Need help diagnosing duck illness

[Oneyedira]

The behavior of our 2y old Blue Swedish female duck has changed over the last week or two. She’s not eating, laying, or foraging. She’s very lethargic, with most of her time spent standing still with her head tucked on her back and her eyes closed. Yesterday I noticed thick, clear tear-like discharge around her eyes. I’m rinsing them with saline and applying Microcyn ophthalmic gel 2x per day. I’ve got her quarantined in a wire crate inside the coop to monitor food and water intake, but I’m just not sure what else is going on besides an eye infection. Our other duck, 2y Buff Orpington female, is perfectly fine. The rest of our flock is comprised of chickens - 5 hens and 6 pullets. Any ideas or advice?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Is a vet an option? When is the last time she laid?

 

[Oneyedira]

Thank you for replying! I couldn’t say exactly but definitely more than a week since she’s laid. We do have a homeopathic vet willing to work with poultry, but she typically just treats symptoms with herbal remedies - doesn’t really diagnose.

 

[Miss Lydia]

You might want to pick up some Calcium Gluconate it’s a liquid we should keep it on hand with having layers if one can’t lay we give 1 ml and it can help get the egg moving. This is most likely not going on with your duck if she’s been this way a week or more. Another thing would be Poultry Cell. It can give a boost when one isn’t feeling well. Sad thing with our birds is it can be so hard to really know what might be wrong. Good your treating her eye issue. If she hasn’t eaten in a week you should really consider tube feeding her. They can lose ground pretty fast when not eating. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/tube-feeding-ducks-updated-5-7-2020.1211994/
Will this vet let you email her symptoms and reply?

 

[Oneyedira]

Good advice @Miss Lydia, thank you! It’s difficult to tell how severe this is. Every now and then she musters up the energy to flap her wings, preen, or explore the bottom of the water bucket, but she runs out of steam quickly and more often just lays, stands, or sips water with her left eye closed. (I’ve begun noticing she keeps her left eye closed and right eye open nearly all the time). I let her spend some time outside of the crate today to see how she would fare. She initially followed her BFF around the yard, foraging and sipping water…but I don’t think that lasted long. I took her inside for an epsom salt bath this evening and can confirm she’s definitely eating something, as she let out some solid proof in the tub. I blended a mixture of feed pellets, Poultry Cell, electrolytes, probiotics, and calcium carbonate and force fed her around 30ml by syringe while she soaked. I plan to purchase the tube feeding supplies when the store opens tomorrow, if only just to have on hand. She doesn’t seem to be getting the nourishment she needs, but if she’s eating enough to produce a few solid poops, is it still a good idea to tube feed her?

Here’s a video of her soaking in the tub: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jlQAbCGxq_raW4eLZbiK84aNwb7J8UHG/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[Miss Lydia]

Your treating her eyes right? Could she have something in that eye. A speck of dust or something like that?or is the eye glued shut from drainage?
Have you had to use a syringe before to force feed? I have to ask since many don't know they can aspirate their bird if it goes down the wrong hole. It would probably be a good idea to do some tube feeding to ensure she is getting nourishment. Maybe 2X a day it may be what she needs to return to eating. Just to make sure you know where the tube will go and any time we use the syringe.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

How did she react after being fed the 30ml? Did it perk her up?

There is always the chance she may need an antibiotic if you don't see any improvement after you have tube-fed her a couple of days.

 

[Jenbirdee]

This might be helpful
http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/diagnostic chart.htm

 

[Oneyedira]

This might be helpful
http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/diagnostic chart.htm

Very - thank you so much!

 

[Oneyedira]

Your treating her eyes right? Could she have something in that eye. A speck of dust or something like that?or is the eye glued shut from drainage?
Have you had to use a syringe before to force feed? I have to ask since many don't know they can aspirate their bird if it goes down the wrong hole. It would probably be a good idea to do some tube feeding to ensure she is getting nourishment. Maybe 2X a day it may be what she needs to return to eating. Just to make sure you know where the tube will go and any time we use the syringe.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

How did she react after being fed the 30ml? Did it perk her up?

There is always the chance she may need an antibiotic if you don't see any improvement after you have tube-fed her a couple of days.

I’m still treating her eyes, although she hasn’t let me get much into her left eye. It’s not crusted over or glued shut or really even showing much sign of drainage anymore - she just seems to be keeping it clenched shut.

We’re starting to wonder if she was pecked and has lost sight in that eye. There’ve been several instances over the past week where she hasn’t returned to the coop at night. One evening I found her in the baby pool. Two evenings we found her near but not inside the coop.

Blindness may explain her reluctance to move around, which often appears like lethargy (until she starts preening for 20 minutes straight!) Although her eye doesn’t look to be in bad shape, she may be in a lot of pain, causing appetite loss which could lead to decreased egg production…Right?? I so badly want to put the puzzle together.

Regarding syringe feeding - tonight was my first duck feeding but I’ve had practice with several chickens. Thank you for voicing your concern! And sharing the tube feeding instructions. I hadn’t heard of tube feeding before and am ready to try it largely due to the risk of aspiration.

She did perk up after the feeding! She even showed interest in some mealworms, which used to be her favorite until this all started. But her crop still felt very empty.

A few more thoughts…If she’s having trouble with sight, she may not be able to find the food bowls very easily. We’ve also got a lot of food guarding going on right now, as we recently integrated the pullets into our flock. Strangely enough, the pullets have asserted authority over the ducks, and I’ve seen them run the ducks off from the food bowls more than once. We feed twice a day into 3 or 4 bowls and have started putting out more than is needed to ensure there’s no shortage. Now we’re trying to think through how we can improve our feeding practices to make things easier on her.

 

[Stipenvlerk]

Did you bath her in warm water? or is the temperature quite warm? (It seems like she is panting too)