Ducks may have drank soapy water, should I be worried?

[mypoorducky]

My laundry room sink flooded overnight (long story), and dirty, soapy black water was all over the place! I had set my ducks near the front yard, so they wouldn't interfere while we drained the sink and cleared out the water, but I noticed they were walking all the way back to take sips of the soap water, even though there was a bowl of perfectly clean water right there! I hurriedly shoo'd them away with the broom, but I needed the broom so I retreated back. Unfortunately, they saw this as a sign to charge, and I noticed they were coming back for seconds while I was cleaning up the laundry room! Shoo'd them back again, and this time placed the broom near them as a scareduck. They stayed this time, while I finished my business in the laundry room. I also made sure to make a little puddle upstream so they would drink from there instead.

Should I be worried? I, historically, don't have a good relationship with ducks and soap, so I'm rather freaked out about this. They only got to drink about 2 or 3 mouthfuls of the liquid total before getting shoo'd away, and while I am sure the soap was highly diluted by all the water, I'm still not comfortable that the water my ducks were drinking was literally black. I made sure they had drank plenty of clean, fresh water after that.

 

[sourland]

My gut instinct is that the water was so dilute with soap that they will be fine.

 

[mypoorducky]

My gut instinct is that the water was so dilute with soap that they will be fine.

I hope so. They were drinking out the hose we were using to drain the water. It's been about half an hour, and they seem to be fine for now.

 

[gtaus]

I was going to add that the soapy water would probably only give the ducks a good case of the squirts, but then, we are talking about ducks and they always seem to have diarrhea as a normal condition.

I suspect they will be fine and giving them fresh water to flush out their system was a good call. I think most birds have a short digestive system and things work themselves out in a few hours. If your ducks appear healthy after a few hours, I don't think I would worry anymore.

 

[mypoorducky]

I was going to add that the soapy water would probably only give the ducks a good case of the squirts, but then, we are talking about ducks and they always seem to have diarrhea as a normal condition.

I suspect they will be fine and giving them fresh water to flush out their system was a good call. I think most birds have a short digestive system and things work themselves out in a few hours. If your ducks appear healthy after a few hours, I don't think I would worry anymore.

Definitely! Thank you, they still seem to be fine. I'll check back within a few hours, and if they're still fine, I guess it's back to business!

 

[mypoorducky]

Update: Yep, they're fine!