Panting Ducklings

[mrbstephens]

I have four 1 week old ducklings and this morning I noticed two were panting. The temp in the brooder is about 90 degrees, I lowered it to 85 degrees. Noticed one of the other ducklings was whistling. Totally my fault. I'd been busy with a birthday party and didn't give them something deep enough to dunk their heads in. So this morning I let them bathe in the bathtub. They dunked their heads a lot and scratched at their noses. A little sneezing too. After they had dried and gone back in the brooder, the two are panting again. Is there anything else I can do? They seem fine otherwise....eating a drinking and preening.

 

[mrbstephens]

Just checked on them and they are not panting right now, but breathing a little heavy. I'm planning on just letting them bathe once a day till this is cleared up and I do have a container of water they can dunk their heads in with them now.

 

[Amiga]

Panting can be caused by overheating, as you know, also anxiety, clogged nares and probably other things I don't know about (there are so many things in that category....)

Good move with the bath, they may not have been able to get out of their little nares, or they may yet be a little too warm. I have found that there are always exceptions to the rules of thumb.

Do you have and are you giving them any vitamin-electrolyte-probiotics?

How's the bedding? Sometimes I get ahold of below-par bedding, with more dust, or moldy, or recently, pine shavings that smelled like someone had sprayed a bottle of pine oil on them. Really strong resin smell. Made my nose burn, so it came out of the pen and outdoors. Happily I had three bales of good, fresh but not overpowering shavings.

 

[mrbstephens]

The pine shavings are a little dusty, but the smell is fine. I'm giving them brewer's yeast sprinkled on their feed. Should I give them whey? I gave that to my chicks who weren't thriving and they snapped out of their funk about an hour after drinking it.

 

[Amiga]

I don't know about the whey.... what about apple cider vinegar? A teaspoon in a cup of water.

 

[mrbstephens]

Oh yes! I can do that!

 

[mrbstephens]

I have to leave the house for a few hours. I put the apple cider vinegar in their water and lowered the temp a bit more. They're still panting, so I'm worried about leaving the house. I hope they'll be OK! I can let them bathe again when I get back.

 

[kandik]

I'm new here what does the Brewer's Yeast and Apple Cider Vinegar do for them?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have to leave the house for a few hours. I put the apple cider vinegar in their water and lowered the temp a bit more. They're still panting, so I'm worried about leaving the house. I hope they'll be OK! I can let them bathe again when I get back.

you really need to get a digital thermometer thats the best way to judge how warm it is in their brooder. Their panting if okay in every other way makes me think they are too warm.

 

[mrbstephens]

Well, I'm back and they look fine! I lowered the temp again before I left and now I don't see them panting at all. I definitely heard one of them whistling earlier, so I think I had a combination of things going on here.