Off-balance duck with rough mass in abdomen

[PBJBSFN]

This is a question that needs a pretty specific answer. My female duck began wobbling when she walks about 2 weeks ago, but it was just sort of a bit of a clumsy walk. Within the past week she started finding it extremely hard to keep her balance and the "wobbling" is more forward and back, not side to side When she's "standing still" she looks like she's trying to balance on a tight-rope. She acts as normal as she possibly can considering she's begun having such a hard time getting around. She's hungry and thirsty and wants to hang out with her buddies. She has been wormed as has no sign of external injury. She doesn't lay eggs as often as she used to, but she is still laying occasionally.

Where it gets so specific is I took her to an avian specialist who performed a physical exam on her. Externally nothing is wrong, she has no injuries and internally she doesn't have worms. However, when she did the manual internal exam she felt a large hard mass inside her abdomen on the right. She described it as feeling rough in texture, so she wasn't positive about what it could be as tumors and cysts are usually smooth. She suspected that whatever the mass is is probably causing her walking problems and gave her an antibiotic just in case she had some secondary infection related to the mass.

Has anyone ever had this experience with their duck and found out what is causing the wobbling or what a rough mass in the right side of the abdomen might be? The vet typically deals with cage-birds and exotic birds and not as often with ducks, so I was hoping to find someone who has experienced this issue before.

 

[GitaBooks]

It could have something to do with an egg laying issue, perhaps Egg Yolk Peritonitis. She could have a neurological disorder or disease or perhaps an injury to the back or head. She could also have a deficiency in her diet. It could be a tumor pressing on her nerves.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help. I hope she gets better!

 

[Amiga]

You might find a litle information in The Ultimate Pet Duck Guidebook. It is published by Majestic Waterfowl. I am not near my duck library, so I cannot look it up for you, but if someone here has that, there is a medical section with all the body systems of ducks illustrated.

 

[Amykins]

Odd that the vet didn't recommend doing an xray, as that would have ruled out egg binding or a calcified cyst. It sounds like your poor duck is awfully uncomfortable, and whatever's in there, it needs to come out.

How is she pooping? Do you think there's something stuck in her GI tract somewhere?