Sweet Emily Duckling Having Issues?

[JFreeman]

A few days ago, my Sweet Emily started having seizures. She has had several over a period of two days before I was finally able to subdue them. Thinking we may be in the clear, I kept a close eye on her, and she seemed to be okay.

Since then, she has lost weight, stopped eating, and mostly just stands in one place. She drinks when's taking her daily bath, and she doesn't poop much (nothing like the others), and what comes out is green. I have tried tempting her with dried mealworms, mashed potatoes, and regular crumbled chick starter/grower (waterfowl starter isn't offered locally).

When she takes her baths, she acts like a typical duck bathing for a few minutes, but then she goes back to just standing there. She doesn't care if she's not around the other ducks. She doesn't call for them or anything... What can I do?

 

[Amiga]

Is she getting supplemental niacin? If she is on chick starter she may be sensitive to niacin deficiency, and that can be awful.

Here is something I shared with another thread earlier.

As I wrote, please bear with me - I want to avoid confusion about the types of niacin, and brewer's yeast.

I would go with brewer's yeast. Forgive me for using capital letters, but for anyone else who may casually look over this thread, NOT baking yeast, NOT winemaking yeast. Brewer's yeast is a nutritional supplement and it provides niacin and a few other vitamins.

Ducklings need about three times the niacin chicks do. And some ducklings get leg problems or seizures if they don't have enough niacin.

If you cannot find the brewer's yeast, or if you happen to have (here come the capital letters again, please forgive me) PLAIN niacin - NOT no-flush, NOT timed release, then dissolve 150 mg niacin per gallon of water for the duckling’s drinking water.

Keep the little one on the supplements for about 8 weeks.

Sometimes it only takes a few days to see improvement.

You can also see how it went for Qwackers and Bentley from these threads.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/857143/treating-wry-neck-in-crested-duckling-edited-title

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/761308/peking-duckling-with-crooked-neck-help

 

[JFreeman]

Luckily, I know what Brewers Yeast is. I'll have to look into that. I have started her on regular niacin. That's what stopped the seizures. I'll go buy some BY tomorrow... hopefully we'll get this fixed.

 

[Amiga]

It is also possible she may have some kind of infection - a vet's help is good, and I understand sometimes not a possibility.

 

[JFreeman]

Our local vets don't look at ducks. The only place that will is a 45 minute drive away that just isn't possible.

She has started eating mealworms during her bath times, so I guess I'll try putting her normal food in the bath and see if she'll eat it.