HEAVY METAL POISONING in Ducks: No Appetite, Falling, Weight Loss, Lethargy

[Miss Lydia]

What's the recommended dose of DE for ducks. I found 5% in food, but would love if someone could give me a measurable amt.?
(Background on my poor duck:
My pekin duck has been lame for a few weeks. He had an injury to one leg & when favoring the other, he developed an infection in the good leg. He had an infection in his leg (hot, swollen, wouldn't walk...sad), and new to ducks we gave him a course of penicillin w/ procaine. We also found an area where he ate paint chips from our old foundation wall. He got a little better, then worse. We waited a few days after the penicillin treatments and started on an oral antibiotic, vetericyn spray for eye & saline washes and vitamin supplement b/c his eyes started to bubble and water...but not improving. Maybe it's metal poisoning from the procaine or paint chips? His one leg is starting to atrophy I think.)

I don't think DE is going to help but here is the link to flushes https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/700526/flushes-for-aiding-in-toxin-removal#post_9508213

I sure hope he makes it.

 

[Sugar Mountain]

Thanks! I'm not sure it's poisoning...just not sure what else to do for the poor guy. I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks! I'm not sure it's poisoning...just not sure what else to do for the poor guy. I appreciate the feedback.

I'd use one the flushes on him it can't hurt if you go right by the directions and may save his life.

 

[duckies1230]

I put my pekin to sleep two months ago almost. The vet was not experianced , couldn't figure anything out. Wanted over $4000, I had no choice. She stoppedceating, barely made noise, could barely move unless she had to, drank water nonstop, bright greenish poo, dehydrated. My dh is a roofer and avid gun owner. Running through the yard she could have got anything, she was always snooping around his stuff. I know this had to be the reason!!!

 

[MarysAviaryHeartAndZoo]

Thanks!  I'm not sure it's poisoning...just not sure what else to do for the poor guy.  I appreciate the feedback.

Hello. I'm sorry to read about your lame duck. This happened to one of my jumbo-Pekins. It turned out that he had a severe case of bumble foot that has traveled up to his joints. His leg became really swollen, hot and dark orange. After 1 month of amoxicillin treatments, the vet said the bacteria had reached his bloodstream and his septic joint became systemic. I was devastated watching his condition worsened each day and we ended up euthanizing Victory.

Not sure if your duck has bumble foot, but even the smallest abcess should not be left untreated.
Best of luck to you and your ducky.

 

[MarysAviaryHeartAndZoo]

I put my pekin to sleep two months ago almost. The vet was not experianced , couldn't figure anything out. Wanted over $4000, I had no choice. She stoppedceating, barely made noise, could barely move unless she had to, drank water nonstop, bright greenish poo, dehydrated. My dh is a roofer and avid gun owner. Running through the yard she could have got anything, she was always snooping around his stuff. I know this had to be the reason!!!

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that.

 

[duckies1230]

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that.

Thx I miss her!
At least now I'm more aware!

 

[Yooperducker]

OMG, how terrible for you and your feathered friends. I never would have thought of that. We will be building my newbies coop/run in the Spring. We will take extra special care to make sure all debris is picked up and discarded. Thank you for sharing your experience to help others learn so as not to learn the hard way as you did. I am so so sorry for your loss. My heart aches for you reading your post. I see it happened a while ago but I am sure it remains with you even today.

 

[DucksOhio]

VERY VERY SERIOUS HEAVY METAL POISONING!!!
1. Ducks will eat all kinds of things while searching with their bills in mud and water. This includes:
a. Screws (coated with zinc)
b. Nails (coated with zinc)
c. Twist Ties
d. Pins
e. Bits of assorted metal
f. Fishing weights (lead)

We read all about this before getting ducks, but when you watch them, they are actually VERY picky as to what they will
eat! They will "try" things like cracked corn & wheat seeds (basic scratch grains), but immediately spit them out and walk away.
We tried to give them table scraps (like we do for the chickens), but they barely eat any of them. Sweet Corn and fresh Spinach,
some other fresh greens (colard greens etc) they LOVE. But, because they were so picky, we just couldn't imagine them actually
eating a screw or nail. We were careful never to drop any staples, screws or nails where they would be grazing however, but just assumed that whatever was already in the ground, they would never REALLY eat!

Two of our ducks were losing weight, were lethargic, and uncoordinated. One was the "runt" - so it took as a while to realize how much weight she lost. The other lost weight really quickly. We tried everything: vitamin/electrolytes in their water, special food (eggs, ground up Mazuri Duck food, greens, ground nuts etc). They both seemed excited to eat, but as soon as they tried it, they shook their heads and spit it all out. The "runt" died on Sunday. We decided we needed to find out the problem for the rest of the flock quickly - so we took the remaining duck to an Avian Vet! Now, we know why all this was happening. An Xray at the Vet revealed:
1/4 cup of assorted nails, screws, twisted wire, pins, and tiny bits of metal!
It was SHOCKING to see! She was suffering from heavy metal poisoning! Besides the pain that the sharp objects caused in her stomach, the zinc was causing all kinds of problems, including making food taste bad, kidney and liver malfunction, and lots more.

The "runt" always escaped from the penned area and loved finding worms all over the yard. We thought it was cute, but tried to corral her. She was a real escape artist though, and climbed out of most of the things we put up. While she was scavaging - she was injesting all those metal objects!

I still can't believe that they can swallow a 2.5 inch screw! How does it go down? But both of these ducks did - many times! We are in the process of using a strong magnet to check all over any area that they ducks can get into, expecially their yard. We've found so much metal it is scary. And these areas aren't places where construction was going on (to our knowledge). I am sure the other 18 ducks have some metal in their stomachs as well, and we will keep an eye on them. They all are very healthy at this time.

By the way, the only "cure" for this is chelation therapy (Calcium-disodium - removes the zinc and lead poisoning from duck and also from the metal in their stomachs). But the removal of the metal is also necessary. This surgery would have cost $1400 and there was a large chance that the duck would not make it through the surgery (with sedation problems ducks already have and our duck's horrible health situation). We mercifully had her put to sleep after a night at the vets, receiving food in a feeding tube, pain meds and antibiotics. She had one last good night!

I looked about 300 times on the interent during this period of time to try to figure out why they were losing weight, and never came across this possibility. I wanted to add this to the forum, to help other duck owners avoid the heartache and/or solve the problem of their duck's losing weight etc.

In memory of Mascot and Spandackle - two very sweet Muscovy Ducks!

Hello, I’m sorry for your loss.
I am going through a similar situation with one of my khaki girls. She has been at (a very good vet) for 3 days undergoing chelation therapy.

X-ray revealed a small metal wire in her gizzard. The vet doesn’t think she will need surgery as the metal is so small, and they are working to remove the toxicity.

Vet says red cell count is low, WBC high.

The vet didn’t sound terribly optimistic when I spoke with him today...not a lot of improvement yet.

I wanted to know what happened to your other ducks, and if you had any experience with the chelation therapy.

Many thanks!

 

[Miss Lydia]

@DucksOhio what ever happened with your duck? Hope she made it!