Grieving Indian Runner

[beerausch]

Hi my name is Bee and I could use some help. My husband and I started our duck love with 4 ducks. 2 female Indian Runners that we received a month before our Male and female Rouens. We had them at the farm and we're letting them free range along with our 17 chickens that we purchased with our Rouens. They have always flocked as one group. Then someone ran over my best girl Ducky who had just started laying eggs. Her match duck Daisy has not laid a single egg since. That was 2 months ago. Daisy is 26 weeks old now. To top it off as of this week I knew that the Rouens are close to mature and I have heard horror stories about drakes not having enough ladies. So a lady had one year old Khaki Campbells and we took them in. What is causing Daisy not to lay. Is it grief? Is in that we now have them in a pen to prevent losing them ever again

, is it the new ducks? She pals around with them but she just looks sad and lonely. These ducks and chickens are pets, I don't want to lose her. What do I do?

 

[chickens really]

She will start laying again in the spring.......She will be fine...



Cheers!

 

[Amiga]

When Shelly died, Romy became very ill and depressed - thought I might lose her. They had been BFFs.

So I just made sure to spend time with Romy, give her treats, give her some pep talks. It took months for her to get somewhere near back to normal. Some ducks take it really hard.

If they looked similar to each other, an unbreakable mirror might help a little. Some extra vitamins would not hurt, either.

 

[PearlTheDuck]

The story of Pete and Pearl

Long story but here I go....

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April 7th of this year I got my first ducks, two buff orpingtons (I was told they were pekins), I noticed as they were getting older pete would lack behind, Pearl could do more than him (get in and out of the pool etc...) And pete would always flip on his back, I also realized as they were growing they were getting cotton balls on they're head (after lots of googling and reading I found out it was a crest, they were crested) then fast forward at 2-3 months old one day I looked outside and Pete was seizing, it went from 1 seizure every few hours to 3+ seizures an hour and the seizures were different every 5-8 seizures, during the times he was sick I was up, looking for what was wrong, I'm sure I've looked at every duck seizure thread on this site (no I did not just look for answers on this site, I looked all over the Internet) we bought brewers yeast thinking niacin deficiency, nope, gave him activated charcoal thinking bacterial infection, nope, Nothing helped, it just kept getting worse. after many days of trying to save him, we were praying, asking what to do and as we finished praying he had a bad seizure and we knew he had to be put down. The night before he was put down he had a bad seizure sometime in the night and broke many blood feathers and cracked his bill open. Since Pearl and Pete were the only ducks, raised since few day old ducklings together, they were inseparable, you could not separate them without them both flipping out and quaking loudly for eachother, the thing is, Pearl would follow him everywhere, she went where he went, she knew he was sick and would care for him, always by his side, when he had seizures he would run into her and she would just back up and look at him. When we finally put him down she was devastated, the night of the day we put him down we brought her inside, let her swim in our tub (bleaching after), gave her some treats, we let her sleep in her container in the house for weeks, just giving her extra love, she would quack herself to sleep in the beginning but eventually stopped, she would stand there and quack for him in the daytime but eventually started to hangout with the chickens, today Pearl is a happy healthy egg laying duck she just hangs out with the chickens now.

We realized Pete's death was due to neurological issues he was born with, he was showing signs since a few day old baby, I learned that you can never breed two crested ducks together because the ducklings will not survive (will hatch with their brain hanging out etc..), you can breed a crested duck with a regular duck and the ducklings will have only a 50% chance of survival, people want crested ducks because they're cute, or because they have 'cool hair' no.. they have that 'cool hair' because they have a hole in their skull and a lump of fat covers it and feathers grow over the fat, thats why not many live, and that's why some are born with neurological issues.

you also have to be careful when mating a female crested duck with a regular male duck because the male can rip off the tuft of feathers on the females head because he's trying to assist himself and her brain wil be exposed and she will die instantly. honestly, its cruel that people breed crested ducks.

one thing i will never forget is when pearl was in her container in the house a few days after pete died and i went over and sat down next to her container and just started crying, pearl just came up to me and rested her bill on the side of the container, staring at me, i believe she knew, she understood. the whole situation was traumatic for all of us, i will never again get a crested duck nor do i recommend. pearl is the most beautiful, intelligent, docile duck and we are so lucky she was born without issues and im so lucky to have her, but i will not get anymore crested.
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what i recommend to you: give her extra love and attention, lots of tlc, thats what got pearl out of her depression
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after writing this, i've realized this wasn't the most appropriate place for this post.....
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RIP Pete