Looking for help, lethargic duck.

[CalBells]

See this thread, we've been having very similar deaths of young ducks in the northeast, they are fine one day, and then start acting lethargic, move away from the other ducklings, and then die all withing a 48 hour period. One person had their duck autopsyed and determined this my be a bacterial infection brought on by a protazoal infection.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/681457/help-ive-lost-2-ducklings-in-2-days/20#post_9244679

I wonder if Spark had the same issue, we have brought her to UC Davis for a necropsy, I will keep you posted. Our hope is that if she died of something that may affect our other girls we will be able to protect them. As new duck owners we can't help worying that she died of something a more experienced caretaker could have prevented/saved her from. For now our two remaining girls are doing very well, keeping eachother company and always so busy with their duck activities!

 

[CalBells]

Well we found out she had a fungal infection in her lungs. Righ after her death we cleaned everything real well I case she had something infectious and we found mouldy spilled food in the wood chips under their daytime run. We took them out, and our plan is to remove all the woodchips from their run. Our guess is that she was foraging, looking for slugs, her favorite activity, and inhaled some fungus from the woodchips. We feel so terrible but have learned from Spark and will be better caretakers of our remaining ducks.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well we found out she had a fungal infection in her lungs. Righ after her death we cleaned everything real well I case she had something infectious and we found mouldy spilled food in the wood chips under their daytime run. We took them out, and our plan is to remove all the woodchips from their run. Our guess is that she was foraging, looking for slugs, her favorite activity, and inhaled some fungus from the woodchips. We feel so terrible but have learned from Spark and will be better caretakers of our remaining ducks.

Aww so sorry about this, but glad you were able to find out what caused it and have corrected the problem. It's so hard to lose one, hoping all the rest will continue to be healthy and that Spark will always be a wonderful memory to you all.