Help! Sick duck!

[Krissikay]

Hi everyone! My husband and I found 6 baby mallards (about a day old at the time) who are now about 12 weeks old. They were all doing very well, until the runt ran into a problem with her eye. The other ducklings shunned her and started bullying her. We treated the eye with Terramycin, and it was cleared up, and the eye is fine now. However, she was walking odd, like her crop was weighing her down, but it was not impacted. She walked hunched over and very uncoordinated and unstable. She was eating ravenously, and not drinking with her food, which was very odd, especially since she was segregated and there was no competition for food or water. Fast forward to yesterday....she has lost half a pound from last week. She now weighs 1 pound. She has not eaten or drank for 16 hours now. When she first became ill with the eye issue, I was referred to a wildlife rescue, and if they were to treat her, they would keep her and rehab her back into the wild. We've grown to love these ducks, and as we know it's not altogether legal to keep them, we felt we could still provide a happy and safe home for them. There is no vet that will see a wild mallard in our state (Oklahoma), so that is what brings me to this forum. Our tiny runt girl, Bean, cannot even stand today. Her tiny breast bone is sticking out and she is very obviously dying right in front of us. She has walked hunched over since the eye issue arose, which was probably 3 weeks ago, but she did not act ill at all. She just had the bad eye that was taken care of, but now here she is...she went from ravenously eating 2 days ago to this, which is obviously dying. Does anyone have any ideas at all? We tried to give her fresh live mealworms, she doesn't even want them, and she LOVES mealworms. She has not gotten into anything foreign or odd, and I would think if this were some form of terrible virus, that the rest of the flock would be affected as well. Any ideas or advice would be so appreciated. Thank you!

 

[HappyDuckie]

I'm not sure what could be wrong, but plenty of people here who can, I'm sure! Best of luck to you and the ducks.

 

[FunQuail]

I'm sorry this is going on with your duck! Post some pics of your duck so we can get a better understanding of what you mean hunched over. I will tag @Isaac 0 who might have an idea.

 

[Krissikay]

This is Bean about a week ago, she was not acting sick at this time, just an example of how hunched over she was. Thank you so much for responding!

 

[Isaac 0]

I'm so sorry to hear about your duck. Could you provide us with some more information?

Is she eating, and drinking? Is she producing poops, if yes, could you post a picture? Could you post a picture of her now, or a video? To post a video you'll need to upload it to a video platform like Yotube or Vimeo, then copy/paste the link here. What is she being fed, any treats? Have you inspected around her vent area? How does her abdominal area feel?

 

[Krissikay]

Thank you for responding, however she did not make it and died at about 10PM last night. She died peacefully, thank goodness.

 

[FunQuail]

I'm so sorry to hear that! May Bean rest in peace!

 

[Krissikay]

I'm so sorry to hear that! May Bean rest in peace!

Thank you! She was really special!

 

[FunQuail]

Thank you! She was really special!

Sounds like she was very loved! How did you all find the little mallards?

 

[Krissikay]

Sounds like she was very loved! How did you all find the little mallards?

They were in a parking lot right near a Burger King all huddled up right in the middle of the parking lot. It was the day after the 4th of July, and where we live, fireworks are legal everywhere, so we assume something happened to the mom as a result of fireworks.