Help! My lil ducks r having seizures and dying.

[rach1983]

I have bought 4 lil baby ducks from a reliable store in town. 2 pekings and 2 roudens. They have all started having seazure like activity and passing away. There r no vets in town that deal with ducks at all. I'm at a loss as to what is causing it.
They eat start an grow chick food.
Have 24/7 access to food an water
Are under a heat lamp but have plenty of room to get from under it
I keep pine shavings for ground cover
Please if u have any suggestions I'd appreciate hearing them.

 

[Tahai]

no clue...are they getting into other foods, like grass or weeds? Possibly they are eating something toxic?

Is their food moldy?

Are they getting supplemental niacin? It's my understanding regular chick food does not have enough for ducks.

 

[Tripp16]

I am complete newbie to ducks but I was told not to feed them medicated chick feed? Is yours medicated? If not hopefully someone else can help you out.

 

[ChristineR]

Try giving them Niacin. It doesn't have to be specifically for animals. You can grind up human vitamins and mix with their water if that's the only form of Niacin you can find. Ducks need more Niacin than chickens. My Pekin duckling had the same problem and got better after I took him to the vet to get a vitamin shot.

It's best to feed them a starter made for waterfowl, because chick starter doesn't have the right nutritional requirements. If your feed store doesn't carry waterfowl starter, try gamebird starter.

 

[Baylor]

A friend had the same problem I think the feed was bad. As soon as she changed the feed and gave them poly drops and ACV and pedalyte the one survivor perked up and is now 7 weeks ols.

 

[rach1983]

Yes it's medicated feed. And I'll pick up new food today for ducks an some vitamins to! Thank y'all so much.

 

[rach1983]

Im so ashamed at how little i knew about ducks and raising them. I went to get my chicks like normal and they had duckies and I was smittin! I cant believe I didnt research more first! And I would again like to thank yall for your help.

 

[Mike Winters]

sounds like they starved to death on a full stomach. ya there getting the wrong feed

 

[rainplace]

The convulsing is what concerns me here. If you have a way to send one of the dead ducklings to a lab for testing, this would be ideal. IMO chick starter would not be the culprit, unless there is something terribly wrong with the feed.

 

[ChristineR]

Did they all die or did some get better?

I'm just curious--was it the Pekins or the Rouens that seemed to have the most problems? This is completely anecdotal, but in my experience Pekins seem to be more sensitive to vitamin deficiencies in their diet.