Isolate Weak Duckling?

[FarmerSeth]

Hello. Looking for advice: I have a three day old duckling with a protruding belly button. Eating and drinking ok but pretty shaky and sleepy most of the time. I have her in the brooder with some 1-2 week old chicks. I haven’t seen them pecking at the duck, but I’m not sure that they haven’t.

my question is: what is better for the weak duck? Isolate for safety? Or keep with chicks?

 

[Isaac 0]

Hello. Looking for advice: I have a three day old duckling with a protruding belly button. Eating and drinking ok but pretty shaky and sleepy most of the time. I have her in the brooder with some 1-2 week old chicks. I haven’t seen them pecking at the duck, but I’m not sure that they haven’t.

my question is: what is better for the weak duck? Isolate for safety? Or keep with chicks?

Hi there!

Could you post a picture of her navel area, sounds as if she is still absorbing egg yolk in which case she'll be quite weak, I think she's probably already become accustomed to the chick's presence so isolating her, may make the symptoms worse, I'd probably just split the brooder in half with a clear divider so they can see and hear each other, but can't touch. Keep her warm, provide some vitamins, and offer some scrambled eggs and hopefully she'll be back on her feet.

 

[FarmerSeth]

Thanks for the response. Here are some pictures I took of the navel. She's about 24 hours old in the pictures.
What do you recommend for vitamins?

 

[FarmerSeth]

Update: she started wobbling and rolling her head around and back, and she's not standing up anymore. I tried some sugar in her water but now she's not drinking. Could sure use some help on this one -- looks like she might not make it through the night...

 

[FarmerSeth]

Nevermind, folks. She just died. Thanks for the help. Any ideas what just happened would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Isaac 0]

Sorry to hear that!