HELP!!!! Ducklings ate medicated chick food what do I do?????!!!!!!!!!

[Future vet]

We went to tractor supply today to get our ducklings we asked the lady if chick food was OK for ducklings she did say yes but I guess she didn’t know that it was the medicate chick food! Now the ducklings are throwing up and we really need help it’s their first day, what do I do?

 

[fatty and friends]

where do you live/what state? maybe someone can recommend a vet around you to help

 

[TheOddOneOut]

We went to tractor supply today to get our ducklings we asked the lady if chick food was OK for ducklings she did say yes but I guess she didn’t know that it was the medicate chick food! Now the ducklings are throwing up and we really need help it’s their first day, what do I do?

They aren’t throwing up. Can you describe the behavior?

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Ducklings should be on duckling feed, as it contains essential nutrients. Always do research, don’t just trust inexperienced TSC employees.

 

[Future vet]

where do you live/what state? maybe someone can recommend a vet around you to help

They aren’t throwing up. Can you describe the behavior?

We got them today 12:00 and we put them on duckling food around 4:00 after we suspected something was wrong. They were flinging prosessed food out of their mouths, and when I held one it flung out thick water out of its mouth. They are pretty lively and also some what sleepy.

 

[Future vet]

where do you live/what state? maybe someone can recommend a vet around you to help

They aren’t throwing up. Can you describe the behavior?

We got them today 12:00 and we put them on duckling food around 4:00 after we suspected something was wrong. They were flinging prosessed food out of their mouths, and when I held one it flung out thick water out of its mouth. They are pretty lively and also some what sleepy. What should we do?

 

[DuneDucks]

We got them today 12:00 and we put them on duckling food around 4:00 after we suspected something was wrong. They were flinging prosessed food out of their mouths, and when I held one it flung out thick water out of its mouth. They are pretty lively and also some what sleepy. What should we do?

https://morningchores.com/medicated-chick-starter-for-ducklings/

This article on the subject is worth a read. If you've already switched their feed there's not much else you can probably do. I wouldn't rush to do anything drastic; just continue to monitor their health as you normally would.

 

[Future vet]

We live in Charleston, South Carolina.

where do you live/what state? maybe someone can recommend a vet around you to helpcarolina

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Don't panic. The medicated chick food will NOT hurt them.

I'm not sure why they are regurgitating. Perhaps too much food too quickly? Transition stress? But they are not poisoned.

See article below from BYC:

"
Amprolium and Other Coccidiostats

To start with, let's talk about the 'medication' found most often in medicated feed: Amprolium. When someone is referring to medicated feed, this is probably the type of feed they mean - feed meant for chicks that has medication in it to help prevent them from getting coccidiosis.

Amprolium is not actually a medication at all - rather it is a thiamine blocker. It works by starving the coccidia of the thiamine they need, thus killing it off. This also means that the birds eating it are getting less thiamine too, but generally it doesn't affect them negatively.

But is it safe for ducklings?

Yes, it is. While waterfowl in general are not as prone to coccidiosis as chickens and therefore don't need to be fed feed with amprolium, they can eat it with no ill effects. So while I wouldn't recommend you feed it to them if you have other options, if you don't have other options, feeding them feed medicated with amprolium won't hurt them.

In fact, amprolium is recommended to use on waterfowl in the rare cases when they do develop coccidiosis. At this link, you can see that amprolium is listed as a recommended treatment.

Due to the widespread nature of this myth, a study was performed to see if amprolium and other coccidiostats were harmful to ducklings. The study, which I linked above, found that they were not harmful. "No significant differences in mean body weight, mortality, and anatomical development were observed among the treatments."

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar... widespread nature,that they were not harmful.

 

[BelovedBirds]

We went to tractor supply today to get our ducklings we asked the lady if chick food was OK for ducklings she did say yes but I guess she didn’t know that it was the medicate chick food! Now the ducklings are throwing up and we really need help it’s their first day, what do I do?

they should be fine, did you press on their crop when you picked them up? That can cause them to regurgitate their crop contents.
They do however need duckling food.
Non medicated chick crumbles are suitable only if supplemented 1tbsp nutritious yeast to every cup of feed.