Please Help! 😭 2 ducks have died & now 3rd one is also sick with a bleeding prolapse

[Jenbirdee]

Good idea. I’ll try that in the morning (just doing the 2am feed with bub now). I do get a bit nervous about syringing watery liquids in their beaks because of the risk of aspiration (more confident with syrupy meds), but I’ll give it a go.

get this

and follow this https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

give 1 ml per day
and I assume you already give crushed oyster shell on the side so they can always help themselves to it?

 

[OliveGreen]

get thisView attachment 3957761and follow this https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

give 1 ml per day
and I assume you already give crushed oyster shell on the side so they can always help themselves to it?

Thanks Jen,
Yes I give crushed shell grit in a bowl next to the food so they can help themselves, although every now and again (maybe once or twice over the past 5 years) one of the girls will still have trouble passing an egg, but usually they will go into hiding, pump their tail and look obviously unwell so I can intervene with liquid calcium before things get out of control.

I have a similar liquid calcium at home, a different brand though as I’m in Australia.

 

[SilveryMoon888]

Not sure whether my experience relates?
Yesterday (07 Nov 2024) I brought home a 1.5 - 2.5 year old peahen. She was blanketed and on my lap for 45 minutes on the way home. She did pee on me quite a bit? She settled in (the other peas liked her and she roosted with them last night). This morning she was "paralysed" on the ground, so I wrapped her and proceeded to the house. She did not make the "journey" to the house, and died. The blanket had pee on it again (not as much as yesterday) and on examination I noticed a "prolapse" of anus/vagina? I'm devastated : (

 

[SilveryMoon888]

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!

I am wondering what their diet is like; do you feed them grains as well?

 

[SilveryMoon888]

Thanks Jen,
Yes I give crushed shell grit in a bowl next to the food so they can help themselves, although every now and again (maybe once or twice over the past 5 years) one of the girls will still have trouble passing an egg, but usually they will go into hiding, pump their tail and look obviously unwell so I can intervene with liquid calcium before things get out of control.

I have a similar liquid calcium at home, a different brand though as I’m in Australia.

Hi Olive, I too am from Australia NSW, and am new to keeping chooks. So far so good, with only one hen missing a day of laying every so often. I give them oyster shell grit, and thought this was for calcium, not knowing that it will help with egg blockage (can't think of the correct term right now : )

 

[Moon888]

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!

I have read that if an egg is stuck inside your duck, she may prolapse. People have mentioned giving them calcium ... in the form of powder, crushed oyster shell, and even crushed chicken shell ... I hope I am correct in what I say (as I am replying from memory of past reads)

 

[Moon888]

My birds (peafowl, ducks, hens and guineas) to date have not had prolapse, and I make sure that I give them oyster shells and sometimes crushed chicken egg shells (calcium). My birds freerange whenever it is not too rainy (we have had excessive rainy weather over the past few of years in AU?).
Then I recently bought a female pea, who died the next day with prolapse. I thought there was "pee" on the blanket, and have since found out (from a member here) that peafowl do not "pee" (only poo). So the dark yellow on the blanket must have been egg yolk. On the way home, after collecting her, I held her on my lap (with her head covered of course), and my dress was pretty wet when we got home (I assumed that she had "peed" on me). This all seems to indicate that there was an egg blockage, which broke, and she must have had an infection too. I will attach a rather graphic pic (for educational purposes)