one of our breeders, and I still snap at my hubby if he's not holding her still enough. I've given him many apologies over that, but he always says it's okay and that he doesn't want to switch places with me.

I'm hoping we'll get a pic from the OP, but I'm wondering in absence of the pic if the duckling itself could be causing the down part of the problem. You know how down is very soft and easily trained to a direction, kind of like if you wet the back of a kitten and part the fur, then comb it to opposite directions. It would stay that way with a kitten until it rolls around, but a ducking with an irritated eye might be rubbing the down into her own eye just by continually rubbing her eye. Eye irritation typically causes tearing, which keeps the down wet, which could be training the down toward the eye.

Does that make any sense?

 

[tonufargo]

Hi all and thanks for your messages. All makes perfect sense! The good news is that last nite we managed the sweep the offending down out of her eye and it seems to have stayed out. Her eye looks better already this morning and has dried (it had seemed very wet for a few days) we're not sure whether this is because we stopped using the drops as they just seemed to be gunking up the eye or because the down stayed out .. or a mix of both. Either way fingers crossed it'll stay that way as I don't think I could trim it that small.
I am going to head down the farm shop today and see what vitamin stuff they have and hopefully this an give my girl a little help in her growing department. We're hoping her bill will grow out normally as it's only a very slight deformity and has changed slightly for the better with the little bit of growth she has put on since hatching.
Anyway thank you for your suggestions it's been much appreciated