Help!!! Duckling having issues swallowing

[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.

Thanks so much! She seems to be doing a lot better. I do have one worry, she doesn’t seem to be flushing her nares. I saw her do it once yesterday, but not at all today and I’ve been watching them for a while. She does drink and eat quite a bit and will dunk a good 1/4 or so of her bill in the water but never up to her nares . I am thinking it may be because of the electrolytes in their water but none of the other ducklings have this issue, they flush out their nares quite a lot. It’s not depth of water either because it’s 1 inch deep and can easily fit a whole duckling bill. How do I entice her to flush her nares? I am going to set up another dish of just plain water but is there anything else I can do? Once again, thanks so much for your response!

 

[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.

Ugh! All was well today until I was changing their towels for the night. I picked her up to put her in a box with the other ones whilst I cleaned their cage and she released a line of dool/mucas(it came from her mouth though). I have heard about chicken regurgitating food if they just ate and have a full crop and you squeeze them, like to pick them up. Could that be what’s happening, she was eating before then? She hasn’t done the prolonged drinking motion at all today at least. She is just as active as the other ones, eats, drinks, and does zooms around the cage. It may also be because she doesn’t like to clean her nares. I didn’t see her put her bill in up to her nares and flush them once today unlike the other ducklings. She does drink a good amount of water though. I am pretty sure I did see her flush her nares yesterday though. What do I do about the dool/mucas? What should I do about her nares? I did change to just plain water earlier today when I noticed her not flushing her nares as I was thinking maybe she didn’t like doing that with the elctrolyes even though the others didn’t mind at all. Thanks!

 

[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.

 

[raggiedoll88]

I'm so glad you posted this update! I just got 3 day old ducklings that from Metzer Farms & ironically my Blue Swedish is exhibiting the exact same symptoms as yours was... I noticed she was swallowing differently than the others (taking way longer to swallow food, it seemed like she was having some difficulty) and I've also noticed little bits of drool from time to time. Once there was a long string of drool, like in your YouTube video, and other times just tiny drops of drool that fell off her bill onto her bedding.

My girls are on fleece bedding right now and only have starter crumbles, plain water and Sav-a-Chick electrolyte water. All the other ducklings seen to have no problems eating/drinking/swallowing but I'm keeping my eye on her for sure because something's not quite right.

I'm going to try to make a "soup" of the crumbles and water as was suggested to see if that helps, but I'm just so glad to see your positive update. It gives me hope that whatever's going on with my little lady, she'll be able to pull through like yours did! I'm sure that being shipped coast to coast is hard on these babies & I'm hoping that the issue will resolve itself soon. How long did it take your Blue Swedish to start swallowing normally & stop drooling? I'm sure every bird is different but it would be nice to have a general idea of how long to (possibly) expect this behavior to last.

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.

 

[TheCookyChickenLady]

I'm so glad you posted this update! I just got 3 day old ducklings that from Metzer Farms & ironically my Blue Swedish is exhibiting the exact same symptoms as yours was... I noticed she was swallowing differently than the others (taking way longer to swallow food, it seemed like she was having some difficulty) and I've also noticed little bits of drool from time to time. Once there was a long string of drool, like in your YouTube video, and other times just tiny drops of drool that fell off her bill onto her bedding.

My girls are on fleece bedding right now and only have starter crumbles, plain water and Sav-a-Chick electrolyte water. All the other ducklings seen to have no problems eating/drinking/swallowing but I'm keeping my eye on her for sure because something's not quite right.

I'm going to try to make a "soup" of the crumbles and water as was suggested to see if that helps, but I'm just so glad to see your positive update. It gives me hope that whatever's going on with my little lady, she'll be able to pull through like yours did! I'm sure that being shipped coast to coast is hard on these babies & I'm hoping that the issue will resolve itself soon. How long did it take your Blue Swedish to start swallowing normally & stop drooling? I'm sure every bird is different but it would be nice to have a general idea of how long to (possibly) expect this behavior to last.

Sorry to hear your little one is having the same issue! It’s so strange, it’s almost the same circumstance. My blue Swedish stopped having any symptoms after about a week. I would make sure she is still eating and drinking even if it’s taking her longer. I would also make all their food into some sort of soup to mash for them. Did you have them on fleece since the start? If you had them on shavings in the begging, like I did she may have a small shaving in her throat, like I guess mine did. The do ship them with hay I believe so maybe she has a small piece of hay in her throat from that? I hope she gets better! I would make sure all they food is soupy and offer ample water sources and make sure she’s eating and drinking. As for my ducks, they actually have all started laying now, and are all very healthy and happy! I still don’t know exactly what caused the issues, or exactly resolved them, but I hope it can happen to you to!