HELP - sick runner duck

[Kimbo71]

Hi all,

I'm hoping you can help me, I have a sick duck!

I've had my 4 month old Indian Runner ducks for almost a month and one of them is suddenly unwell.

She is off her food, panting, sitting a lot and when she does walk, it's not normal, almost like she's limping.

I bought two indian runner ducks and two chickens all on the same day and none of the other birds seem to be having any issues.

I have been feeding her kitchen scraps: zucchini, lettuce, fruit scraps, carrot & potato peelings, and only a little bit of bread. They also got commercial crumble for young birds and I changed them onto a growing pellet about a week ago. They also get both dried and fresh mealworms about every second day.

The pen has a dirt floor and i feed them by putting the feed onto the dirt. I spread little piles around the pen so that each bird can have some food without much competition.

I change the drinking water daily but the clam shell pond gets a 75% water change twice a week as the water gets pretty gross pretty quickly. All birds drink from both water sources.

I have googled and read my duck book and am hoping someone on here might be able to help. She is my 12yo son's pet and we really want to her to be well and happy.

FYI: We are in Australia, it is the end of summer and the weather has been pretty warm, 30 degrees (about 80 degrees in Farenheit??).

Thanks in advance.
Kim

 

[Kimbo71]

Update: she is dead already. :-(

After I wrote the above post I went and caught her so I could bring her into the light to see if there was any mucous or blood on her. No mucous. No blood. But she did have very poopy, dirty feathers around her cloaca.

Catching her was awful she tried to run and flap but just fell on the ground with her wings outstretched. I held her for about 10-15 minutes and by the time I put her back in her pen her head was flopping. I checked 15 minutes later and she was gone to duck heaven. I wasn't home yesterday but my 12yo said she was perfectly fine when he fed her in the afternoon and she also seemed fine when I fed her this morning. So whatever it was worked pretty quickly. Botulism maybe? or septacaemia?

Anyway. My boy is sad and my duck's sister is quacking like mad wanting her back.

 

[Orca5094]

Oh my, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Is it possible she got into something poisonous? And are you positive she actually ate yesterday and this morning when you fed them? Ducks will hide that they are sick extremely well, even going to food and pretending to eat without actually swallowing anything. She may have been sick for awhile with something, or possibly got into something poisonous, those are my thoughts. Really hard to figure out exactly what happened sometimes without getting a necropsy on the duck.

Again, so sorry about your Runner.

 

[Kaessa]

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'm so sorry for your loss, while reading what you give them to eat, the potato peelings brought up a red flag, They can be lethal.

Please read. http://blog.mcmurrayhatchery.com/2011/10/04/feeding-your-chickens-table scraps/

 

[DemonicFowl]

So sorry to hear of your loss.

 

[Kimbo71]

Hi Lydia,

I read the link you suggested. I don't eat a lot of potatoes so the peels were always fresh from the current meal, they had no chance to turn green. The avocado thing was interesting though. A few days ago i put a whole avocado in the pen - peeled but the peel was in the feed bucket too. The pit was clean in no time - but I'm not sure who ate it - the chooks or the ducks. Maybe it was Pancake and it was no good for her?

There is also an oleander tree in the neighbours yard which hangs over the fence. I try to clean up any bits that fall into the pen as I know they are poisonous. Maybe I missed a bit and Pancake had a nibble?

I guess I'll never know. I will just watch the rest of my little flock and try to make sure they stay healthy.

And I suppose I had better look into getting Anita (the remaining duck) a new friend. She doesn't like the chickens much and she already misses her sister.

Thanks,
Kim

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi Lydia,

I read the link you suggested. I don't eat a lot of potatoes so the peels were always fresh from the current meal, they had no chance to turn green. The avocado thing was interesting though. A few days ago i put a whole avocado in the pen - peeled but the peel was in the feed bucket too. The pit was clean in no time - but I'm not sure who ate it - the chooks or the ducks. Maybe it was Pancake and it was no good for her?

There is also an oleander tree in the neighbours yard which hangs over the fence. I try to clean up any bits that fall into the pen as I know they are poisonous. Maybe I missed a bit and Pancake had a nibble?

I guess I'll never know. I will just watch the rest of my little flock and try to make sure they stay healthy.

And I suppose I had better look into getting Anita (the remaining duck) a new friend. She doesn't like the chickens much and she already misses her sister.

Thanks,
Kim

Hi Kim so many things to watch out for it seems they will try just about anything. I hope you can find Anita a friend pretty quick I'm sure she misses her sister.

Okay cooked peeling that does sound better. We have Mountain Laurel here which I know are deadly to dogs so when I saw one of my geese nibbling on the leaves I had to fence it off and trim it up from the bottom. They will try anything too.