Loosing weight, withdrawn, unsocial, wants to sleep all day, sticky eye lids, no interest in food

DanTduckman

Chirping
Nov 16, 2017
22
38
51
Hello all,
First of all, this thread isnt asking for help. Im here to help anyone who has a duck with similar symptoms.
Peach the white Peking Duck was approx 10 months old when she started loosing weight and excreting bright green poop. I had read somewhere on here that it was bad. Peach was a good layer. A little too good. An egg a day for 4 months straight. This led to her laying soft shelled eggs or rubber eggs. I didnt know this was potentially harmful at the time. Anyhow, she stopped laying and got sick. After a $448 vet visit bill (overnight stay with iv line and a script of antibiotics) we came home. A month later she passed a lash egg.
She began perking up again after this.
Fast forward another 10 months and her symptoms are as follows;
Started sleeping a lot during the day, withdrew herself and found a place to hide away from human and other duck contact, was very anti social, did not like other duck or human company, was not able to walk more than 4 meters or 12 feet without a rest, lost a lot of weight and was not interested in food.
She passed a small lash egg, which after inspection looked 'broken off'.
I brought her inside for her final 4 days so she could rest. She refused food, and didnt like to be picked up. Her eyes where almost stuck closed. I decided it was time for tube feed, so the last 18 hours i tube fed her.
Today she passed away much to the devistation of myself and my wife. Peach was my first incubated duck who was imprinted. She was a very lovely girl who was always interested in what you were doing.
I have 3 other ducks and a drake, so i decided to inspect Peach to determine the problem.
This was no easy decision, as we really loved her. But in the future health interest of the rest,
I opened her up and inspected her internals.
I found she was totally blocked up with lash eggs. There where 5 which had all gone hard.
So a sad day for us here, but at least Peach could help other duck people out there.
 
Hello all,
First of all, this thread isnt asking for help. Im here to help anyone who has a duck with similar symptoms.
Peach the white Peking Duck was approx 10 months old when she started loosing weight and excreting bright green poop. I had read somewhere on here that it was bad. Peach was a good layer. A little too good. An egg a day for 4 months straight. This led to her laying soft shelled eggs or rubber eggs. I didnt know this was potentially harmful at the time. Anyhow, she stopped laying and got sick. After a $448 vet visit bill (overnight stay with iv line and a script of antibiotics) we came home. A month later she passed a lash egg.
She began perking up again after this.
Fast forward another 10 months and her symptoms are as follows;
Started sleeping a lot during the day, withdrew herself and found a place to hide away from human and other duck contact, was very anti social, did not like other duck or human company, was not able to walk more than 4 meters or 12 feet without a rest, lost a lot of weight and was not interested in food.
She passed a small lash egg, which after inspection looked 'broken off'.
I brought her inside for her final 4 days so she could rest. She refused food, and didnt like to be picked up. Her eyes where almost stuck closed. I decided it was time for tube feed, so the last 18 hours i tube fed her.
Today she passed away much to the devistation of myself and my wife. Peach was my first incubated duck who was imprinted. She was a very lovely girl who was always interested in what you were doing.
I have 3 other ducks and a drake, so i decided to inspect Peach to determine the problem.
This was no easy decision, as we really loved her. But in the future health interest of the rest,
I opened her up and inspected her internals.
I found she was totally blocked up with lash eggs. There where 5 which had all gone hard.
So a sad day for us here, but at least Peach could help other duck people out there.

I didn't know what a lash egg is. I googled it and the Chicken Chick has a good article about them. Awful things. So sorry you lost your duck.
 
I was reading an article just a couple of days ago on "weird eggs" that chickens lay and I'll bet the same would apply to ducks. Here is the link: https://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2016/02/why-does-my-egg-look-weird-eggshell You've got to read almost to the end to get to the part about lash eggs but there are lots of great pictures and information. The next 2 paragraphs are directly from the article.

"A lash egg can also be the sign of infection in the oviduct, usually E.coli or mycoplasma, Soft-shelled or wrinkly eggs can be a precursor to a lash egg, as can egg binding.

Antibiotics can be administered if you know which hen laid the lash egg, or a more natural route of adding apple cider vinegar to the water and some fresh or dried oregano to your flock's diet to act as a natural antibiotic."
 
Hello all,
First of all, this thread isnt asking for help. Im here to help anyone who has a duck with similar symptoms.
Peach the white Peking Duck was approx 10 months old when she started loosing weight and excreting bright green poop. I had read somewhere on here that it was bad. Peach was a good layer. A little too good. An egg a day for 4 months straight. This led to her laying soft shelled eggs or rubber eggs. I didnt know this was potentially harmful at the time. Anyhow, she stopped laying and got sick. After a $448 vet visit bill (overnight stay with iv line and a script of antibiotics) we came home. A month later she passed a lash egg.
She began perking up again after this.
Fast forward another 10 months and her symptoms are as follows;
Started sleeping a lot during the day, withdrew herself and found a place to hide away from human and other duck contact, was very anti social, did not like other duck or human company, was not able to walk more than 4 meters or 12 feet without a rest, lost a lot of weight and was not interested in food.
She passed a small lash egg, which after inspection looked 'broken off'.
I brought her inside for her final 4 days so she could rest. She refused food, and didnt like to be picked up. Her eyes where almost stuck closed. I decided it was time for tube feed, so the last 18 hours i tube fed her.
Today she passed away much to the devistation of myself and my wife. Peach was my first incubated duck who was imprinted. She was a very lovely girl who was always interested in what you were doing.
I have 3 other ducks and a drake, so i decided to inspect Peach to determine the problem.
This was no easy decision, as we really loved her. But in the future health interest of the rest,
I opened her up and inspected her internals.
I found she was totally blocked up with lash eggs. There where 5 which had all gone hard.
So a sad day for us here, but at least Peach could help other duck people out there.
Hello all,
First of all, this thread isnt asking for help. Im here to help anyone who has a duck with similar symptoms.
Peach the white Peking Duck was approx 10 months old when she started loosing weight and excreting bright green poop. I had read somewhere on here that it was bad. Peach was a good layer. A little too good. An egg a day for 4 months straight. This led to her laying soft shelled eggs or rubber eggs. I didnt know this was potentially harmful at the time. Anyhow, she stopped laying and got sick. After a $448 vet visit bill (overnight stay with iv line and a script of antibiotics) we came home. A month later she passed a lash egg.
She began perking up again after this.
Fast forward another 10 months and her symptoms are as follows;
Started sleeping a lot during the day, withdrew herself and found a place to hide away from human and other duck contact, was very anti social, did not like other duck or human company, was not able to walk more than 4 meters or 12 feet without a rest, lost a lot of weight and was not interested in food.
She passed a small lash egg, which after inspection looked 'broken off'.
I brought her inside for her final 4 days so she could rest. She refused food, and didnt like to be picked up. Her eyes where almost stuck closed. I decided it was time for tube feed, so the last 18 hours i tube fed her.
Today she passed away much to the devistation of myself and my wife. Peach was my first incubated duck who was imprinted. She was a very lovely girl who was always interested in what you were doing.
I have 3 other ducks and a drake, so i decided to inspect Peach to determine the problem.
This was no easy decision, as we really loved her. But in the future health interest of the rest,
I opened her up and inspected her internals.
I found she was totally blocked up with lash eggs. There where 5 which had all gone hard.
So a sad day for us here, but at least Peach could help other duck people out there.
Sounds like a genetic disorder called "egg proapse". You need to purchase Story's Guide to Raising Poultry for any future reference. Listening to farmers is not usually useful for such ailments and folks are answering you without seeing the bird.
 
I am so sorry you lost Peach. She was much loved I am sure. Thank you for sharing what you found it can be a hard thing to do but you never know when you may help someone going through the same thing. :hugs
 
Hello, thank you so much for posting this. I have a chicken who just recently laid a lash egg and has been incredibly inactive for about a month or two now. Currently she is hardly moving and is hiding in her feathers. Is there anything that your vet recommended or that you think could help? I am so sorry about Peach, we have recently lost many chickens to predators, so I know how devastating a loss can be.
 
Thankyou all for your kind words.

The vet didnt recommend anything actually. He thought it was an infection at first. But then blood tests came back ok. He suggested an xray at $300 but said may not show anything.
I vent checked her the first time this happened, but couldn't tell if it was lash egg or bone i was coming across.
One thing that suggested to me she had stuck aggs was some lumps i could feel on her abdomine. If you draw an imaginery line between her vent and the v in her rib cage it will be slightly on her left side if this approx in the middle.
 

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