Lethargic Duck - She is dizzy and falling

[Crazy4Fowl]

My friend’s duck is a little off. They just noticed about an hour ago. She is a Khaki Campbell/Blue runner mix. Message from my friend:
She looked like she was falling asleep standing up but we realized she wasn’t sleeping at all she was just dizzy and out of it. When all the other ducks sound the alarm and ran away she stayed where she was and let me pick her up. She’s having trouble keeping her eyes open and has very low energy. She seemed fine this morning.

I advised them to try giving her some apple cider vinegar, I’ve heard it helps, as well as to isolate her for a bit to feel better

 

[Miss Lydia]

ACV with mother is a great tonic.
How old is this duck?
Let us know if the ACV helped. it should be 1Tab to a gallon of water.

 

[nao57]

You want to isolate this duck and have a very controlled temperature, warmth, food, and water environment for several days. Even if she looks fine, she could easily bounce back into trouble.

But ducks are social also and she might freak out more if there's no other ducks. So a good option would be to put her in a basement or enclosed barn cage area with better quality food and water, 2 or 3 days, along with another duck to keep her calm.

Dehydration is possible. Lots of things are possible.

Also sometimes ducks will sort of push another duck out and that one will be sort of hen pecked a bit, and this can result in them getting less food and water than the others. (Possibility if its in a group pen, and is the odd one out.) Usually this type of behavior can be spotted early on, because you'll see the other ducks and the odd one not mixing well. (But this might not be the cause.)

Check to see if this duck has wounds also, or missing feathers.

If it happens again, you can feed it glucose water. (sugar water). I would not do this every day, but for like when its a really bad case, just getting it out of this can be used once or twice. (But if its a problem with bacteria or sickness there can be situations where sugar isn't good to use.)

 

[Crazy4Fowl]

ACV with mother is a great tonic.
How old is this duck?
Let us know if the ACV helped. it should be 1Tab to a gallon of water.

“we gave her some acv and isolated her from the others. it took about two hours before she started quacking with her normal umph. she’s not entirely herself yet, but much improved from earlier.”
She just hatched this year in April

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I would also let your friend know that they should keep a poultry supplement on hand especially one with Niacin. My favorite is Poultry cell, however there are other great ones out there. Anytime any of my ducks looks a tad off I give them a dose and it picks them right back up.