Emergency Duckling rescue

[orumpoultry]

A customer of mine brought me a little duckling from the park I study. This duckling appears to be out of one of the hens I am following, so I'd place it at a Thursday hatch ( at least that's when she was due to be done. ) He said he saw the poor duckling yesterday struggling to swim, and this morning the duckling was being pushed under the water by one of the male ducks. The duckling swallowed quite a bit of water, and it's craw / crop is full but smooshy. It was stark cold and I gave it to a broody hen to warm back up. I'm about to go check on the little guy and see if the hen accepted him/her... If it counts it's a Muscovy.

So to sum it up...

Age- 2-3 days tops
Problem - too cold / potentially nearly drowned
Solution - Get it warm and try and get it to live?

Anyone think it will survive? Any suggestions?

 

[azhenhouse]

I think if you can get it warmed up, and give it some food and water it should be fine. One of my ducks nearly drowned and survived. I would give it a supplement like Poly Vi Sol. It has helped both my ducklings and chicks. Also, try posting in the duck forum and you might get more responses. Keep us posted.

 

[nurse_turtle]

I think if you can get it warmed up, and give it some food and water it should be fine. One of my ducks nearly drowned and survived. I would give it a supplement like Poly Vi Sol. It has helped both my ducklings and chicks. Also, try posting in the duck forum and you might get more responses. Keep us posted.

The poly-vi-sol has saved many-a-chick for me.

 

[orumpoultry]

I have poly-vi-sol and nutri-drench on hand. I'm about to go out to the broody barn and see how the little guy is doing. I will edit the post if he didn't make it, but if he did I will post pictures. Peeking out the window I see one of the broody hens scratching and offering food, and no one's due to be off the nest except the hen I gave the duckling to so we shall see...


UPDATE - I think the duckling has splay / spraddle leg. I will tape his legs this evening if he's still like this. Blue42 ( the hen sitting on him ) is doing a great job with him. She's making him come to her unless he's super cold, then she will squat over the duckling. This will be her first anything, so we shall see how she does!