Duke and Daisy Duck, cold and wet (Muscovies)

[MommaDuck78]

My babies haven't been feeling very good on and off for the last couple days. Today was the second day this week that they had a hard time repelling water and look drenched and were shivering so I brought them in the trailer, set them up with puppy pads and a heater while I got their duck house cleaned out, fresh dry straw and a new heat lamp setup. I just put them to bed dry and their bed is dry but I worry about when I let them out in the morning, the weather lately has just been snow and rain, and the yard has just been wet and muddy. They were brought inside today for more than one reason. Not just the fact that they were cold and wet, but Miss Daisy Duck has been stumbling and falling chest first. After watching her closely it looks like her left foot is turned inward, along with the rest of her leg and it folds up underneath her. I looked at the bottom of her feet,

everything looks great and healthy but it is very possible that she was stepped on by a horse or injured her leg some other way. I love my babies so much and I hate it when they're not feeling very well. With them in the trailer this evening I did get the chance to weigh them they are smaller than I thought but Miss Daisy Duck is very tiny compared to what I thought LOL. Miss Daisy Duck is 5.6 lbs and Mr. Duke duck is 13.6 lbs.

 

[Jpat]

Poor ducks! They look sweet

Do you keep water in the coop at night? ide start by watering them with buckets and nothing they can get into and soak themselves, a keep water out of the coop.i know its hard when the weather wont co operate

is their poop always green or was it the greens you fed them? What do you feed them daily?

mabye Check their feet for bumbles or swollen hot areas,

 

[MommaDuck78]

My babies haven't been feeling very good on and off for the last couple days. Today was the second day this week that they had a hard time repelling water and look drenched and were shivering so I brought them in the trailer, set them up with puppy pads and a heater while I got their duck house cleaned out, fresh dry straw and a new heat lamp setup. I just put them to bed dry and their bed is dry but I worry about when I let them out in the morning, the weather lately has just been snow and rain, and the yard has just been wet and muddy. They were brought inside today for more than one reason. Not just the fact that they were cold and wet, but Miss Daisy Duck has been stumbling and falling chest first. After watching her closely it looks like her left foot is turned inward, along with the rest of her leg and it folds up underneath her. I looked at the bottom of her feet,View attachment 1974828 View attachment 1974829 View attachment 1974830 View attachment 1974831 everything looks great and healthy but it is very possible that she was stepped on by a horse or injured her leg some other way. I love my babies so much and I hate it when they're not feeling very well. With them in the trailer this evening I did get the chance to weigh them they are smaller than I thought but Miss Daisy Duck is very tiny compared to what I thought LOL. Miss Daisy Duck is 5.6 lbs and Mr. Duke duck is 13.6 lbs.

Poor ducks! They look sweet

Do you keep water in the coop at night? ide start by watering them with buckets and nothing they can get into and soak themselves, a keep water out of the coop.i know its hard when the weather wont co operate

is their poop always green or was it the greens you fed them? What do you feed them daily?

mabye Check their feet for bumbles or swollen hot areas,

At night they only get a bowl big enough to dunk their beaks in but sometimes they step on it and dump it over. they are in the chicken coop with the chickens but they have their own bed at night that they get put into, a large crate. I am in the process of building them a bigger house so that they are out of the chicken coop I am almost done with it but the rain has slowed my progress down. During the day when they are outside and out and about they have their pool that they usually take a bath in at least once a day. I think the two days that they were soaking wet shivering, they had gotten in their pool beforehand but it was closer to bedtime and colder out and wet out. As far as the poop that color was new as of yesterday. Daisy Duck usually doesn't have an issue with her poo, but Duke's is usually thinner than hers and darker green. Usually every night for dinner they get their poultry duck feed, corn and peas, treat that has dried mealworms, sunflower seeds and a couple other things in it but that is new over the past week, and some oatmeal. During the day they get the same stuff as snacks. I checked the bottoms of Miss Daisy's feet and her feet look good. No sign of bumbles or any sores or any other issues. Haven't let them out for the day yet to see her walking it's still dark out here.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That weight is average and most of my females weigh Daisys weight. My Muscovy drake same as Mr Duke so their weight seems good. Make sure most of what your feeding them is a balanced poultry feed and everything else is just about 10% of that. Also maybe but some good quality kitten food for their feathers. Looks to me they have wet feather and the extra protein will help with feather quality and they need to molt. Have they had their yearly molt yet? Once they molt their new feathers will be water proof . When I had my solid white Muscovys (died of old age) they were more prone to wet feather, why I don’t know but every year about time for molt they’d have wet feather.

 

[Raenh]

I'm kinda wondering if the oatmeal causes it to be green a little like that... my girls poo looked like that lately, but when I stopped adding the oatmeal/mealworm mixture it started looking more normal. So, what I'm getting at is - Is it possible for oatmeal to dehydrate them if they eat to much of it?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Maybe the green peas? I think she maybe over doing the add on's and hopefully she'll cut back on them and that will clear up the green poo. Only way to know is to try it. I can't see the oat meal causing green poo many add oats to their poultry's diet something to research though.

 

[Miss Lydia]

https://www.bing.com/search?q=is+oa...a1e91c784&cc=US&setlang=en-US&plvar=0&PC=DCTS Quite a bit of info. I'll have to read later have an apt this morning.

 

[Raenh]

I was thinking more the green poo meaning they were dehydrated and I might have been giving them to much oatmeal mix and they weren't getting enough water even though they have a 45g stock tank full... plus a smaller huge dog bowl.

 

[MommaDuck78]

That weight is average and most of my females weigh Daisys weight. My Muscovy drake same as Mr Duke so their weight seems good. Make sure most of what your feeding them is a balanced poultry feed and everything else is just about 10% of that. Also maybe but some good quality kitten food for their feathers. Looks to me they have wet feather and the extra protein will help with feather quality and they need to molt. Have they had their yearly molt yet? Once they molt their new feathers will be water proof . When I had my solid white Muscovys (died of old age) they were more prone to wet feather, why I don’t know but every year about time for molt they’d have wet feather.

I do not believe they've done their yearly molting. Do they lose all their feathers at once? Something I will obviously know when it happens? Does it usually happen this season? They just turned 7 months old November 21st. With a little bit of research I also read about the cat food and I gave them a little bit with their dinner last night. I have a cat who is on a better quality cat food gluten-free additive-free etc so I had it on hand already, but sounds like I need to cut back on the snacks and give them more poultry feed.

 

[MommaDuck78]

Thank you everybody so much for all of your help and advice on any of my threads. Being a first-time duck Mama to two muscovies has been awesome but I definitely have a lot to learn still and it has been extremely beneficial to have a place to come to to get advice and experience stories from other people.