hello, I hatched 18 ducklings 7-9 days ago. Just tonight I’ve noticed many of them have spots with little baby fuzz on their necks. There are three buffs, a welsh harlequin, and a khaki campbell with these spots. I don’t think it’s just water making them appear bald. While this scares me a little, what makes me more worried is that 5 of the 6 (the khaki campbell excluded) seem to have a lot of mucus in their mouth, throat, etc. I read that apple cider vinegar helps so I dipped their bills into a small cup of that and they seemed to drink it and react to the bitterness. I also put some poultry vitamins in their water to help weak ducklings. Please help as I don’t want to lose any of them!!
None of them are younger? Bald spots may be from being bullied. Mucus is they are probably sick. I'm not quite good at sicknesses with ducks. @Miss Lydia and maybe @WVduckchick might help.
Not younger by much. They hatched from Thursday to Saturday and the buffs were the first to hatch and seemed really healthy from day one. The khaki campbell that is possibly sick had a rough hatch. I had to end up helping him get out of the egg and he was stuck with his head and leg out of the same hole. He was very week and I used the same vitamins I put in their water tonight to help him regain his strength. He seems fine still but has a bald spot on his neck.
I have 3 week old Runners that look like they have bald spots now it's normal. Unless your seeing any one nibbling on someone? You need a really big brooder to brood 18 ducklings with out bullying or picking. How large is your brooder and if you can post some pics of the ducklings your concerned about and the brooder your using that would help. As for ACV it's 1 Tablespoon of ACV to 1 gal of water not straight ACV. Make sure they have something they can dunk their nares in to water to keep them clean it's very important.