Help!!! Duckling having issues swallowing

[TheCookyChickenLady]

Help please! I just got 3 duckling from the mail earlier today and my blue Swedish seems to be having issues swallowing/has something in her mouth. She is standing up with her head back trying to swallow for multiple minutes now. They were all eating and drinking fine before this. They were all putting shaving in their mouths put seeming to spit them out and not eat them but I worried maybe she did try to swallow one, I cannot see anything hanging out of her bill though. She shakes her body a little every so offen as to try to help herself. Please help I am really worried!

 

[TheCookyChickenLady]

She just stopped doing it and went to sleep with her other 2 ducklings. Should I try to pry her mouth open now or wait? This is my first time raising ducks, I had chickens for many years though, how would I go about prying a duckling bill open? I did feel her throat earlier, I don’t feel anything. To describe the motion she was doing it looked pretty much the same as a regular duckling swallowing with their head up but it was going on for multiple minutes( I’d say 3-4). Sorry I didn’t take a video when it was happening! I have not fed any treats, the only thing they’ve had is a dish or regular water, a dish of electrolyte water(I used the save-a-chick brand), and duck crumbles (nature’s best brand). Should I change to towels now and wake them up or wait? I did use the Premium Pine Shavings from Tractor Supply as I thought they would have less hard pieces to cut their feet and I did read some review for the other type of pine shavings that they had saying that they were quite chunky. The one I got does have quite a bit of small fluffy shaving though. If I were to go back to shaving after a couple of days with the towels should I by the regular pine shaving instead? Or should I do something else. The last thing, all of their pmpoops are green-ish, they arrived a couple hours ago and they had grow gel in their box so I assumed it was normal, is this so? I attached a pic of them sleeping. Are they doing anything irregular? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

Sorry I didn’t properly attach the picture of them sleeping

 

[Isaac 0]

I'm sorry to hear about your duckling.

So we can kind of get an idea of the motion she is doing, could you post a video? To post a video, upload it to a video platform like Youtube or Vimeo, and copy/paste the link here.

Could you gently pry her bill open, and shine a flashlight inside to look for anything stuck? Try gently moving your fingers along her throat, do you feel a blockage?

Have you fed them any treats, if yes, what? What brand of feed are they being fed? What is the temperature in their brooder?

 

[Isaac 0]

Just for safety purposes, I would switch them onto puppy pee pads, or towels where there are no threads loose.

 

[Isaac 0]

The temp is the brooder is 90. I also want to say, thanks so much for your quick response to my original post!

Not a problem. 90F is quite high for ducklings, I would suggest lowering it to around 85, and provide them with plenty of place to move away from the heat source.

 

[TheCookyChickenLady]

I'm glad to hear she is doing better.

It sounds like she just had something stuck in her throat, and based off how's she acting now, it appears she got whatever was stuck, down, or out. It might be good to offer her electrolytes, and soupy feed for the next few days since it might have been stressful, and soupy feed will be easier to get down contrary to dry feed.

I would keep her on the towels for a few days/week, sometimes when they're young they don't know feed from the bedding.

This may be really annoying but personally I do like updates. If any of y’all were wondering, all three of my ducks including the blue Swedish are alive, healthy and well. They are around 2 months old currently and are quite content! Here’s a picture of her and the welsh harlequin ‘bobbing’ for peas.

 

[Fuchsia]

She does have access to water?
Like @Isaac 0 said, if you gently rub/feel her throat can you feel a blockage?

 

[TheCookyChickenLady]

I'm sorry to hear about your duckling.

So we can kind of get an idea of the motion she is doing, could you post a video? To post a video, upload it to a video platform like Youtube or Vimeo, and copy/paste the link here.

Could you gently pry her bill open, and shine a flashlight inside to look for anything stuck? Try gently moving your fingers along her throat, do you feel a blockage?

Have you fed them any treats, if yes, what? What brand of feed are they being fed? What is the temperature in their brooder?

She just stopped doing it and went to sleep with her other 2 ducklings. Should I try to pry her mouth open now or wait? This is my first time raising ducks, I had chickens for many years though, how would I go about prying a duckling bill open? I did feel her throat earlier, I don’t feel anything. To describe the motion she was doing it looked pretty much the same as a regular duckling swallowing with their head up but it was going on for multiple minutes( I’d say 3-4). Sorry I didn’t take a video when it was happening! I have not fed any treats, the only thing they’ve had is a dish or regular water, a dish of electrolyte water(I used the save-a-chick brand), and duck crumbles (nature’s best brand). Should I change to towels now and wake them up or wait? I did use the Premium Pine Shavings from Tractor Supply as I thought they would have less hard pieces to cut their feet and I did read some review for the other type of pine shavings that they had saying that they were quite chunky. The one I got does have quite a bit of small fluffy shaving though. If I were to go back to shaving after a couple of days with the towels should I by the regular pine shaving instead? Or should I do something else. The last thing, all of their pmpoops are green-ish, they arrived a couple hours ago and they had grow gel in their box so I assumed it was normal, is this so? I attached a pic of them sleeping. Are they doing anything irregular? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

 

[TheCookyChickenLady]

She just stopped doing it and went to sleep with her other 2 ducklings. Should I try to pry her mouth open now or wait? This is my first time raising ducks, I had chickens for many years though, how would I go about prying a duckling bill open? I did feel her throat earlier, I don’t feel anything. To describe the motion she was doing it looked pretty much the same as a regular duckling swallowing with their head up but it was going on for multiple minutes( I’d say 3-4). Sorry I didn’t take a video when it was happening! I have not fed any treats, the only thing they’ve had is a dish or regular water, a dish of electrolyte water(I used the save-a-chick brand), and duck crumbles (nature’s best brand). Should I change to towels now and wake them up or wait? I did use the Premium Pine Shavings from Tractor Supply as I thought they would have less hard pieces to cut their feet and I did read some review for the other type of pine shavings that they had saying that they were quite chunky. The one I got does have quite a bit of small fluffy shaving though. If I were to go back to shaving after a couple of days with the towels should I by the regular pine shaving instead? Or should I do something else. The last thing, all of their pmpoops are green-ish, they arrived a couple hours ago and they had grow gel in their box so I assumed it was normal, is this so? I attached a pic of them sleeping. Are they doing anything irregular? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

Here is a pic of one of their poops, they all look like this.

 

[TheCookyChickenLady]

She does have access to water?
Like @Isaac 0 said, if you gently rub/feel her throat can you feel a blockage?

Thanks for your reply, she does have access to water and food. They have all been drinking and eating fine before this. I did feel her throat and I didn’t notice anything.