sick duck

[Murdock624]

Just out of curiosity, what feed have you been using?

Although, I did pick up some Purina duck feed and offered that to her too. She wasn't interested in it either.

 

[Hlmyers]

I don't think this will give you any encouragement but this is very weird because I had the exact same thing happen to one of my fawn/white runner ducks in November. She was lethargic, just standing around. Didn't move when I went to pick her up. Didn't eat etc. She had always been fine and very healthy I thought.

I set up a pen for her in our dining room because that was during one of the times when we were having a bad cold spell. Doesn't everyone have a duck in their dining room?

She was warm, had water and food but wasn't interested. All she did was just stand there or lay down. Poop was like yours. I gave her b-complex, calcium gluconate, baytril, and activated charcoal (not all at once) and ended up tube-feeding her.

She was in the house for a couple of weeks and died in my arms after a tube feeding. She weighed practically nothing by that time. I have no idea what was wrong. She did have a suspect bumble on her foot as yours does but it just didn't look bad enough to cause what was going on.

There is an avian vet in Marietta but unfortunately, he was on vacation so I couldn't bring her in. If you want his name let me know.

Ugh, I am so sorry that happened to you I recently went through something similar with one of my (very imprinted) sweet ducks, Cookie, and ended up having to put her to sleep. It happened over just three days from the time she starting showing symptoms; weak, lethargic, laying alone most of the day, etc. Did your girl start to show any neurological symptoms? Like moving her her weird or anything like that?

I did make the decision to have a necropsy done. It was not an easy decision, but I had to do it to make sure my other four duckies wouldn't suffer the same fate. I'm still waiting on the results!

 

[DuckyDonna]

Ugh, I am so sorry that happened to you I recently went through something similar with one of my (very imprinted) sweet ducks, Cookie, and ended up having to put her to sleep. It happened over just three days from the time she starting showing symptoms; weak, lethargic, laying alone most of the day, etc. Did your girl start to show any neurological symptoms? Like moving her her weird or anything like that?

I did make the decision to have a necropsy done. It was not an easy decision, but I had to do it to make sure my other four duckies wouldn't suffer the same fate. I'm still waiting on the results!

I'm so sorry that your little girl died also. It's so hard to watch them going through sickness and not be able to help. You try so hard to help them yet nothing works. I wonder if there was an internal problem like cancer or some bad reproductive issue that did her in.

No, I didn't notice anything neurological going on with her at all. She just stood still most of the time and then would lie down eventually. I thought it strange that she'd stand instead of laying down. You'd think if she felt that bad she'd want to lay down. She was always such a happy active duck until suddenly something happened and she wasn't any longer.

I'm very interested in what the necropsy shows so if you wouldn't mind posting that please do.

I've got 2 more girls with black growths of some kind. One on her top bill and another with something on the top of her foot. IDK what the heck they are but neither seems to bother either duck. The one with the "thing" on her bill gets hers bleeding once in a while when she scrapes it on something. It's very vascular and used to be the size of a golf ball sitting up on her top bill. It has since deflated some so it's not as noticeable. It's very soft and I was hoping it would just dry up and disappear but it doesn't seem to want to do that. I want to pick at it so bad but I'll get it bleeding if I do. I sent that vet in Marietta pictures and he told me it looked like a tumor and there was really nothing he could do for her since it is on her bill. Nothing to sew to if he took it off.

My egg production is way down too. The most I get is 4 eggs a day from 10 girls and I have no idea what's up with that! I've started making my own duck food so I know what they are getting each day and I'm at a loss as to what to do about this. Everything is so upside down these days!

 

[Murdock624]

I never did post an update. Our duck made a full recovery and is back to normal. I still don't know what was wrong with her. Maybe it was something she ate? I kept her inside for a few days and kept her warm. Peas were the only thing she was interested in eating for a couple days and I put some B12 in her water. She's back out with the flock and is happy as she can be. I'm very thankful for all the help and advice on here.