Sudden duckling death?

[duckducksnooze]

Hey it's me again. Bad luck these days...

I picked up three new ducklings (maybe 8 weeks old or so, still had wing feathers coming in) from someone who has lots of birds and other animals. The conditions there looked fine and all the animals looked happy. We put the three of them in the cage in my suv trunk and I left for home. When I got home, I put them in an outdoor pen we have to give them more space so I could observe them for a couple days before adding them to the flock. Two were completely fine and happy, but the other wouldn't stand up. I picked her up and put her in the pen.. she walked 3 feet then, wobbly, then sat down. I put her back in the cage and brought her in the house. By the time I got water she was already nodding off. She was having a hard time keeping her head up. Within 2 minutes she died.

The others still seem great.. but this only happened an hour ago. Maybe when the guy caught her in the net he bonked her head with the frame? Maybe stress/heart attack? Maybe she hurt herself in the cage. I have no clue it is really strange.

Not really sure what I'm expecting to hear from others on this. Maybe if you've had a similar thing happen? The other two will stay isolated for a couple days to make sure it's not contagious.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Hey it's me again. Bad luck these days...

I picked up three new ducklings (maybe 8 weeks old or so, still had wing feathers coming in) from someone who has lots of birds and other animals. The conditions there looked fine and all the animals looked happy. We put the three of them in the cage in my suv trunk and I left for home. When I got home, I put them in an outdoor pen we have to give them more space so I could observe them for a couple days before adding them to the flock. Two were completely fine and happy, but the other wouldn't stand up. I picked her up and put her in the pen.. she walked 3 feet then, wobbly, then sat down. I put her back in the cage and brought her in the house. By the time I got water she was already nodding off. She was having a hard time keeping her head up. Within 2 minutes she died.

The others still seem great.. but this only happened an hour ago. Maybe when the guy caught her in the net he bonked her head with the frame? Maybe stress/heart attack? Maybe she hurt herself in the cage. I have no clue it is really strange.

Not really sure what I'm expecting to hear from others on this. Maybe if you've had a similar thing happen? The other two will stay isolated for a couple days to make sure it's not contagious.

oh dear i’m sorry , that’s so sad, poor thing.
with wing feathers still coming in sounds more like 4 to maybe 6 weeks old. but anyway if you have some electrolytes might be good to give some to the other 2 in case it was stress related. I guess being caught and caged and transferred is stressful so maybe 12 hours of electrolyte water and then back to regular water. i bet they are so cute, got any pics to share?

 

[duckducksnooze]

oh dear i’m sorry , that’s so sad, poor thing.
with wing feathers still coming in sounds more like 4 to maybe 6 weeks old. but anyway if you have some electrolytes might be good to give some to the other 2 in case it was stress related. I guess being caught and caged and transferred is stressful so maybe 12 hours of electrolyte water and then back to regular water. i bet they are so cute, got any pics to share?

I'm still a green duck owner so I always under or overestimate their ages. Time flies when you're having fun right!?

The other two still seem great. I'll post some pictures when we get them settled in for the night. It's 1 runner and 1 khaki.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Very sorry for your loss.