Duckling with possible water belly

firenkyo

Chirping
Sep 7, 2018
31
34
69
Hello, I've noticed something strange about one of my ducklings, Daffodil (Daffy). She's a Magpie duck ("blue" magpie) and about 6 weeks old.

Her lower belly seems a bit large/swollen, and she has a different posture than the two other ducklings (Daisy, blue magpie, and Dandy, a mixed breed), sitting back a little bit more. I looked up her symptoms, and the swollen belly seems a lot like water belly, or ascites. I heard that this could be caused by too much protein, and realized that I've been giving them some mealworm snacks maybe too often. Her siblings get the same amount of worms as she does, but they don't seem to be affected. I'm going to be cutting out mealworms from their diet for a while now just to be sure. Other than the mealworms, they have been fed normal poultry starter, plus greens and grass when they go out to forage.

She's still very alert and active though, and doesn't show any signs of decreased appetite (maybe the opposite, she loves food), and her belly is not red. She seemed to grow at a slower rate than the other Magpie, but they could have been different ages when I got them (the mixed breed duck was two days old and was the same size at the two older magpies, so it was hard to tell their exact ages).

Is there anything else I should do? Please let me know!
I don't have any pictures at the moment, but I could post some later this week if it would help at all.
 
@AstroDuck So sorry for the late response! Got caught up in school stuff. Here are some pictures - I brought her inside to check on her (her siblings are in the background). I don't think it's a full crop, because it's her bottom that's heavy and not her chest/neck
 

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@Miss Lydia The belly? Soft and squishy. I also poked her sister's belly, and it felt mostly the same, but a little less chubby. Here's the sister btw, she doesn't have the same big belly that Daffy does
 

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Honestly she just looks like she has the regular anatomy of a magpie to me. Many ducks especially female around the ventral region have that bump. If you Google Magpies almost all have the same bump. All of my female ducks have it too just some smaller than others depending on breed and the individual hen. I added some of the very first pictures to come up for magpies. One is even from the UK waterfowl club standard for Magpies and another is from a zoo's website.
 

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Alright, thanks for letting me know! I was just worried about her because of how slowly she grew, and then went on a rabbithole adventure of duck illnesses. I'll keep an eye on her, thank you :)
 

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