Hello all, hoping for some insight or experience here.
We have a 1 year old Swedish Black female duck that we obtained with another girl from a trusted source on June 12th.
on June 24th in the AM she presented with laboured breathing and open mouth panting, she seemed unable to lay down or settle and kept her neck extended while open mouth breathing. We immediately brought her indoors to isolate in a dark room. She was initially provided with homemade electrolytes (sugar water basically) and a warm tub followed by a dark space. We had oral Tylan antibiotics that we gave her after consultation. It looked grim and she didnt look like she would make it through the night (our vet didnt think so either). We ordered VetRX and Nutridrench overnight.
Surprisingly she made it through the weekend and even ate 3 scrambled eggs, drank all her tylan and sugar water and even laid an egg so we knew she was a fighter. We consulted the vet and agreed on a course of treatment for a respiratory infection. She was provided injectable Tylan (1 needle 2 days in a row followed by 7 days off and 1 needle 2 days in a row again) along with pain meds. we continued to give VetRX in spray form, in her bath and on her head etc.
Within 3 hours of the first shot she was way better, breathing was still laboured but not open mouth and not obviously straining to breathe as much. By day 2 she was quacking and after her 2nd shot on day 2 we seem to have turned a corner and it appeared all would be well. Energy level was up, she resumed eating regular feed (we gave her options, regular feed, fermented, greens/fruit and scrambled eggs). she was getting nutridrench in her water and being taken out to go in a tub 1-2x a day to clean herself and stretch her legs.
By Friday however of the same week (3 days after the 2nd Tylan shot) she deteriorated again. She's again open mouth panting, not settling and then a new symptom was she could no longer quack (before even though she struggled to breathe she could still quack you off when you went to her ). Under vet consult we were advised to give her the 3rd Tylan shot yesterday (2 days early) and the 2nd one tonight. We hoped for improvement overnight again but no such luck. still laboured wheezy breathing. What could cause her to react so wonderfullly to the anti biotics to start off with but then decline quickly and not respond to further doses? No one else in the flock (including the female Rouen she came with) are presenting any symptoms. no discharge from eyes or nose and no other obvious symptoms other than Green or yellow poop (even when she doesnt eat any greens and only crumble/pellet feed)
Is it possible she had 2 issues? a respiratory infection that was cleared by the antibiotics which allowed a fungus or Aspergillosis to take over? is there any other possibility and anything else i may be missing doing for this sweet girl?
**Update to this post. Throughout the day her breathing worstened and became more rapid and she was clearly uncomfortable. She passed away .....
We have a 1 year old Swedish Black female duck that we obtained with another girl from a trusted source on June 12th.
on June 24th in the AM she presented with laboured breathing and open mouth panting, she seemed unable to lay down or settle and kept her neck extended while open mouth breathing. We immediately brought her indoors to isolate in a dark room. She was initially provided with homemade electrolytes (sugar water basically) and a warm tub followed by a dark space. We had oral Tylan antibiotics that we gave her after consultation. It looked grim and she didnt look like she would make it through the night (our vet didnt think so either). We ordered VetRX and Nutridrench overnight.
Surprisingly she made it through the weekend and even ate 3 scrambled eggs, drank all her tylan and sugar water and even laid an egg so we knew she was a fighter. We consulted the vet and agreed on a course of treatment for a respiratory infection. She was provided injectable Tylan (1 needle 2 days in a row followed by 7 days off and 1 needle 2 days in a row again) along with pain meds. we continued to give VetRX in spray form, in her bath and on her head etc.
Within 3 hours of the first shot she was way better, breathing was still laboured but not open mouth and not obviously straining to breathe as much. By day 2 she was quacking and after her 2nd shot on day 2 we seem to have turned a corner and it appeared all would be well. Energy level was up, she resumed eating regular feed (we gave her options, regular feed, fermented, greens/fruit and scrambled eggs). she was getting nutridrench in her water and being taken out to go in a tub 1-2x a day to clean herself and stretch her legs.
By Friday however of the same week (3 days after the 2nd Tylan shot) she deteriorated again. She's again open mouth panting, not settling and then a new symptom was she could no longer quack (before even though she struggled to breathe she could still quack you off when you went to her ). Under vet consult we were advised to give her the 3rd Tylan shot yesterday (2 days early) and the 2nd one tonight. We hoped for improvement overnight again but no such luck. still laboured wheezy breathing. What could cause her to react so wonderfullly to the anti biotics to start off with but then decline quickly and not respond to further doses? No one else in the flock (including the female Rouen she came with) are presenting any symptoms. no discharge from eyes or nose and no other obvious symptoms other than Green or yellow poop (even when she doesnt eat any greens and only crumble/pellet feed)
Is it possible she had 2 issues? a respiratory infection that was cleared by the antibiotics which allowed a fungus or Aspergillosis to take over? is there any other possibility and anything else i may be missing doing for this sweet girl?
**Update to this post. Throughout the day her breathing worstened and became more rapid and she was clearly uncomfortable. She passed away .....
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