NZDuckNewbies
In the Brooder
So about a day and a half ago my wife noticed our Pekin was hiding herself and acting strange. She wouldn't eat, and would barely drink, and she was very lethargic.
The weather has been really warm, and she hadn't been swimming too much, but we did what we could to feed and water her. Then today, after a night of me being unable to sleep, and googling fiercely to try figure out the problem, I figured it must be worms, although our other duck, a khaki Campbell, has been fine.
We went to the pet store and got ivomec, then applied it to both ducks, we brought our Pekin inside where it was cooler, filled a smaller pool and put her in. She just floated there, with her legs hanging down, then eventually tucked them up, curled her head upwards til it touched her back, let it drop forward, and died. My wife was broken at the sight of it.
Basically, we never really thought about worms, our ducks are free range with 120m2 plus of land to themselves, and we feed them well, the only difference is that we recently opted to increase the level of wheat and decrease the laying pellets. We feel like the worst duck owners ever, we were just so naive about the whole thing. Now we have one drake, and he's so territorial I don't know if another duck could handle him. Basically he is a real douche to other ducks - we have some wild ones visit (possibly the one we rescued as a duckling who left us when she learned to fly).
When our Pekin died, some of her stool leaked out and we saw that there were some worms in it, I just wish we had known the signs earlier, or at least noticed, and wish we had known or thought to treat them at all just as a matter of habit and a regular regime.
So it is a very sad day for us, maybe it was worms, it seems likely, but if there are any other explanations that anyone has for our duck going off her food so suddenly and then dying, please let us know so we can be aware of that too.
The weather has been really warm, and she hadn't been swimming too much, but we did what we could to feed and water her. Then today, after a night of me being unable to sleep, and googling fiercely to try figure out the problem, I figured it must be worms, although our other duck, a khaki Campbell, has been fine.
We went to the pet store and got ivomec, then applied it to both ducks, we brought our Pekin inside where it was cooler, filled a smaller pool and put her in. She just floated there, with her legs hanging down, then eventually tucked them up, curled her head upwards til it touched her back, let it drop forward, and died. My wife was broken at the sight of it.
Basically, we never really thought about worms, our ducks are free range with 120m2 plus of land to themselves, and we feed them well, the only difference is that we recently opted to increase the level of wheat and decrease the laying pellets. We feel like the worst duck owners ever, we were just so naive about the whole thing. Now we have one drake, and he's so territorial I don't know if another duck could handle him. Basically he is a real douche to other ducks - we have some wild ones visit (possibly the one we rescued as a duckling who left us when she learned to fly).
When our Pekin died, some of her stool leaked out and we saw that there were some worms in it, I just wish we had known the signs earlier, or at least noticed, and wish we had known or thought to treat them at all just as a matter of habit and a regular regime.
So it is a very sad day for us, maybe it was worms, it seems likely, but if there are any other explanations that anyone has for our duck going off her food so suddenly and then dying, please let us know so we can be aware of that too.
