Ducklings suddenly dying!!

[Angeltears247]

Advice needed! I'm absolutely heartbroken! In the last 3 days I've lost 2 of my 8 week old ducklings, they had symptoms like wry neck, it came on very suddenly...within a 4 hour span they went from healthy happy ducks to a seemingly loss of control of their necks! I quickly gave them the contents of a vitamin e capsule in their beaks and 25mcg selenium. They both seemed to be making a recovery, then without warning..they passed away! Thinking it could be something viral, I cleaned everything, changed bedding etc and gave the 2 surviving ducklings nutri drench in their water, at about 8pm tonight I checked their food and water, everything appeared to be going good, I thought I was out of the woods...I had a urge to go check on them and found one of the survivors passed away! She seemed perfectly healthy just a few hours ago! What could be causing this? Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening to my lone survivor?! I'm so sad for her! She's all alone now!! My poor babies!

 

[Melodychick]

How horrible, I’m so very sorry I don’t have ducks yet so can’t be of any help, but I’m sure the others will be around soon to give you some answers. I hope your lone baby will be ok.

 

[CrystaBub]

Hi I'm so sorry for your losses - it's heartbreaking. Can you tell me what breed and where did you get them?

 

[Duckworth]

I’m sorry for your loss.

 

[casportpony]

I am very sorry for your losses. What type of food are you feeding and are you supplementing and b vitamins?

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Angeltears247

 

[Angeltears247]

I'm sorry I'm only now responding. They were 9 week old Rouen ducklings, from Tractor Supply. They have been on Purina Flock Raiser starter. I have been giving B complex vitamins supplements and nutritional yeast sprinkled on their feed.
Today my daughter and I made a discovery that may explain why we lost our ducklings. We decided to inspect the feed...we just purchased this bag last week at TSC. At the bottom of the bag, we found CLUMPS of rotted feed! I contacted the store, explained what had happened, and asked them to check their stock. There is no way this occurred at my home. We keep all of our animals feed in our house by the hall to the garage! All the other feed looked normal and dry. We went to a different store to buy more feed, and checked everything over. Gave our surviving duckling an Epsom flush. She was looking very healthy but frantically calling, as she was alone. After a rough day with her being lonely, my family and I made the decision to give her to a family friend who purchased ducks at the same time as us, since our next group of ducks wont be here until next Friday, and my older ducks in the yard were bullies to her. She has been doing great meeting her new flock mates tonight, and her new owner is aware of everything that happened here, we are in agreement that it appears to be some sort of food poisoning. And we are all hoping for this little girl to live a long, happy life!

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s awful Purina should compensate you. Did you contact them?

 

[Melodychick]

I’m glad you found the cause and a good home for the lone survivor I have had the same happen to me, but with horse feed, fortunately no one got sick though. I now dump my feed in a garbage can lined with a contractor bag. I always check the top feed when I open it, and by dumping it I can also see the bottom contents. Whenever I get bad feed, back to the store it goes. Usually someone was too lazy to rotate the stock. I’ve had this problem much more often at TSC than at my local feed store.