The khaki-Campbell duck Thread !!!!!!!!

[Carcajou]

Got my baby ducklings today ... i am very excited we are new to the duck world and i ended up with one khaki campbell, a rouen, and two white peking ducklings our family is very happy and cant wait to watch the little ones grow up!! My daughter and son named all the little ones today you are meeting brownie, fluffy, carolina, and sammy <3

Enjoy them!

 

[Carcajou]

1.5 inches of rain and still coming. My four Khakis are loving it! Foraging around in the vegetable gardens. Far cry from a year ago when their pond was surrounded by 3 feet of snow.

 

[KatieLoo]

My girls!

Ethel and Harriet!

 

[holysmokinkitty]

Showing off my ladies and gents!

 

[KJ6485]

My 3 day old babies. First ever ducks! We are having so much fun with them they are very sweet and adorable!

 

[cawtlc]

Could the food be getting contaminated in some way

WHen I buy a bag, it gets emptied in to a big plastic dispenser in my heated, dry tack room with my horse food etc. I try to let the bin go empty first, so i don't have a bunch of old food at the bottom. I change it out in their coop 2x a day.

 

[cawtlc]

Just my opinions and I do HVAC work so I know nothing about medicine or medical advice and I should not be listened to- my disclaimer.

NO bacteria in the droppings at all? Are you feeding antibiotics or anything that would kill all bacteria? Sounds like even the probiotics are not working. Maybe if poisoning it is killing the bacteria too?

If it were me, and this will take a couple days, I would start feeding fermented food and stop the dry powder probiotics because it takes them so much time to reactivate that they are really not that effective. Fermented feed is loved once they get used to it and then they will demand it. Very easy to make until you research further- just take your feed, soak in water and leave it in a warm place for about 4 days. If you have some real sourkraut or kefir or other fermented foods you can use the liquid as a starter and have some activate in a day or two. You can also soak the food in water and put one or two of your probiotic pills or whatever into it and the probiotics should activate by morning.

If poisioning you can try activated carbon charcoal, which is what they put in fish filters. It will suck toxins out- vets give it sometimes- their form is a little gray pill and it does the same as the granuals from what I am told. I gave some to a dog I have one time that went crazy eating apples- little known fact is the seed in apples contain what we call arsenic, so my dog was poisioned and was pooping his guts out. Gave him the charcoal and it cleared up.

My guess- most likely the scraps you are giving has something the ducks shouldn't have like advocado peels or something you wouldn't think much about like green potato peels. Someone here will post what they shouldn't eat. It has been posted in this thread but is back about 5 or 10 posts by now. I know because I asked for the list.

First, she died yesterday. So, I'm going to ask if my vet will necropsy.
I like your disclaimer.
Well, the vet was looking for the obvious culprits of parasites/bacteria (coccidia, and streptococcous?)
She was on Tylan off and on, when her bouts would happen. She'd perk up and get better, she'd be on probiotics & electrolytes for birds.
She wasn't eating anything, but was drinking so it would go in her water jsut like the tylan did. When she'd perk up she'd eat again.
I never fed scraps of food except cukes, tomato and lettuce. Otherwise, they got their own treats - i bought them their own peas, corn, lettuce & well, they'd share the kale with me .
I'm heartbroken over her loss. I feel like I really failed her.

 

[nchvac]

First, she died yesterday. So, I'm going to ask if my vet will necropsy.
I like your disclaimer.
Well, the vet was looking for the obvious culprits of parasites/bacteria (coccidia, and streptococcous?)
She was on Tylan off and on, when her bouts would happen. She'd perk up and get better, she'd be on probiotics & electrolytes for birds.
She wasn't eating anything, but was drinking so it would go in her water jsut like the tylan did. When she'd perk up she'd eat again.
I never fed scraps of food except cukes, tomato and lettuce. Otherwise, they got their own treats - i bought them their own peas, corn, lettuce & well, they'd share the kale with me .
I'm heartbroken over her loss. I feel like I really failed her.

You did not fail so stop kicking yourself. You did way more than most folks including myself would have done. I would not take fowl to the vet unless it was some kind of champion show winner that I could sell eggs off of at a large profit. Forgive me for being insensitive with that statement but it is true for me. My reasoning is this - Genes play a big part in these animals/fowl and unfortunately the hatcheries look at numbers more than quality, otherwise chickens would tend to be more true to type than the mixes that they breed focused on hens that lay more eggs and tend to be less meaty. The bad news is that she died and you feel bad- the good news is that her genes are out of the pool and can't be distributed further by her. No matter what took her out her health could not overcome it and that is not your fault. Its bad genes- unless she was poisoned by something- I don't think genes are going to help with that, not on a per bird basis anyway.

It is luck of the draw and honestly it sounds like you got some birds that aren't of the best genetics and you have experienced one of the theories of evolution and that is that only the strongest survive. So with that said work with what you have as they have proven some resistance. Good news is that spring hatches are going on right now so you can replace the ones you lost.

Do research fermented food and drop the freeze dried probiotics as they really are inferior- think about this- you are taking a freeze dried bacteria and trying to reactivate it in a stomach full of acid that has a PH that bacteria can't stand and expecting them to limp into the intestines and do their job. With fermented food you have active bacteria that is energized from what it was feeding on ready to hit the ground running in numbers probably 10 times (easily) that listed on the probiotic pills. And if you want a certain strain you can always dump a pill into the fermented mix and it should stay in the starter from then on if things do as they should.

 

[cawtlc]

You did not fail so stop kicking yourself. You did way more than most folks including myself would have done. I would not take fowl to the vet unless it was some kind of champion show winner that I could sell eggs off of at a large profit. Forgive me for being insensitive with that statement but it is true for me. My reasoning is this - Genes play a big part in these animals/fowl and unfortunately the hatcheries look at numbers more than quality, otherwise chickens would tend to be more true to type than the mixes that they breed focused on hens that lay more eggs and tend to be less meaty. The bad news is that she died and you feel bad- the good news is that her genes are out of the pool and can't be distributed further by her. No matter what took her out her health could not overcome it and that is not your fault. Its bad genes- unless she was poisoned by something- I don't think genes are going to help with that, not on a per bird basis anyway.

It is luck of the draw and honestly it sounds like you got some birds that aren't of the best genetics and you have experienced one of the theories of evolution and that is that only the strongest survive. So with that said work with what you have as they have proven some resistance. Good news is that spring hatches are going on right now so you can replace the ones you lost.

Do research fermented food and drop the freeze dried probiotics as they really are inferior- think about this- you are taking a freeze dried bacteria and trying to reactivate it in a stomach full of acid that has a PH that bacteria can't stand and expecting them to limp into the intestines and do their job. With fermented food you have active bacteria that is energized from what it was feeding on ready to hit the ground running in numbers probably 10 times (easily) that listed on the probiotic pills. And if you want a certain strain you can always dump a pill into the fermented mix and it should stay in the starter from then on if things do as they should.

Thank you for your honesty, I do appreciate all of the response I have received. I really do want more because I really had no idea just how much I'd LOVE having ducks. My late Mother loved ducks, and I felt this special connection in having them. Felt like I was doing something she would have LOVED.
I'm a plant based eater myself, and even I eat fermented foods for health! So, I will look this up for my chickens and Howard, and future duckies. Thank you for the straight talk, it really did make me realize that perhaps though I wasn't perfect, I may have had imperfect ducks to begin with..... I just loved her so much. My pets to me, ARE my kids. We just lost our dog, my Dad passed away a couple of months ago...and this. It really wasn't great timing. But, it never is. Again, THANK YOU ALL for the responses. I really, truly appreciate it. Howard says hi. Here he is with Hannah, and some of the chickens.

 

[nchvac]

You can find all the info you need on fermented foods on this website. Just search it.