Is my duck sick? [SOLVED]

[Silvermist]

Hey all,

My Khaki Campbell seemed to be unwell. She doesn't have any severe symptoms, luckily. My KC seems always tired, sometimes breathes with her mouth open and has decreased in egg production. She even sometimes lays soft-shelled eggs in the middle of her day. I know it's almost impossible to tell from lack of detail, but please help. We don't have any avian vets in our area! Could it be the unpredictable weather here in Brisbane?

Please help!!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hey all,

My Khaki Campbell seemed to be unwell. She doesn't have any severe symptoms, luckily. My KC seems always tired, sometimes breathes with her mouth open and has decreased in egg production. She even sometimes lays soft-shelled eggs in the middle of her day. I know it's almost impossible to tell from lack of detail, but please help. We don't have any avian vets in our area! Could it be the unpredictable weather here in Brisbane?

Please help!!!

It does sound like something is not right, But it's is very difficult to know for sure whats going on, she could have some internal laying issues even an infection you say she sometimes lays soft shell eggs do you give her extra calcium in the form of Oyster shell and is is on layer feed? you can also supplement by giving her Calcium citrate Amiga could give you details on that. If it's very hot now that could be the breathing with mouth open and sometimes ducks slow down on egg laying they have to give their bodies a rest. when was the last time she laid an egg. You might try giving her some good poultry vitamins in her water and making sure she has good quality feed and giving her water to get into to cool off and cool water for drinking and head dunking. Hopefully it isn't something serious but keeping an eye out for any other changes will help you get to the bottom of it faster. Any other things you can think of like does she show interest in going out and looking for bugs/foraging

 

[Amiga]

Miss Lydia has offered some good points, here.

I agree we need to think about as many possible causes as we can - heat, stress, infection, nutrition.

By the way, there is some variety in optimal nutrition among ducks - we need to try things and see what works best for those who seem to have more need of some vitamins and minerals than are in standard food.

If she has an infection, it could be in her digestive tract, egg-laying system, or her entire system. That last one is called peritonitis and can be caused by egg yolk getting loose in the body cavity. In any of these cases, she needs oral or injectable antibiotics. There is something here called Baytril, it requires a prescription, but it has been used for peritonitis.

@casportpony and @Lacrystol may have some suggestions on antibiotics - there are also some threads you can search for.

We are not vets, but a number of us have to be our own duck health care providers for different reasons. Some antibiotics are available here at feed stores.

If it's heat, like Miss Lydia wrote, cool water, shade, some relief from the heat.

For nutrition - calcium and phosphorus need to be balanced, there needs to be vitamin D in the diet as well for the Ca and P to be optimized.

I have used calcium gluconate, available here as a 23% solution at a dosage of 1 teaspoon per half cup of water, added to food to make it oatmeal consistency (it's the best way I could come up with for increasing their daily calcium intake). Some of my ducks will eat crushed oyster shell free choice. Some will not.

Since I have ducks who tend to lay soft shells (4 of 10), the Ca gluconate was getting a little expensive so I switched a few months ago to dissolving calcium citrate tablets in water, and adding between 50 and 80 milligrams of Ca citrate per duck (that's about 500 to 800 per day for the flock of ten).

And I am seeing some improvement. We still get one or two soft eggs a week instead of 6 or so. And, we still get those soft ones. So I am still working on helping every duck in the flock get what she needs.

I have also added Ca gluconate or Ca citrate solution to a couple tablespoons of mashed peas to individual ducks who are having troubles.

 

[Lacrystol]

Hey all,

My Khaki Campbell seemed to be unwell. She doesn't have any severe symptoms, luckily. My KC seems always tired, sometimes breathes with her mouth open and has decreased in egg production. She even sometimes lays soft-shelled eggs in the middle of her day. I know it's almost impossible to tell from lack of detail, but please help. We don't have any avian vets in our area! Could it be the unpredictable weather here in Brisbane?

Please help!!! 

Is she a first time layer? The breathing issue is a major concern. Get her In a nice warm tub. Let her soak for a while see if perhaps there's a soft egg inside that doesn't want to come out. Perhaps it's stuck and to soft to come out. If it's broken inside her that could be a major issue for her. Check her poop, look for worms, does she feel skinny. Is she eating is she drinking.

Ducks can hide pain very well so the little signs she's giving you right now needs to be addressed before its to late. She may need more calcium. See if she'll eat some chicken shells, this seems to help.

Is she walking ok, is she sleeping a lot, more then normal, is she unsocial? Like is she staying by herself or trying to stay with the group or her mate at least

She may need antibotics but I would give her a warm bath first to see how she reacts to that.

 

[toowoombapekins]

one of my pekins pants during the hotter days (like a dog!) She's about 1/4 size bigger than the other pekin who doesn't seem to feel the heat as much
Gets hot here - 40+ deg C during summer. Once the temp cools off early evening her breathing returns

 

[Miss Lydia]

one of my pekins pants during the hotter days (like a dog!) She's about 1/4 size bigger than the other pekin who doesn't seem to feel the heat as much
Gets hot here - 40+ deg C during summer. Once the temp cools off early evening her breathing returns

I read somewhere that ducks pant like dogs because they don't have sweat gland either.

 

[Silvermist]

It does sound like something is not right, But it's is very difficult to know for sure whats going on, she could have some internal laying issues even an infection you say she sometimes lays soft shell eggs do you give her extra calcium in the form of Oyster shell and is is on layer feed? you can also supplement by giving her Calcium citrate Amiga could give you details on that. If it's very hot now that could be the breathing with mouth open and sometimes ducks slow down on egg laying they have to give their bodies a rest. when was the last time she laid an egg. You might try giving her some good poultry vitamins in her water and making sure she has good quality feed and giving her water to get into to cool off and cool water for drinking and head dunking. Hopefully it isn't something serious but keeping an eye out for any other changes will help you get to the bottom of it faster. Any other things you can think of like does she show interest in going out and looking for bugs/foraging

Thanks for the reply, She laid an egg today, but for the last 4 days she laid 2 soft shelled eggs. It is very hot here in Australia, almost 35 degrees Celsius. She is loves food so much and is either sleeping or eating/foraging. I'll keep an eye for her, and buy some oyster shells, where can you usually buy that?

 

[Silvermist]

Is she a first time layer? The breathing issue is a major concern. Get her In a nice warm tub. Let her soak for a while see if perhaps there's a soft egg inside that doesn't want to come out. Perhaps it's stuck and to soft to come out. If it's broken inside her that could be a major issue for her. Check her poop, look for worms, does she feel skinny. Is she eating is she drinking.

Ducks can hide pain very well so the little signs she's giving you right now needs to be addressed before its to late. She may need more calcium. See if she'll eat some chicken shells, this seems to help.

Is she walking ok, is she sleeping a lot, more then normal, is she unsocial? Like is she staying by herself or trying to stay with the group or her mate at least

She may need antibotics but I would give her a warm bath first to see how she reacts to that.

I would like to get her in a warm tub, but it is 35 degrees Celsius here in Australia. Poop looks fine, no worms, she's fat and she almost spends her entire day eating and drinking. Walks fine, very tired. I only have two ducks, so she follows her mate. Thanks for reply

 

[Amiga]

Could you go into more detail why the hot weather keeps you from getting her into a lukewarm tub of water? Maybe I`m just tired.

 

[Silvermist]

[UPDATE]

Thank you so much for the replies people! I can't believe there are so many useful replies to this thread! My KC girl has normal breathing now, and laid a normal egg today, if you guys want I'll keep you updated if any changes occur! I will buy some oyster shells to see what happens.