My grandfather bought me 6 crested ducklings from a local farmers market back in May. I had them for about a month when I became ill and was admitted into the hospital with the Campylobacter bacteria. I figured out that it had to have been from the ducks so I took them to my grandfathers farm where they would have a pond. This was great for them until my grandfather's goats started dying.. We know the ducks are the cause but don't want to get rid of them. However, we cant have them contaminating the water that the other animals drink.. Is there a way to treat the ducks so I can still keep them??
I would get them out of the shared water supply, and set them up with their own swim pans. I use both concrete mixing pans and doggie-kiddie pools. Make sure the dumped water does not come into contact with other animals. In fact, I would give them their own pen and run for now, till this gets sorted out. Have you had a fecal test done to be sure about the ducks? That is one of the first things I would do. Sometimes circumstantial evidence turns out to be incorrect. So see if you can find it in their fecal samples before deciding that's what is happening. When you write, "we know," is it that you know because you had them tested? Was a necropsy done on the goats? Take a look at this research report . . . you may be able to deal with campylobacter - this is just information I am passing along. But it is from the National Institutes of Health. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19096058
