Help! Duck with eye shut and funny breathing :(

[suburbanduckmom]

I'm so sorry to hear your duck is unwell. I have found some helpful, if basic information, at http://www.liveducks.com/health.html. I'll ask a vet friend of mine about the symptoms and see what she says.

 

[thequackpack]

Hi
OK here is the deal. Its good you separated the duck but you HAVE to get him tot eh VET ASAP IT sounds like an infection for sure likely bacterial . A simple course of Baytril an antibiotic should clear it right up but with out it he will likely die.

Watch your other birds for signs of it as well. Id take your bird in to a vet who sees birds if you can find one does not have to be avian vet most vets could handle this simple exam and antibiotics. WHen you leave you simply tell them you will have to make payments.

We had to do this with one of our ducks last year that got west nile.. we did not have th money that day but he had to go or he was dead. So we went. We did not tell them ahead that we could not pay. WHen we were leaving checknig out we told them we will have to make payments. We had no choice. we paid it and he is fine.

IT IS VERY unlikely you will find a vet who will give you antibiotics without seeing your duck but you can try.. if you tell them he will not get treated because of money you might find one who would. But I would not wait. THis is not likely to clear on its own and will probably kill him.

Im sorry I cant tell you something better.
Feelf ree to email us.
Kim

 

[Shadowhills Farm]

let her take longer baths... My ducks get to be in the tub for over an hour everyday, and that will give her plenty of time to flush out her bill/eye. They make an antibiotic ointment you can put on the eye, but the name is escaping me, starts with a t....

Saline will not hurt her, but it might make her uncomfortable. She's probably really stressed from all the excitement, so keeping her warm and with the lights down will help keep her calm. She probably was developing a cold (my ducks get them too, including the weird breathing), when some over anxious drake pecked her while trying to do her thing... the eye is probably getting clogged with mucus and drying out. If you have a humidifer, place that by her crate, and that should help. Can you see through her nostrils by chance? they may help you figure out how clogged it is up there. Also, giving her a few baths maybe once in the mid morning or afternoon and once before bed will help too. I recommend for water, you get her a tall coffee mug. I did this with my ducks when she was sequestered. you'll have to change it twice a day, but it gives her more water to clear her nose out and clean her eye. you can buy powdered vitamins (either the kind for animals from the feed store or the kind for babies without iron) and add it to her water. Extra vitamins help.

Also, to keep her eating, offer her greens, peas, corn, and cat/dog food to keep up her appetite. Those tend to be ducky favorites. If she won't eat but will drink, you can mash up the cat/dog food into water making a soup for her

Thanks for the advice and help with the antibiotics and everything! We don't have a humidifier, but I was able to see straight through her nostrils this morning, yet she still is breathing funny....


I will keep her in the tub longer, she will probable get a bath this afternoon and one before bedtime. We are going to go to Tractor Supply and anywhere else we need to so we can get the antibiotics, vitamins and probios.

She is loving celery right now, but I haven't tried peas or corn. I'm going to go fix her some when I go downstairs and get breakfast. LOL we have cat food too!

Hi
OK here is the deal. Its good you separated the duck but you HAVE to get him tot eh VET ASAP IT sounds like an infection for sure likely bacterial . A simple course of Baytril an antibiotic should clear it right up but with out it he will likely die.

Watch your other birds for signs of it as well. Id take your bird in to a vet who sees birds if you can find one does not have to be avian vet most vets could handle this simple exam and antibiotics. WHen you leave you simply tell them you will have to make payments.

We had to do this with one of our ducks last year that got west nile.. we did not have th money that day but he had to go or he was dead. So we went. We did not tell them ahead that we could not pay. WHen we were leaving checknig out we told them we will have to make payments. We had no choice. we paid it and he is fine.

IT IS VERY unlikely you will find a vet who will give you antibiotics without seeing your duck but you can try.. if you tell them he will not get treated because of money you might find one who would. But I would not wait. THis is not likely to clear on its own and will probably kill him.

Im sorry I cant tell you something better.
Feelf ree to email us.
Kim

We took her to the vet yesterday and got turned down because we applied for some credit, and that was denied. We don't have the ability to fork out a whole bunch of money at a vet's, so I am willing to try to do things myself right now until we can get her to see a vet ASAP.



Motley had a nice night sleeping. I checked on her at 12:00am and 4:30am. She has been stable, didn't get worse or better....

12:00am- everything was fine and she wasn't breathing funny, gave her some celery.

In between I did hear her preening her feathers and she did eat some feed.

4:30am- She was a little raspy and I think I woke her up and she ran towards the front of the cage. Gave her more celery.

8:00am- She is back to her funny breathing and raspy, too. I am thinking she also got some diarrhea, because it shot out of her, and then it was the worst smelling poo you could smell. It was like water, too.

Do you think I need to give her electrolytes as well? She has been drinking A LOT of water and eating A LOT of celery.....I have horse electrolytes (powdered), would that work or do ducks need the poultry kind?

Her eye is still got the mucus, and I have no clue where my saline is in the barn. When I get breakfast, feed Motley some veggies and get dressed we are going to TSC and Wal-Mart....

Thank you guys for your advice and support~

 

[duckluck]

Thequackpack's advice was good, but I know you are having difficulties with the vet, so have you tried this: ask your horse vet for the Baytril? If they don't have it they might be willing to write you a script for it and you could get it from a vet catalog, like KVVet. Usually horse vets will try to do something to help...I always ask mine first before I talk to anyone else.

I've used straight saline on my horses' eyes and not had a problem, and I know I have had it in my own eye when using contacts. Didn't bother me, but I don't know about the duck.

 

[Shadowhills Farm]

My horse vet WILL NOT prescribe anything UNLESS she comes out on the property.......that's a $60 trip charge...... I called her up to see if she would prescribe something for my horse and she said she wouldn't unless she came out and evaluated the horse (although she already knew he had the problem and I needed a Rx)......

I really don't like her and I am planing on switching....

 

[Shadowhills Farm]

So we got the antibiotics and the vitamins (they only had the vitamin/electrolyte package), and I put them in her water. She has been eating corn, peas, carrots, cucumbers, celery and a little bit of cat food (made with meat and veggies). I also put the saline in both her eyes, and she didn't mind at all when I did it

I'm probably going to go find something to eat, and then she can go for a swim in the tub for a long time....

I'll keep updating!

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
I'd dump that one in a heartbeat. My only concession I made when moving here was having a vet whose home number I didn't have...but I do have his cell phone. I made that concession because he is a good vet and was top of his class, specializes in several areas.

I've gotten really sick of any sort of doctor who makes a huge deal over what really is not a big deal, vets and humans alike...funny how I can have a horse vet take tests on my horse and get the results the next day but I have to wait WEEKS to find out anything taken on me. There is a lot of game-playing and flat out abusing of the consumer that goes on. There are vets out there who will make you run all sorts of fecal tests to allow you to buy a wormer from them, which is a load of bull when it costs just as much to give the animal the wormer as it does to run the fecal, which can be inconclusive at best. I have a really hard time with paste wormer being widely available for horses but being told I need a fecal to worm a cat. And then there is the sort of person who takes advantage of a repeat problem like you mention. I hope you find someone new in a hurry...I know another vet who helps me out sometimes who has the best interest of the animal in mind and we need more people out there like him. Heard of another one up in Michigan who does huge lots of animals with spay/neuter/shots for one flat rate...this is good for farms because so many of us wind up accumulating too many cats that people dump. These are the sorts of people we need out there...they make a lot of money and as such they should be helping and not hindering the population they serve.

Keep us updated on the duck!

 

[Shadowhills Farm]

Oh I wish we had vets down here like you described!!!! These guys down here charge WAY TOO MUCH or they're the "livestock "vet, and they will treat not only horses, but cattle as well.


Motley is doing better- she just swam in the tub for about 1/2 hour, she will get another bath before bed. Her eye has cleared up somewhat for now, I am sure the goop will be back when I get home from school around 8pm. She has been eating veggies and drank all her meds in her water. Her breathing isn't as bad as yesterday, but it's still present....

 

[duckluck]

I hear ya...once upon a time, I had aspirations of becoming a vet...wanted to since I was a little kid. Unfortunately, I did not have the moral or financial support of my family to do such a thing, because going the distance required takes more than just books and grades. People would like to think otherwise, but the reality is very different. If I ever win the lottery, however, I could see it in my future!

Sounds like the duck is doing a bit better; I am glad to hear that and hope it keeps going. For both the duck's sake and because I would like to see "the system" take a little mud in the eye! Sometimes us little folks can manage to pull off good things too in the care we give our animals, love has to be worth something!

 

[Shadowhills Farm]

Motley is doing better, her eye is 90% cleared of the goop. She still have the breathing problems now and then. She has to be isolated until next Tuesday because we have to keep giving her the meds and stuff.

The only thing is... she won't eat her feed. I've been fixing her cooked and raw veggies with raw fruits, and shes eating and loving that. How long will it take until she will start eating her feed again?