Missing feathers on stomach? WENT TO THE VET!!! Not good...

[mandelyn]

Is she supposed to be a mirco or was she a runt that should have been bigger? Maybe she has some sort of an issue that's affecting other areas of her growth. I don't know! All I know is that when an animal should be a lot bigger than it is, there can be other issues besides just size and lack of growth. The range of what issues those could be... no idea.

Brittle and just falling off... is it the baby fuzz or shoots of new feathers? When the fuzz is getting replaced that will go brittle and the little white casings are brittle as well and they flake off easily. From the picture that's what it looks like.

She's acting normal again? Or still off?

 

[chickensioux]

Is she still getting vitamins and minerals? Any supplements? I gave my Micro (and still do) nutri-drench peas often. I think mine has some sort of nutritional deficiency or a problem with absorbing nutrition.

 

[featherfinder]

Quote:
She is a micro. Still acting off. And her feathers on her belly were the first to grow in so there where feathers there and the only fuzz on her was her back still. She is going on 14 weeks old now. These were feathers that were already there. Im thinking a vet trip might be in order since she is still acting off. When i walked in last night she didnt run to me like normal and just laid there till i picked her up. Held her and pet her for a few minutes and set her down. She plopped down and didnt move.

 

[mandelyn]

Vet sounds like a good idea. When my duck was acting way off I was going to give it till Monday before going to the vet, but she didn't even make it through Saturday. Turned out there was nothing a vet could have done for her anyways.

If the feather thing is a symptom... I don't know what it could be combined with how she's acting. Never heard of such a thing. Have you given her a vitamin mix in the water to see if that perks her up?

Maybe separate her from the others, spice up the water with vitamins, between now and the vet. Could be some sort of deficiency. Or the acting off and feather thing are unrelated.

 

[featherfinder]

she was getting vitamins in her water up untill about a month ago because she was doing great! And has been doing great with out them since. This was just a sudden thing that hit her and i havnt been paying attention to my calender. She is actually 16 weeks this weekend. She has been acting fine off the vitamins and i have just been giving them to her once a week instead.

 

[chickensioux]

Quote:
Just a thought. Ducks need niacin. I would start there by making sure she is still getting niacin daily. Perhaps take a stool sample to be tested at the vet for any internal parasites too.

 

[featherfinder]

Quote:
Just a thought. Ducks need niacin. I would start there by making sure she is still getting niacin daily. Perhaps take a stool sample to be tested at the vet for any internal parasites too.

They all still get niacin. We have a vet appointment at 5 tonight and even if nothing is wrong i will feel better knowing she had a check up. And im sure there will plenty of poo at the vet's for them to take a sample if they want it

 

[chickensioux]

Quote:
Just a thought. Ducks need niacin. I would start there by making sure she is still getting niacin daily. Perhaps take a stool sample to be tested at the vet for any internal parasites too.

They all still get niacin. We have a vet appointment at 5 tonight and even if nothing is wrong i will feel better knowing she had a check up. And im sure there will plenty of poo at the vet's for them to take a sample if they want it

Keep us posted.

 

[Miss Lydia]

X2

 

[featherfinder]

So im pretty upset... I will start with the feathers and work my way to the bad. She is very stressed for some reason and has stress marks in her feathers and the stress is what is causing her to pick at her feathers so much and kill them like the ones on her stomach. They said it should stop as soon as her adult feathers come in.

Now the bad....


She has a heart murmer. They said that nothing can be done without tests and the test are a few hundred dollars unless i just want to get xrays. But the only thing xrays will tell me is if her heart is enlarged or small. Everything that cost more would tell me the actual problem. They also said that due to her size and stunted growth that it could be caused by the defect in her heart and nothing can be done about that.Her size and slow growth also lead my vet to definitly thinkl there is something wrong with her heart and plus all her other hatch mate are just fine so they are really leaning toward defect. If i wish to test her or something shows on xrays they said i could give her medication twice a day but that would require chasing her down and forcing something down her throat everytime and the stress from that alone could kill her. They told me to come back anytime i want and they will keep an eye on the murmer and once she is fully feathered and done growing i plan on paying for the xrays to see if they say anything just so i know what is going to happen with her. If they dont say anything and they need more tests then i cant afford it and i will just give her the best life possible with little stress as possible. Even if the xray does show something i still will not put her on the meds and risk stressing her out even more and killing her. I am very depressed about this and not taking it that well. I never thought they would say this when i went in there today.