- May 2, 2011
- 4
- 1
- 7
I hope I'm doing this right, it's my first time here. One of my four white crested ducks (seven weeks old, large and well feathered, but unsure of weight) has been acting strange for a few days. He seemed to trip while we were rounding them up a few nights ago, and he didn't get up right away when I approached him. I helped him up and he limped away, but we decided to see how he felt in the morning. He seemed fine all the next day, but yesterday I saw him fall off the very low ramp that leads to the wading pool, and he flapped around on the ground for a moment and then lay still. As I approached him, he lay totally limp in sort of an odd pose. I helped him up again, and after struggling with balance for a few minutes, he collected himself. He carried his neck tucked way in all day, and continues to do so today. He walks slowly, but keeps up with his flock, although he doesn't forage like the rest. I've seen him take a few drinks of water, and he can move his neck but doesn't seem to want to move it very far. My husband approached him today and he made a weak attempt to waddle away, then appeared to seize up, arching his back and sticking his legs out in the air. After my husband held him a while, he collected himself again and walked off.
I've been googling and all I've found so far on limp neck is botulism, but I have a hard time imagining how he'd contract it. Four ducks live in our medium-sized backyard, share a 4x4' A-frame duck house, and eat and drink out of the same bowls, and they all drink out of their wading pool, but so far only #3 duck swims in it. The pool gets dumped and rinsed every few days, and we muck out their bedding frequently. I'm pretty sure there's no rotting anything on the place that would make botulism seem likely. It's also been quite cool and mild here, so I wouldn't think that little-used pool water would be breeding very strong germs. All ducks share the same resources, and only #4 is affected. The poop in the house looks pretty uniform, I did notice some dark greenish poo a couple days ago, but figured that was because they were foraging in the grass all day. They've only had full run of the backyard for a couple weeks, but all has been normal up until now.
I just feel terrible, these are our first ducks and I felt like I was taking good care of them until now. I've done a bit of reading, but I guess I wasn't prepared for this. Any ideas? They're not pets, we're keeping them for slug control and meat, so I don't want to spend a fortune on vets. I'm just scared that the others could get sick as well.
I've been googling and all I've found so far on limp neck is botulism, but I have a hard time imagining how he'd contract it. Four ducks live in our medium-sized backyard, share a 4x4' A-frame duck house, and eat and drink out of the same bowls, and they all drink out of their wading pool, but so far only #3 duck swims in it. The pool gets dumped and rinsed every few days, and we muck out their bedding frequently. I'm pretty sure there's no rotting anything on the place that would make botulism seem likely. It's also been quite cool and mild here, so I wouldn't think that little-used pool water would be breeding very strong germs. All ducks share the same resources, and only #4 is affected. The poop in the house looks pretty uniform, I did notice some dark greenish poo a couple days ago, but figured that was because they were foraging in the grass all day. They've only had full run of the backyard for a couple weeks, but all has been normal up until now.
I just feel terrible, these are our first ducks and I felt like I was taking good care of them until now. I've done a bit of reading, but I guess I wasn't prepared for this. Any ideas? They're not pets, we're keeping them for slug control and meat, so I don't want to spend a fortune on vets. I'm just scared that the others could get sick as well.
