Background: Jemima, a Cayuga duck, started acting differently a couple weeks ago. She was walking really funny and I was concerned she was egg bound, took her to the vet, vet said she's not egg bound. Then she starts molting--everything seemed fine. As her feathers grew in the chickens starting pecking at her, so I separated her in a cage inside the run. On Thursday, she was shivering and there was a chill in the air, so I brought her into the basement to be under a heat light. She is not eating, she drinks very little when I offer it to her. Friday and Saturday, she would just be standing there when I went to check on her--would drink a little water if I offered it. This morning I went down to check on her and now she's just laying down like she doesn't have the strength to stand up--she did drink a tiny bit of water when I offered it, but she seems to be getting worse. I read a ton about molting and weight loss etc...but she seems to be getting worse. Not really any feather growth appears to be going on. I don't want to just keep her alive if she's slowly dying of starvation...is there anyway this is "typical" molting?? My gut tells me no...any suggestions/opinions?
She could have a disease or possibly the bird plague , if she has extream weight loss and won't eat that could be it . It takes about 21 days to show signs of the disease after it has been caught, although it might not be this, since if they do get the duck plague it causes some ducks to constantly drink water I'd recommend takeing Her to the vet again
That's definitely not typical molting behavior. It really does seem like she is sick with something. Is it possible to take her back to the vet? Sounds like she is getting dangerously weak and needs help fast if she's going to make it through. I'm sure you've already tried, but have you given her some of her favorite treats? She needs to eat ANYTHING right now to give her the strength to keep going. Adding vitamins to her water should help as well since she is at least drinking a little for you. So sorry, wish I could help more.
My first guess is hardware disease, metal toxicity, though it could be something viral. Sad that the vet did not catch on to something more, but we can all miss things. I would see if I could get the vet to help out with that - in the meantime, see if you can get her to drink water with food grade activated charcoal powder in it. There is a recipe in here https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/700526/flushes-for-aiding-in-toxin-removal#post_9508213 What color are her feces? See if this is similar to what you are seeing https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...te-falling-weight-loss-lethargy#post_13244769