Not again 😣

[Miss Lydia]

Poor little one. It’s so sad these ducks were only thought of as egg laying machines. I’d def keep up with the calcium. It maybe something you’ll have to deal with all of their lives but at least you’re aware and know what to do.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Well, things are going well here

Dougie is laying pretty much daily, again. But her shells are lovely, no issues there. She's back to normal.
Sprightly occasionally produces calcium deposits, but I've successfully adjusted the dose of calcium and I'm getting mostly perfect eggs from her now. She hasn't laid an egg for 3 days now, so still having short breaks here and there which I'm really happy about. Both girls are very happy, active, and enjoying the summer!

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s great to hear. Healthy ducks makes for happy duck mum!! I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch busy busy.

 

[BelovedBirds]

That’s great to hear. Healthy ducks makes for happy duck mum!! I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch busy busy.

No worries! There hasn't been much to update anyways.
On this thread, no news is usually good news!

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

No worries! There hasn't been much to update anyways.
On this thread, no news is usually good news!

What does your calcium routine look like for her now? I've got a 4 year old buff girl who has been pretty consistently laying soft shelled eggs (like little water balloons) or eggs with weird little knobs/trails on them. The girls are on a layer mash with brewers yeast and vitamins, and have access to oyster shells (which she loves to eat). I just started her on a round of daily calc gluc. We've done calcium gluconate before for about a week and sometimes it seems to help and sometimes not.

 

[BelovedBirds]

What does your calcium routine look like for her now? I've got a 4 year old buff girl who has been pretty consistently laying soft shelled eggs (like little water balloons) or eggs with weird little knobs/trails on them. The girls are on a layer mash with brewers yeast and vitamins, and have access to oyster shells (which she loves to eat). I just started her on a round of daily calc gluc. We've done calcium gluconate before for about a week and sometimes it seems to help and sometimes not.

please excuse the following essay, I rambled on just a little bit lol.

Currently she's getting about 350-400mg of calcium citrate every morning. But this is only because she's producing better eggs now and taking breaks
It definitely sounds like your girl could use calcium, and perhaps a break in laying

To start treating, I'd reccomend 600mg of calcium citrate with vitamin D daily. See if that helps with her shells. Calcium gluconate is great, and largely reccomended on here for ducks, but I will say I've had much better success with citrate. That's because it absorbs quicker than the calcium gluc would. The vitamin D also helps them to absorb and use that calcium.
I do pills, if large, then cut into halves or thirds. Then I just put them carefully at the back of her throat and she swallows them down. Took a little while to figure out the best way to hold her and do this, but it's definitely the easiest form of giving it, I've found. Alternatively you could sneak the pill into a treat.

I basically sit over her and hold her between my thighs, I hold her head up gently and keep her beak open with my one hand, then pop the pill down with my other. She doesn't fight it so much anymore.
You just have to be careful that she doesn't choke.

Spright's problems have persisted a long while by now, but the difference maker has really been a combination of calcium intake, and getting her to take breaks.
Making her broody would be the simplest option, but my girl isn't the broody sort. So I ended up force molting, using a change in diet and lighting. She didn't break fully, but she regularly takes a few days off now instead of laying daily.
If you're interested in that, I could grab the guide that was reccomended to me

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

please excuse the following essay, I rambled on just a little bit lol.

Currently she's getting about 350-400mg of calcium citrate every morning. But this is only because she's producing better eggs now and taking breaks
It definitely sounds like your girl could use calcium, and perhaps a break in laying

To start treating, I'd reccomend 600mg of calcium citrate with vitamin D daily. See if that helps with her shells. Calcium gluconate is great, and largely reccomended on here for ducks, but I will say I've had much better success with citrate. That's because it absorbs quicker than the calcium gluc would. The vitamin D also helps them to absorb and use that calcium.
I do pills, if large, then cut into halves or thirds. Then I just put them carefully at the back of her throat and she swallows them down. Took a little while to figure out the best way to hold her and do this, but it's definitely the easiest form of giving it, I've found. Alternatively you could sneak the pill into a treat.

I basically sit over her and hold her between my thighs, I hold her head up gently and keep her beak open with my one hand, then pop the pill down with my other. She doesn't fight it so much anymore.
You just have to be careful that she doesn't choke.
View attachment 3557642

Spright's problems have persisted a long while by now, but the difference maker has really been a combination of calcium intake, and getting her to take breaks.
Making her broody would be the simplest option, but my girl isn't the broody sort. So I ended up force molting, using a change in diet and lighting. She didn't break fully, but she regularly takes a few days off now instead of laying daily.
If you're interested in that, I could grab the guide that was reccomended to me

Thank you so much for the reply. Our girl Herman has had some issues with eggs last year, and more consistently this year. She usually sits and pumps for a while, and will sometimes spend a few hours with her "egg problem waddle." We just picked up some Calcium Citrate with D3 for another duck who we have with a prolapse (when it rains it pours it seems). We've gotten pretty good at pilling, so we may try starting Herman on some citrate pills (400mg) today.

We always try start out with tricking them, and cut pills into small bits and hide them in treats (peas usually), but the girls are oddly smart at detecting trickery and usually spit the peas with meds in them out. Our neighbor fed Herman some bread as a duckling before we talked to him about bread, so Herman loves it and we might be able to hide pills in a bread ball.

Herman has been laying "Waterballoon" shell-less eggs a lot recently so I'm hoping the citrate does the trick. She had problems earlier in spring, and she seemed to clear up after about 10 days of the calcium glucote. I'm not sure how long to keep the high calcium doses up as I'm worried about overdoing it sometimes.

As an aside, she got really sick last year, we think from some metal she ate. The metal passed all the way through her digestive tract, but didn't exit the cloaca. She recovered, but the vet recommended against chelation therapy or anything else as she felt it was too hard on Herman. Egg problems have been more consistent after she got really sick. Vet thinks the metal was older, perhaps eaten as a duckling or younger duck as it had embedded itself. We've wondered if her egg problems are related to some sort of metal presence, but aside from the soft eggs her overall health has been quite good.

Sorry for the huge reply, it seems like when there's one problem lots of others happen at the same time

 

[BelovedBirds]

Thank you so much for the reply. Our girl Herman has had some issues with eggs last year, and more consistently this year. She usually sits and pumps for a while, and will sometimes spend a few hours with her "egg problem waddle." We just picked up some Calcium Citrate with D3 for another duck who we have with a prolapse (when it rains it pours it seems). We've gotten pretty good at pilling, so we may try starting Herman on some citrate pills (400mg) today.

We always try start out with tricking them, and cut pills into small bits and hide them in treats (peas usually), but the girls are oddly smart at detecting trickery and usually spit the peas with meds in them out. Our neighbor fed Herman some bread as a duckling before we talked to him about bread, so Herman loves it and we might be able to hide pills in a bread ball.

Herman has been laying "Waterballoon" shell-less eggs a lot recently so I'm hoping the citrate does the trick. She had problems earlier in spring, and she seemed to clear up after about 10 days of the calcium glucote. I'm not sure how long to keep the high calcium doses up as I'm worried about overdoing it sometimes.

As an aside, she got really sick last year, we think from some metal she ate. The metal passed all the way through her digestive tract, but didn't exit the cloaca. She recovered, but the vet recommended against chelation therapy or anything else as she felt it was too hard on Herman. Egg problems have been more consistent after she got really sick. Vet thinks the metal was older, perhaps eaten as a duckling or younger duck as it had embedded itself. We've wondered if her egg problems are related to some sort of metal presence, but aside from the soft eggs her overall health has been quite good.

Sorry for the huge reply, it seems like when there's one problem lots of others happen at the same time

I can definitely understand the "when it rains it pours". Ducks are a lot of fun, but sometimes.... it can be pretty rough going!
I'm sorry to hear you've had to deal with all this

Sprightly is a great pill detector too! It didn't--
Jeez my dog just choked on food. Glad I saw a video on that yesterday!
Anyway, as I was saying, Sprightly can tell if there's a pill in anything. That's why I have to force it down. My other girl, Dougie, will eat the pills without any persuasion. In fact, she tries to steal them while I'm giving them to Sprightly.

I wouldn't worry about giving too much calcium long term, for as long as she needs to produce proper shells should be fine.
I was worried too, but it's been okay. How often does Herman lay? Daily, or?

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

I was worried too, but it's been okay. How often does Herman lay? Daily, or?

Yeah she's a daily layer! I have some ceramic eggs on order and I'm hoping to try and get all of the girls to just go broody and maybe stop laying if we can manage it. I think we'll start some citrate pills tonight before bed and see if it has any impact for her!

 

[BelovedBirds]

More duck drama

This time it's Dougie.
It's been about 1 and a half hours of very obvious contractions, doesn't want food, is just holding her tail down and limping. Very clearly had an egg stuck.

I've just moved her inside so I can continue observing her tonight, and run another bath. But she is no longer pumping her tail etc. Her symptoms were very obvious. She was definitely trying to lay. But now is acting "normal".

I've just given her more calcium. Fingers crossed she lays soon