Scootchycat
In the Brooder
- May 2, 2025
- 7
- 2
- 12
Hi everyone, so I have my 7/8month old call duck girl here. Shes been acting funny today. I first noticed she was a lot slower than her sister and taking long sitting breaks even when I had her favorite treats earth worms. She hasn’t been eating very much at all, she won’t eat her regular food but she will have some peas time to time. She is drinking. She is doing something odd with her tail, it’s like a light tail pumping, and her breathing is heavy. Her energy isn’t the greatest but shes not like super lethargic.
Here’s a little background. Yesterday I decided to separate the two boys from the two females because I realized thag boys cannot eat layer food. Their pens/runs are right uo against each other so the only thing separating them is a chicken wire fence. So they can see each other and at night in their coops they sleep together. It’s just during the day they are separated. So I was thinking maybe Shes depressed from being separated from the boys? Not only have they been separated but the two females now live with our 7 chickens during the day. The chickens and ducks do get along and they have no problems with each other but I can see that it may be a bit stressful being so outnumbered on top of not having their boys around. So thats just another option that could be causing her strange behavior but that doesn’t explain her breathing or tail pumping. I did feel her abdomen and look at her butt and I don’t think I feel anything off and I definitely don’t see anything off. Shes never laid an egg before so this would be her first one. And I wanted to add that one of our males is a black Swedish duck who is much larger than her. So if it was one of his eggs than it could be hard for her to pass if it’s larger than what she would usually lay.
So what I’ve done for her so far is I separated her from her sister, took her in the house in the bathroom and put her in a warm bath. I made it nice and warm in the bathroom and I was going to add epsom salt but I was super scared shed drink the water so I held off on that part until I got feedback from all y’all on here.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and any info or suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated and I’d be forever grateful! Thank you please help I don’t want to lose her, so early intervention would probably help her chances!
Here’s a little background. Yesterday I decided to separate the two boys from the two females because I realized thag boys cannot eat layer food. Their pens/runs are right uo against each other so the only thing separating them is a chicken wire fence. So they can see each other and at night in their coops they sleep together. It’s just during the day they are separated. So I was thinking maybe Shes depressed from being separated from the boys? Not only have they been separated but the two females now live with our 7 chickens during the day. The chickens and ducks do get along and they have no problems with each other but I can see that it may be a bit stressful being so outnumbered on top of not having their boys around. So thats just another option that could be causing her strange behavior but that doesn’t explain her breathing or tail pumping. I did feel her abdomen and look at her butt and I don’t think I feel anything off and I definitely don’t see anything off. Shes never laid an egg before so this would be her first one. And I wanted to add that one of our males is a black Swedish duck who is much larger than her. So if it was one of his eggs than it could be hard for her to pass if it’s larger than what she would usually lay.
So what I’ve done for her so far is I separated her from her sister, took her in the house in the bathroom and put her in a warm bath. I made it nice and warm in the bathroom and I was going to add epsom salt but I was super scared shed drink the water so I held off on that part until I got feedback from all y’all on here.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and any info or suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated and I’d be forever grateful! Thank you please help I don’t want to lose her, so early intervention would probably help her chances!
