Loss of balance, droopy wings... please help!

[tiffanya]

I had a duck several week ago that shower the following symptoms and died within three days.

- trouble walking
- wings drooped at her sides
- loss of balance/would fall over when bumped by other ducks and wouldn't be able to get up for short periods of time

Now, a couple of week later, I have another duck with very similar symptoms. However he has shown these symptoms for over a week and is still alive. He is eating and drinking well. When he first started showing symptoms I separated him. After a few days, when he appeared better, I put him back with the flock. He acted fine for three days, then started showing symptoms again so I separated him once again (in a dog kennel in a heated shed).

Not sure what is wrong or what to do about it. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks!

 

[philter4]

I just had this happen to a grey jungle fowl hen and I posted about a week to 10 days ago. Took her to my vet and the prognosis is not good, she has a parasite in the brain called Baylisascaris that she got from picking at raccoon or possum waste that was either tracked into the flight pen on the bottom of my shoes or dropped from an animal climbing up on the wire top of the pen. It is a dead end host, no other birds will get it from my hen but any other birds that ate some of the contaminated items (it could have been seeds that were in the stool or small stones she picked up for her gizzard, or whatever it was she picked at) will also get it. It is not treatable but there are some days she seems fine and others I think about putting her down so she is not suffering any longer. It can take from a few days to several months to kill the bird and there is no way of knowing how long, it mainly depends on which part of the brain is being damaged that will determine if she keeps feeding or not or even hurts herself by walking or flying into something.

I hope this is not what your bird has and that they do get better, but good luck no matter what the diagnosis is.