Duckling has dry skin peeling and walking backwards while dragging bill on ground in a squiggle pattern

[wannabefarm girl]

I'm sure the baby is itchy all over and that may be the reason for dragging the head to itch. Have you check over for mites/lice?

Yes, I have checked for mites and lice, but I can't find anything.

The dragging and walking backwards is involuntary. She doesn't want to do it. It's like a spasm or something. It was so bad for a while one day that she couldn't make it to the food and water without help.

 

[wannabefarm girl]

Please post photos.

What are you feeding the ducklings? What is their bedding and what temperature is the brooder, now and earlier in their lives?

Are they biting each other at all?

We're feeding them a balanced feed mix with all the necessary vitamins and minerals like niacin etc... I started giving them a cooked egg every day now too.

Since the day we got them until this started we had them in a plastic tote with holes cut out for ventilation, a brooder plate that stays nice and warm, Coco peat with burlap on top for the bedding. They have free choice feed in a plastic dish (refilled as needed), and water in a mason jar waterer.

Now I have them in a new tote (because we didn't know what was going on and I wanted to eliminate mold and be able to monitor their poo) with paper towels down on the floor that we replace often. And the rest is pretty much the same as before.
(In an earlier reply to AshVau22 I give more details about the Coco peat bedding findings.)

I've been trying to notice any biting and I haven't seen any so far.

 

[wannabefarm girl]

Welcome to BYC. Can you post some pictures and a video?

Thank you for the welcome!
I've posted a few pics and attempted a video that seems to be waiting to be approved.

 

[wannabefarm girl]

I think the only way to upload video is to post on YouTube and share the link here. I've never done it but I think that's how you do it.

Thank you for the info.
I tried to make a video link and I'm not sure if it will work, but it says it's await approval or something.

 

[Goosebaby]

What brand of feed are they on or is it a home made mix?

Is a vet an option?

Severe vitamin A deficiency can cause pale dry flakey skin and abnormal growth of bills and nails. I’m not sure if that’s the issue here but it’s something to consider.
B5 and B7 deficiency can also cause dry flaky skin and a host of other issues.
Stargazing can be a result of a thiamine deficiency (B1) and wry neck can be a result of a vitamin E deficiency.

Vitamin deficiencies in general cause lack of appetite.

Besides that I would strongly suspect a bacterial skin infection, something maybe like staph (gangrenous dermatitis) or strep? Strep usually kills very quickly though.

If a vet is at all possible I would take them and have the skin tested for a bacterial or fungal infection.

 

[AshVau22]

So, we think it may be caused by mold. When we couldn't figure out what was going on we changed our the brooder box.

We had them in Coco peat with burlap on top initially. We would change the burlap as often as it looked dirty, at least twice a day. We cleaned the whole thing twice a day as well. previously to this we had done the same thing with chicks and everything went well.
But when this started happening and we couldn't figure it out I decided that I wou change the bedding just in case (I couldn't tell any indicator of mold - it didn't seem very wet, there was no smell). So I put them in a new box with paper towels on the ground.

Then I set the other brooder box outside for a day or two and then dumped the bedding out in the garden. When I dumped it I could smell a mild sent of mold. So, we think that's maybe what the problem was.

We had checked it every day for wetness and smell, we even had some charcoal mixed in, but until it sat outside for a bit I couldn't smell anything at all.


Their feed is a good balanced feed mix with all the necessary vitamins. It has niacin, probiotics etc...

For the brooder:
Like I said, we used Coco peat with burlap on top. We have a heat plate and a mason jar waterer. We just used a plastic lid to put their feed in and keep it filled. We also were giving them tiny cut up fresh greens as recommended from the book Storie's Guide to Raising Ducks.

Access to Swim:

Yes. We were giving them an opportunity to swim every day, and at first they loved it and would swim at least a bit. Once this all started, though they haven't wanted to swim. I've tried bathing them a few times with plain water and once with a little Epsom salt in water per someone's recommendation. They really don't want to swim now and they won't really clean their faces anymore now.

Is vet an option? What country do you live in?

I don't believe this is from mold. When you took them to swim what kind of water source was it? (Pond, creek,, hose water pool)

 

[wannabefarm girl]

Thanks for the replies.

I don't have much time at the moment, but I'll try to answer some of the questions.

I've looked into all the possible vitamins deficiencies and they really don't have any symptoms of any of that other than the skin issue.
No dry neck.
No star gazing.
No problems with their legs, beak, skeletal structure, or feet.

The water is safe, we just used a small tub and fresh water from our non treated house water.

I don't think it's a staph infection as we have had that in our human family several times and it doesn't seem similar.
Incase it is something like that, we are using colloidal silver and have been now for maybe 5 days(?).

I don't know if it could be fungal or not.

Regretfully a vet is not an option.

Thanks again for the ideas!

 

[wannabefarm girl]

I think the only way to upload video is to post on YouTube and share the link here. I've never done it but I think that's how you do it.

The video didn't work. I'll try again.

I haven't been able to find a good way to load the video. I previously had a link, but it didn't do what I expected, so I deleted it for privacy reasons.

I don't think I'll be able to do YouTube at this time.

 

[iwltfum]

Have you seen any improvement since changing their brooder set up? Whatever is going on looks very progressed. Sorry you're dealing with this issue. I would suggest using pine shavings instead of paper towels for bedding. And some way to contain the water from getting splashed on the bedding is really helpful with ducks. Like a flat/low tray with a screen over it under the waterer really helps. Hope you see some improvement soon

 

[Goosebaby]

Thanks for the replies.

I don't have much time at the moment, but I'll try to answer some of the questions.

I've looked into all the possible vitamins deficiencies and they really don't have any symptoms of any of that other than the skin issue.
No dry neck.
No star gazing.
No problems with their legs, beak, skeletal structure, or feet.

The water is safe, we just used a small tub and fresh water from our non treated house water.

I don't think it's a staph infection as we have had that in our human family several times and it doesn't seem similar.
Incase it is something like that, we are using colloidal silver and have been now for maybe 5 days(?).

I don't know if it could be fungal or not.

Regretfully a vet is not an option.

Thanks again for the ideas!

It looks like something is eating the skin off of them, I’m not saying it’s staphylococcus necessarily but bacterial infections of the skin can do that and though staph is essentially everywhere if you have a history of staph in the family that makes it more suspect. Staph presents differently depending on how it infects a host and by the species of staph in question, in birds when it infects the skin it’s called gangrenous dermatitis.
There’s also something called erysipelas, in humans it’s usually caused by strep but in birds it’s caused by another bacteria (Erysipelothrix) which can also infect humans amd other mammals and it will eat the skin off the flesh too among other problems.
Without a culture of the skin done it’s impossible to say what species or type it is but fungal skin infections don’t usually do this, there’s always the possibility of a complex disease “where two or more diseases/infections are happening at once.” If mold is present in a brooder you’re more likely to see a respiratory illness first.
If it isn’t possible to get them seen by a vet that’s understandable but makes diagnosis and treatment difficult. You’re going to have to treat based on educated guesswork.
If these were my birds I would put them on a broad spectrum antibiotic like erythromycin or enrofloxacin (Baytril) and doxycycline and I would be rubbing them down with neosporin. A safe dose of colloidal silver isn’t going to permeate the tissue enough to root out the infection.
Of you don’t have any antibiotics on hand you can find them as fish or pigeon antibiotics.
Stuff like this
https://birdpalproducts.com/products/enrofloxacin-10-liquid-for-birds?_pos=1&_sid=0479427fd&_ss=r


https://birdpalproducts.com/products/doxycycline-20-powder-for-birds?_pos=1&_sid=eed0e74cd&_ss=r