Ducks acting strange all of a sudden, scared, quacking non stop, acting like I'm a stranger?

[AlohaDuck]

My Welsh Harlequin (6 month old) is quacking its head off and acting scared all of a sudden. It opens its beak, almost like a silent hissing and is just being skitty/scared. This is at night when I put them away. I have just noticed this the other day when putting them away. It was dark out....no moon light...so I thought maybe they were just scared of the dark.

Other than that, she's known to be the sweetest one as that breed is known to be the calmest. Hmmm....

I've recently switched their feed from regular organic crumble feed to organic pellets

Only one of the three ducks seem to be laying right now and I know which one that is...the black swede....

Hmmm.... could metal poisoning or something along those lines cause weird behavior? Lice problem?

All three ducks seem to be more scared than usual, but the Welsh is really bad.... I can still hold them, pick them up to put them in their house, but they are more skitty than usual. Once they are in the cage, they are fine....clean themselves...all the normal....

My poor Welsh...what could be causing this? She was never like this...like I've said she was the sweetest of them, although they are all sweet. I've raised them from a day old...lot of human contact....fed nothing but organic food...everything the best....



To summarize:

• It's been really dark...
• They have a red heat lamp....
• Switched from organic crumbles to organic pellets...
• Oh wait...I did wear my glasses that night...but really? Could that be it? Don't they know me by now to recognize my voice at the least?

Possibly:

• Just scared of the dark?
• Don't recognize me because I wore my glasses?
• Could it be the new feed?
• Metal poisoning?
• Lice problem?
• Eating paint chips off of the shed etc...?
• Parasites?

Solutions:
I'm going to start putting Organic Apple Cider Vinegar in their water feeder again.
Diatomaceous Earth in there feed...




Anyone experience this "all of a sudden," behavior?

 

[needlessjunk]

Could something of scared them outside? Maybe a predator is coming to visit after they are put up and causing them to freak out. Even if they are safe just seeing something that would eat them would make the skittish and scared.

 

[Amykins]

Yeah, my first thought is a predator may have come by the coop. Maybe for a little while you could swap their red lamp to a standard white one so they can see at night in case it comes by again? Other than that, is the Welshie showing any other weird signs? Is it eating and drinking? I wonder if it is posturing or just plain panting.

 

[chooks4life]

To summarize:

• It's been really dark...
• They have a red heat lamp....
• Switched from organic crumbles to organic pellets...
• Oh wait...I did wear my glasses that night...but really? Could that be it? Don't they know me by now to recognize my voice at the least?

The glasses could be an issue, yes. Even with your voice being used in conjunction with them. Since I normally wear darker clothes and no shoes when pottering about the farm, I've frightened my own animals quite a few times (dogs, cats, poultry, sheep, etc) just by wearing brighter clothes, or shoes. They found it hard to believe it's me, lol.

Possibly:

• Just scared of the dark?

I agree with needlessjunk, scared of something in the dark, maybe. Doubt it's the darkness itself.

• Don't recognize me because I wore my glasses?

Quite possible. That could look quite frightening to them. Some animals hate cameras being aimed at them for the same reason, it looks like a big eye to them apparently.

I can ID a chicken with a human-oriented nature easily as a chick by talking to it and seeing if it begins seeking eye contact; that's one reliable sign in my experience. Whereas a human-averse chick will not seek eye contact and if I manage to make eye contact its eyes slide off mine with no recognition or interest.

The talking counts for a lot but some animals really need the eye contact. I haven't kept ducks but I've seen the eye-contact trait in so many species by now, I wouldn't be surprised if your suddenly unrecognizable 'eyes' were the issue here.

• Could it be the new feed?

Doubt it, but better nutrition does enable more brain activity and more instinct, in my experience. However, more intelligence and more instinct in domestic animals has always been very positive in expression in my animals, never something that encourages aggression or aversion. Rather, it makes them calmer, and less aggressive.

• Metal poisoning?

Possibly and it's always a good idea to do periodic detoxes IMO. Heavy metal toxicity is so ubiquitous.

• Lice problem?

Never heard of that scaring them, but unsettling them, possibly.

• Eating paint chips off of the shed etc...?

Yep, could be that. My waterfowl (geese) were terrible for it.

• Parasites?

Maybe, if they're hogging so much calcium that the hosts have poorly insulated nerves, but it's not too likely. Could definitely be contributing to their overall irritation though.

If my animals are acting afraid at night time, I check thoroughly and regularly till I find why. It is almost always a predator around the coop upsetting them. Can be something as small as a rodent inside the cage or something roaming through your area outside the cage.

Another possibility is instincts kicking in; this can be due to higher quality feed (sounds strange perhaps but there's nothing like more nutrition to fire up the brain) or it could be due to their age. Getting a bit aggressive, or stand-offish, or flighty, is all normal around the 'teenage' months.

If the animal had a good tame nature beforehand and you put in the groundwork, as it sounds like the case is, then it should again settle into its previous good mentality, given time

One more possibility is that you have a night-whacker. lol. Don't know what other term to use. This is an animal that has usually very poor night-vision (regardless of what's normal for the species) and probably an excessive amount of either fear or aggression, and so responds to movement or touch at night time by lashing out viciously at anything and everything around it. If even one of your ducks responds violently to vaguely perceived motion or sound or touch at night time, it can upset the whole lot, since the others may not know what's attacking them or why.

Night-whackers can start out of the blue, too. I got rid of one of my roosters for a couple of faults but it really started to come to a head when I saw him sledge-hammer a hen beside him on the perch repeatedly in the back of the head just because I was around the coop. He could see well enough to hit her in the same place each time --- not acceptable. She was a banty little thing too, I thought he might give her brain damage. He'd never done that before, but it was part of his deteriorating mentality towards the hens.

Solutions:
I'm going to start putting Organic Apple Cider Vinegar in their water feeder again.
Diatomaceous Earth in there feed...

If suspecting toxicity from any sources, whether natural or artificial, high doses of vitamin C help detox many things from insect and snake venoms to poisonous plants to artificial toxins like pesticides and drugs, so does calcium-magnesium (dolomite for example); the pectin in apples also detoxes heavy metals (not sure how much ACV provides but it might do it if it's made from whole apples since it's the pectin in apple peel that detoxes aluminium, mercury, lead, etc from the body and brain). Some herbs help detox a lot of things too, such as garlic, cilantro, cloves, rosemary, really pretty much all the aromatic herbs can help.

Anyone experience this "all of a sudden," behavior?

Yeah, it happens every now and then to most people, I've had a few cases of once-tame turkeys becoming vicious at night time but that was triggered by pythons unsettling them; most people would have seen the odd night-time un-ease occur if they've kept livestock or pets long enough.

One last possibility to mention... Have you begun, or stopped, taking a medication recently? That's also one very common cause of sudden behavior changes in animals towards a human.

Do you reckon you smell the same as usual? Birds can have very sensitive olfactory systems, despite outdated research that claimed otherwise. It's possible chickens identify histocompatibility by scent alone like some rodents do, for example, the part of their brain that deals with scent is far larger and more complex in comparison with ours, despite their apparently limited olfactory organs, and waterfowl have been known to perform some prodigious scent-tracking tasks.

Best wishes.

 

[Amykins]

Sadly, there is no effective home remedy for metal poisoning in ducks. Once they eat the metal and it's in their system, unless you can get it to a vet for a calsenate injection and/or surgery there isn't much you can do. However, you CAN help prevent it by coating any new wire mesh, metal buckets, tools, etc. with lemon juice to help it oxidize faster, thus rendering the zinc coating harmless.

 

[chooks4life]

Sadly, there is no effective home remedy for metal poisoning in ducks. Once they eat the metal and it's in their system, unless you can get it to a vet for a calsenate injection and/or surgery there isn't much you can do.

I'd disagree with that, there's nothing so alien about a duck's anatomy that they alone don't respond to the same treatments for heavy metal toxicity that other waterfowl, land fowl, and other animals do. Toxicology is an interesting topic to learn about, and explains why so many very different species react either the same or in very similar ways to the same toxins and treatments for those toxins. It's got more to do with chemistry than anatomy and physiology.

If the case is severe by all means try a vet, of course. But if you're just suspecting it and there's no real clinical symptoms, or if you're not even suspecting anything but assume it's a threat since it's so ubiquitous, why not use what you can? Regular little detoxes can help you avoid ending up at the vet's.

If you have a case bad enough to warrant ending up at the vet's there will be permanent damage no matter what you or the vet use.

If the duck's eaten sinkers or larger doses from something, and is showing clear symptoms, a vet is definitely the best bet. If you can afford a vet for a suspicion with no clinical symptoms, why not?

Best wishes.

 

[Amykins]

I guess I'm just curious to know what you mean by "regular little detoxes". What do you use to treat your birds?

 

[chooks4life]

I guess I'm just curious to know what you mean by "regular little detoxes". What do you use to treat your birds?

The things I listed before I use regularly. Apples, garlic, cal-mag, certain herbs, vit C, etc.

In a nutshell, I basically try to assist the main toxin target and elimination organs (liver and kidneys) to remain in good condition and do their job well, since if they're in good condition they can process out most toxins, and when they accumulate damage toxins build up in them and progressively deplete the body's ability to perform its normal detoxing function.

For all domestic poultry, liver damage is ubiquitous, by some estimations over 80% of all deaths involve liver failure in part due to dietary or environmental damage sustained, so whatever delivered the finishing blow (virus or whatever) it depended on the liver having lost so much of its function in the first place. Things like antibiotics, wormers, vaccines etc can all cause permanent damage too so even if you keep your birds away from all the other sources of damage you can, it's pretty unavoidable that liver damage will occur. Ideally you can minimize it and help the liver repair. It's great at that but rarely gets given a chance.

For liver, dandelion, onion, garlic, milkthistle, etc are all very good. Some liver cells don't repair without the compounds found in milkthistle or dandelion (they're chemically identical for most purposes).

For kidneys, correct magnesium:calcium and phosphorus ratios is very important, and depending on individual needs things like barley and peas help those prone to uroliths, and those that have previous urinary tract/renal damage... There's more kidney-aids, but I generally have very little need to use those, liver is more often the organ that needs help.

Providing free-choice charcoal in small pieces helps them take care of many problems they encounter, i.e. some of my chooks think going on random fungi-tasting sprees is a good idea, others will taste any strange herb they find...

Good sources of calcium-magnesium being available free-choice is another first port of call for detoxing many issues since the body binds many toxins in calcium as it processes them out, and will take from the bones and nerves the calcium it needs to do that task if the diet is too low in it (which it always is, for the purpose of detoxing anything even somewhat significant. The amount the body can chew through while detoxing is dangerous for daily use obviously). Many people use the argument that "this animal produces its own vitamin C, I don't see how supplementing it will help anything" but that's completely ignoring the enormous quantities the body can need to detox, far beyond what that animal normally produces, or even can produce under specific demand.

Sorry if I'm preaching to the choir, I gather you probably know the subject fairly well, but it's hard to know who knows what and under-explaining, or over-explaining, runs a risk of offending either way. I prefer to over-share info to maybe even help people who read this in future rather than under-share just in case someone takes offense.

Alrighty, it's my bedtime (long past actually) but if you're interested I can dig up some more articles I've got bookmarked somewhere and share. Here's a sample of one, kinda skims over some of the important info but you can check their citations for more explicit info:

, 28]. Glutathione is another potent chelator involved in cellular response, transport, and excretion of metal cations and is a biomarker for toxic metal overload [29–31].

Not only animals, but also plants produce chelating compounds [32], and metallothionein content of foods may affect bioavailability as well as metabolism of toxic metals such as cadmium [33].

Some foods have been suggested to reduce absorption or reabsorption of toxic metals and to support natural detoxification pathways.

(i) Dietary fibres from various food products, including bran from grains as well as fruit, have been evaluated as an alternative or adjunct to chelation therapy with the aim to interrupt enterohepatic recirculation [34–36] and to modulate intestinal flora [37], with findings of reduced levels of mercury in the brain and blood.

Caution is merited regarding soluble fibre; in contrast to protection offered by insoluble fibre, flax seed resulted in increased intestinal absorption of cadmium [38].

(ii) Other natural polymers have also been gaining attention as potential adsorbents of heavy metals, such as algal polysaccharides alginate [39] and chlorella [40].

Modified citrus pectin plus alginate products have been used successfully to reduce lead and mercury in case studies [39]. Poly(γ-glutamic acid), an edible and biodegradable biopolymer, has been produced extracellularly during fermentation of Bacillus species; its α-carboxyl groups conjugate a variety of compounds including metal cations [41].

(iii) Given that toxic metals have great affinity for sulphur-containing peptides, diets rich in sulphur-containing foods such as alliums (e.g. garlic [42]) and brassicas (e.g., broccoli [43]) have been suggested for effects on glutathione, with hopes for symptomatic improvement and enhanced excretion.

Garlic prevented cadmium-induced kidney damage [44] and decreased the oxidative damage due to lead in rats [45].

(iv) Cilantro (leaves of Coriandrum sativum), a popular culinary and medicinal herb, gained attention when a soup was reported to enhance mercury excretion following dental amalgam removal and remains popular despite limited evidence [46]. In animals, it decreased lead absorption into bone and inhibition of the delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) enzyme [47].

Less encouragingly, in a recent trial in 3- to 7-year old children exposed to lead, a cilantro extract was as effective as placebo in increasing renal excretion (improvements across treatment and placebo groups were ascribed to improved diet during the intervention) [48].

Several supplements are also in use to address metal toxicities.

(i) Taurine [49–51] and methionine [52] are sulphur-containing amino acids. They are rich in membranes particularly of excitable tissues, and they decrease oxidative stress markers resulting from heavy metal exposure. Practitioners also report using taurine for 6 weeks or so prior to hair analyses, to boost levels and improve detection.

(ii) Alpha lipoic acid is a powerful antioxidant that regenerates other antioxidants (e.g., vitamins E and C, and reduced glutathione) and has metal-chelating activity. Both fat and water soluble, it is readily absorbed from the gut and crosses cellular and blood-brain membrane barriers [22, 53]. Clinical experience is that it must be used carefully as it poses particular risks of redistribution of metals.

(iii) N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), an orally available precursor of cysteine, is a chelator of toxic elements and may stimulate glutathione synthesis, particularly in the presence of vitamins C and E [54–56].

(iv) Glutathione is not recommended to be administered orally as it undergoes digestion; however novel modes of delivery such as liposomal and prodrug preparations are emerging [57]. It may be administered intravenously, in creams and via nebulizer. Glutathione is an important physiological chelator, and the reduced form of glutathione protects cells from reactive oxygen species associated with heavy metals [58–61].

(v) Selenium is an important essential element, that is present at a broad range of levels across populations. The selenide ion forms an extremely stable, insoluble compound with mercury, and provides relief of mercurialism symptoms. On the face of it, selenide might not be compatible with chelation, as the two agents may counter the effectiveness of one another [62]; however, selenium may be incorporated in organic molecules, and organic selenium/mercury complexes may be transported through membranes. Selenium depletion in the face of mercury exposures also depletes seleno-enzymes.

In humans, organic selenium supplementation was beneficial in a controlled trial among 103 mercury-exposed villagers [63]. A selenium yeast product increased mercury excretion and decreased oxidative stress-related biomarkers urinary malondialdehyde and 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine [63].

Overall, a number of studies have investigated the effects of micronutrients such as vitamins, sulphur-containing amino acids, antioxidants, and essential minerals on kinetics and adverse effects of toxic elements [64–68].

Nutritional status affects uptake, as toxic cations are transported by proteins for essential nutrients such as magnesium, zinc, and iron, putting those who are malnourished at greater risks for toxicity [2, 33].

This suggests potential for dietary preventive public health interventions. For example, in animals calcium deprivation enhanced absorption of lead and cadmium [69], while magnesium and zinc supplementation blunted absorption of cadmium [2].

Calcium supplementation reduced lead mobilization from maternal bones during pregnancy and lactation, protecting the newborn and infant [70–72]. In children, iron supplementation blunted lead accumulation [73]; however, mineral supplementation and school meal programs should not divert attention from the paramount importance of removal of the sources of exposure [74–76].

Best wishes.

 

[Amykins]

Uhh....you're not supposed to give garlic or onion to ducks. At all. It's very harmful to them.

 

[Amiga]

Getting back to the original concern (I have not read all the responses yet, so bear with me) - duck behaviors can change rapidly overnight.

Happened with my Runners at 3 weeks of age. And based on your name, are you in a fairly warm place? Could she be getting broody?

needlessjunk makes a good point - sometimes they can be scared by something you do not see. So be on the lookout. Is their shelter secure at all times?