Panting duckling? Don't think he's hot...

[meyerc06]

80 degrees may be a little too warm, I find that even though that’s what the book calls for, some duckies don’t read the darned books! At the same time, I can relate to fretting because there are a number of things that cause panting, some of them quite serious. Aspergiliosis (however we spell that) is a fungal respiratory disease. We can’t rule that out, yet, but if the little has been in a clean environment where contamination (such as wild waterfowl sharing the space, or previously infected birds sharing the space, or a very moldy environment) is not a problem, then it could be nerves, overheating, mild illness, or just one of those things.

I’ve been having the same issue with my baby Pekins (3 1/2 weeks) and I have the Brinsea brooder. It’s definitely not too hot in there and some of them actually start panting outside of it, then go underneath . I love this forum because I was in a full panic about it (3 out of 4 of them have done it on and off for the last couple of days), and I was researching online and finding all of these awful possibilities! I was so relieved to read that a number of people have experienced the same thing and it often isn’t anything horrible. I fully clean their house every morning and spot clean throughout the day, and they have three waterers (!), all deep enough to flush their nostrils. I think mine probably are getting bedding in their throats because they will not stop eating it!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Put an old clean towel down over the bedding if they are eating it.

 

[meyerc06]

Put an old clean towel down over the bedding if they are eating it.

I did a big towel in the beginning and then switched to several smaller towels covering about half of their “home”. But they still eat the bedding

 

[Miss Lydia]

Either take out the shavings or cover them completely. Are you giving food an water 24/7?

 

[Miss Lydia]

What breed an size of brooder? Do they get outside time to use up some duckling energy?

 

[meyerc06]

I do give food and water 24/7. Four 3 1/2 week old Pekins in our former dog crate (about 45”x32”). We haven’t had great weather here in NJ so they’ve had very limited outside time so far, but I do give them bath time every night for about 20-30min.

 

[meyerc06]

I think I’ve solved my problem, and thought I’d share what I did for whatever it’s worth:
1) I removed the Brinsea. The room is 70-75 degrees and the brooder has black liner 12” high around the bottom (for cleaning purposes). I think the combination of the Brinsea and the liner made the overall temp in the brooder a little too high for my duckies, especially now that they have super thick down covering them. They feel like sheep!
2) I added a fan to get some more ventilation in the room. I have them in our basement (which is only semifinished but has a large walkout slider to our backyard) - we have a dehumidifier in there, but the air is always fairly humid anyway and the circulation isn’t great. The addition of a fan in the room is really making a difference.
3) I gave them Save-A-Chick probiotics and electrolytes (as a back up).
4) Our weather has been better so I’ve had them outside for as long as I can each day. They love it and love eating all kinds of weeds and dirt.
5) I gave them a break on the brewers yeast incase it was overloading them with B3. Ill resume it again soon but I recently switched them to Purina’s Duck pellets and it promises a minimum of 55mg of niacin and is supposed to be suitable for all ages. I also like the lowered protein level (18) since I’m not raising them for meat.

I have no idea what part(s) of this worked, but everyone is doing great and no more panting!