It all started as a big fun: After cleaning the duck house today, i started mowing a strip of pasture for hay when i noticed hundreds of grashoppers were hopping away from me. "That might be fun for the duckies i thought" and so i shifted the mowing pattern by 90° and began mowing long strips of grass towards the ducks, who stood at the fence snatching all what came hopping at them. And they ate, i mowed the second strip and they ate, third strip and they ate while mowing the fourth strip i noticed the Runners began to behave weird as if they had problems swallowing and then when i reached the fence it all went south…
Warning Graphic Language follows!
And it is not funny, no laughing smilies please!
Katharina was first, suddenly she puked violently! And what came out was still half alive and fidgeting! That made other ducks gobbling up what Katharina just had puked out and then they started puking too and again what came back was wiggling and fidgeting, so the other ducks…
In the end there were 17 ducks puking and eating and puking and
And i stood there frozen like an idiot only watching in horror what was going on!
Until finally i ran, grabbed the garden hose and washed the whole mess down the hill out of reach of the ducks. But the damage was done, they all sat there, choking, gulping and looking really sick. Limpy was worse, he was whistling like a horn and i had to clean out his throat.
I made them all drink some water and Katharina puked it out again together with lot's of dead grashoppers, then she drank again and kept the water in. Carried them one by one out of the sun into the shade around some bowls with fresh water and except for Blanca they did not even protest when i picked them up. Then i sat down with them and made them drink more water.
They are all still alive but not doing well. Again i carried them one by one into the duck house, sat them down into the fresh straw and most of them just turned their heads back under their wings and tried to sleep. Limpy was unable to hold his head when i picked him up, so i had him sitting on my lap and he snuggled with me - he never does that! Finally he rasped and wanted back to the others, so i carried him to the house and sat him down in the straw.
At the moment everybody is still breathing, but some are panting (no it has cooled down here to the low 80's, not too hot), the others are breathing heavy, some are whistling.
Is there anything else i can do for them? - Other than providing plenty of fresh water and no food for tonight?
What the duck was that? Did they just over-ate? Or do grashoppers become poisonous at some time?
I feel like such an idiot now!
Warning Graphic Language follows!
And it is not funny, no laughing smilies please!
Katharina was first, suddenly she puked violently! And what came out was still half alive and fidgeting! That made other ducks gobbling up what Katharina just had puked out and then they started puking too and again what came back was wiggling and fidgeting, so the other ducks…
In the end there were 17 ducks puking and eating and puking and
And i stood there frozen like an idiot only watching in horror what was going on!
Until finally i ran, grabbed the garden hose and washed the whole mess down the hill out of reach of the ducks. But the damage was done, they all sat there, choking, gulping and looking really sick. Limpy was worse, he was whistling like a horn and i had to clean out his throat.
I made them all drink some water and Katharina puked it out again together with lot's of dead grashoppers, then she drank again and kept the water in. Carried them one by one out of the sun into the shade around some bowls with fresh water and except for Blanca they did not even protest when i picked them up. Then i sat down with them and made them drink more water.
They are all still alive but not doing well. Again i carried them one by one into the duck house, sat them down into the fresh straw and most of them just turned their heads back under their wings and tried to sleep. Limpy was unable to hold his head when i picked him up, so i had him sitting on my lap and he snuggled with me - he never does that! Finally he rasped and wanted back to the others, so i carried him to the house and sat him down in the straw.
At the moment everybody is still breathing, but some are panting (no it has cooled down here to the low 80's, not too hot), the others are breathing heavy, some are whistling.
Is there anything else i can do for them? - Other than providing plenty of fresh water and no food for tonight?
What the duck was that? Did they just over-ate? Or do grashoppers become poisonous at some time?
I feel like such an idiot now!
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