sickly duckling: UPDATE

[HSerChickLady]

I have one Crested duckling that I brought home that is still not doing well. I brought them home from TSC this past Wednesday. Right from the start this duckling seemed to be having trouble. I changed my brooder set-up to make things warmer and that seemed to help. At least then it was up eating and drinking instead of hiding under the Brinsea brooder all the time. I also changed to Nutri-Drench in the water instead of Save-A-Chick. The little one seemed to be doing better but was still the smallest one in the batch and always had it's eyes closed a bit compared to the others. Yesterday afternoon it started opening it's bill a touch with each breath and it is still doing that. I'm not sure what to do next? All the others are doing fine including the one other that was having some trouble with getting knocked over at first. That problem cleared with the Nutri-Drench.

I can run to TSC and get some meds if you think it's necessary. I can also change food if you think that might be the problem. They're eating DuMor Chick Starter since that's what the store was feeding them. I am not a DuMor fan however so would have no qualms about changing if it's thought to be helpful. I plan to change them to Agway in another week or so anyhow to a lower protein grower feed. If I need meds what do I need? Our vet isn't open today or I'd see about getting it in for a visit but they were closed by the time I got home yesterday.

Thanks for any and all help. Hopefully we can figure out something to help this little one get better and catch up in growing.

See my update below! 3/24/14

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have one Crested duckling that I brought home that is still not doing well. I brought them home from TSC this past Wednesday. Right from the start this duckling seemed to be having trouble. I changed my brooder set-up to make things warmer and that seemed to help. At least then it was up eating and drinking instead of hiding under the Brinsea brooder all the time. I also changed to Nutri-Drench in the water instead of Save-A-Chick. The little one seemed to be doing better but was still the smallest one in the batch and always had it's eyes closed a bit compared to the others. Yesterday afternoon it started opening it's bill a touch with each breath and it is still doing that. I'm not sure what to do next? All the others are doing fine including the one other that was having some trouble with getting knocked over at first. That problem cleared with the Nutri-Drench.

I can run to TSC and get some meds if you think it's necessary. I can also change food if you think that might be the problem. They're eating DuMor Chick Starter since that's what the store was feeding them. I am not a DuMor fan however so would have no qualms about changing if it's thought to be helpful. I plan to change them to Agway in another week or so anyhow to a lower protein grower feed. If I need meds what do I need? Our vet isn't open today or I'd see about getting it in for a visit but they were closed by the time I got home yesterday.

Thanks for any and all help. Hopefully we can figure out something to help this little one get better and catch up in growing.

This may help you understand a little more about crested ducklings, https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/857143/treating-wry-neck-in-crested-duckling-edited-title not sure what meds would help and you don't want to give antibiotics if they aren't necessary that can just start a whole new set of problems. The Nutri Drench is a good one and have you tried dripping some just inside her bill,it can be given straight from the bottle. you can gently wrap her in a hand towel [may cause less stress] and try getting her to take some ND that way. I'd also try a bit of brewers yeast sprinkled over their feed. Just till you see marked improvement in this lil one that needs an extra boost.

 

[HSerChickLady]

Thanks. I read through about half the posts on that link. I had no idea that we were possibly getting into a mess with these guys. I just knew they were the kind my son wanted and we'd never seen them in stores before so we got them before they were gone. Even if we had ordered he would have picked the same kind. Maybe we should have gone with the Buffs my daughter wanted. Next time I guess. And we won't be breeding these guys that's for sure.

I think we're going to make a trip to the feed store we've mostly switched over to and see what they have for options for feed. I'd like to get this ducky something higher quality to eat and see if they can order me Mazzuri waterfowl feeds for both the ducklings and my adult ducks. My older ducks have done fine on local feeds but I'm afraid we're in store for something more if I don't have these Crested's on a superior diet.

I don't want to do antibiotics if I can help it. So i'll skip them for now I guess.

I'm going to go weigh this duckling again and see if it's gained anything since last night. When I weighed it then it was half the size of the biggest duckling in there. Poor thing.

 

[HSerChickLady]

I was wondering if it could be a problem with too much calcium? The DuMor food has 1%-1.7% calcium plus there is some in the ND. I was reading through my book this morning and it was saying a lot of 'illnesses' are in fact nutritional problems either lacking or excess.

I wonder if broiler feed would be better too instead of regular chick feed for now since those are my only options at the moment? I have oatmeal to dilute the protein level.

 

[Speceider]

I was wondering if it could be a problem with too much calcium?  The DuMor food has 1%-1.7% calcium plus there is some in the ND.  I was reading through my book this morning and it was saying a lot of 'illnesses' are in fact nutritional problems either lacking or excess.

I wonder if broiler feed would be better too instead of regular chick feed for now since those are my only options at the moment?  I have oatmeal to dilute the protein level.

Keep in mind that it isn't just protein.. ..it's amino acids that are important.. ..diluting the protein with oatmeal screws up the amino acid composition. I never suggest doing that.

Clint

 

[HSerChickLady]

Keep in mind that it isn't just protein.. ..it's amino acids that are important.. ..diluting the protein with oatmeal screws up the amino acid composition. I never suggest doing that.

Clint

I was afraid of that. I only considered doing it because the book suggests it.

 

[HSerChickLady]

If my only feed choices are Purina and Agway what is the best choice for ducklings? I might be able to get my hands on Blue Seal or Nutrena as well but I'm not sure until I get to the store later. I know they carry all the Agway feeds but only some of the others and TSC only has Purina.

With my adult ducks I fed them DuMor chick starter until 2ish weeks then changed them to Blue Seal Grower-Cal until they started laying and now they are on the Purina Omega Plus pellets. They're all super healthy. The only supplements they've ever gotten beyond electrolytes for the first week or so was brewer's yeast when growing and Ultra Kibble.

 

[Speceider]

I don't have any basis to recommend one brand over another. The labels don't give enough information to evaluate them.. ..I have asked for the info I would like, but either the companies don't reply or say it's proprietary. I would look for 18% protein, add Brewers yeast.

Personally, I do not think it is nutritional.

Clint

 

[HSerChickLady]

OK, thanks. That's what I had found last time with the different manufacturers. I guess I will just keep track of it and see what happens. I can't get to the vet till at least Tuesday if they have a vet that will see it then. Only certain vets will treat certain types of animals.

 

[HSerChickLady]

Here's an update:

Yesterday afternoon I noticed 2 more doing the same thing as the tiny duckling. After watching them for a while I noticed that they were also the one's with the dirty faces. Upon closer inspection I noticed they all had plugged nostrils! Anything with a stuffy nose is going to mouth breath. The Nutri-Drench is sticky enough they were getting very dirty from it and it was also plugging their nostrils. So those 3 got put into a plastic washtub with a towel on the bottom and shown what fun it is to play in a bowl of warm water. 2 were willing participants and got cleaned up pretty nicely. The 3rd one didn't want anything to do with the water but I managed to get 1 nostril cleared so it's only mouth breathing a tiny bit now. I went back to the Save-A-Chick in their water last night and this morning since it's not sticky. I'm also going to try the face baths again this afternoon since these 3 don't seam to play in the water like the other 3 do that aren't having this problem.

I also weighed the tiny one that's been having so much trouble and it gained 4 grams overnight! It hadn't gained anything at all for 2 days so tiny as this may be it is gain and i'll take it.

Now I'm just praying this really was all that was wrong with them and that as they grow they discover water is super fun and keep themselves washed up better on their own. And hopefully the tiny one will keep gaining-it's got a LOT of catching up to do. We're also hopeful that once we get them onto a grower feed in a week or so that their growth will even out. There are huge growth differences in these babies so I'm inclined to think this food doesn't agree with all of them quite as well as it does for some of them. We were going to change them yesterday but the only options for us are in 50 lb bags and they are going to be 2 weeks old in a week so it would never get eaten up before they are supposed to drop down to a lower protein level.