Hi poultry lovers,
It’s a long time since I’ve posted here, but I’m in desperate need of help and would really appreciate any thoughts or advice you can offer.
Almost 3 weeks ago I found one of our young female ducks (Daisy) with an oviduct prolapse. I took her straight to the avian vet that day where they pushed the prolapse back in several times over the next few hours, and eventually put a stitch in her cloaca before I brought her back home to care for her.
The next day at lunchtime my partner found one of our other girls (Lilly), who had looked completely healthy and normal in the morning, lying upside down in the garden. I rushed down to look at her and saw it was too late to help her. She’d been dead for at least an hour already, but I couldn’t see any sign of anything that could’ve caused it. No injuries, no sign of a predator attack, no blood. She was in a position out in the open on the grass close to the water tub where she liked to spend her time, and upside down so it looked like whatever had killed her, she’d had a bit of a struggle with her body flipping around, but that it must’ve been relatively sudden and quick. It was such a shock to find her like that. She was such a loveable big goofy girl (an Appleyard) and I just imagined that she must’ve tried to swallow something lying around the garden that got caught in her throat and had a brief struggle trying to get it out before she passed, either that or a heart attack, or something of that nature.
The next day I took Daisy back to the vet as she was deteriorating. Part of her prolapse had pushed past her stitches, and she was no longer interested in eating anything. Later that afternoon, she also stopped being interested in drinking any water, and by evening she had passed away in my arms.
What bad luck! In my 18 years of keeping ducks I’ve been so incredibly lucky and nearly all have died of old age. I’ve been worried about the rest of my flock, and surprised that a prolapse could cause death so quickly without something else also going on, but after a few days the rest of the flock seemed fine so I thought it must just be a terrible coincidence losing the two girls in the space of 2 days.
Now my heart is really breaking. Tonight I found Hazel my special girl, also with a bleeding prolapse. She had looked fine when I let her out in the morning to free range.
I have a 10 week old newborn baby at home so I haven’t been able to watch my ducks as closely or as often as I normally would, but I’ve been paying closer attention since the first 2 deaths and they’ve all seemed heathy and fine when I check on them, even the old 16.5 year old drake Walter.
Does anyone know of any infectious duck diseases that could cause prolapse or haemorrhaging in ducks?
I’ve not had ANY cases of prolapse before this in 18 years and now suddenly 2 girls, plus another unexplained sudden death. We do have a pair of wild ducks that visit our garden every day, but the same pair have been coming for about 5 years now so that’s not new, and they seem completely healthy (although they could be carrying something). I’ve been ploughing through avian vet manuals online, and other posts on this forum but haven’t been able to find much…. I’ve looked up avian flu symptoms, but they seem to be mostly respiratory symptoms.
If there’s anything at all I can do to save Hazel I will, but I don’t hold out much hope considering what happened to Daisy. I’m scared I’m going to loose my whole flock, one by one. Please help!
It’s a long time since I’ve posted here, but I’m in desperate need of help and would really appreciate any thoughts or advice you can offer.
Almost 3 weeks ago I found one of our young female ducks (Daisy) with an oviduct prolapse. I took her straight to the avian vet that day where they pushed the prolapse back in several times over the next few hours, and eventually put a stitch in her cloaca before I brought her back home to care for her.
The next day at lunchtime my partner found one of our other girls (Lilly), who had looked completely healthy and normal in the morning, lying upside down in the garden. I rushed down to look at her and saw it was too late to help her. She’d been dead for at least an hour already, but I couldn’t see any sign of anything that could’ve caused it. No injuries, no sign of a predator attack, no blood. She was in a position out in the open on the grass close to the water tub where she liked to spend her time, and upside down so it looked like whatever had killed her, she’d had a bit of a struggle with her body flipping around, but that it must’ve been relatively sudden and quick. It was such a shock to find her like that. She was such a loveable big goofy girl (an Appleyard) and I just imagined that she must’ve tried to swallow something lying around the garden that got caught in her throat and had a brief struggle trying to get it out before she passed, either that or a heart attack, or something of that nature.
The next day I took Daisy back to the vet as she was deteriorating. Part of her prolapse had pushed past her stitches, and she was no longer interested in eating anything. Later that afternoon, she also stopped being interested in drinking any water, and by evening she had passed away in my arms.
What bad luck! In my 18 years of keeping ducks I’ve been so incredibly lucky and nearly all have died of old age. I’ve been worried about the rest of my flock, and surprised that a prolapse could cause death so quickly without something else also going on, but after a few days the rest of the flock seemed fine so I thought it must just be a terrible coincidence losing the two girls in the space of 2 days.
Now my heart is really breaking. Tonight I found Hazel my special girl, also with a bleeding prolapse. She had looked fine when I let her out in the morning to free range.
I have a 10 week old newborn baby at home so I haven’t been able to watch my ducks as closely or as often as I normally would, but I’ve been paying closer attention since the first 2 deaths and they’ve all seemed heathy and fine when I check on them, even the old 16.5 year old drake Walter.
Does anyone know of any infectious duck diseases that could cause prolapse or haemorrhaging in ducks?
I’ve not had ANY cases of prolapse before this in 18 years and now suddenly 2 girls, plus another unexplained sudden death. We do have a pair of wild ducks that visit our garden every day, but the same pair have been coming for about 5 years now so that’s not new, and they seem completely healthy (although they could be carrying something). I’ve been ploughing through avian vet manuals online, and other posts on this forum but haven’t been able to find much…. I’ve looked up avian flu symptoms, but they seem to be mostly respiratory symptoms.
If there’s anything at all I can do to save Hazel I will, but I don’t hold out much hope considering what happened to Daisy. I’m scared I’m going to loose my whole flock, one by one. Please help!
Quite a bit of blood and small clots coming away from her rear end. I’m not game to fiddle around with it tonight or try to push it back in incase I damage her further somehow. For now she still seems in relatively good spirits….
