Thin duck with wet feather problem...

[duckylover7]

Well, recently our female duck's partner had died (he was killed by a fox,) and today she was in the field beside our house, and she looked terribly thin, she had wet feathers, and when her baby ducks like to go to our field, she stays in the other field by herself. She looks very dirty, but she eats allot, I see her eating with my own eyes, but she is horribly thin, and she just seems ill... What could I do for her, and could she possibly be staying by herself away from her kids, because of her partner gone? Should we get another duck to keep her company?
Thank you so much, I am very concerned about her.

Shreeya & Madhusree

 

[duckylover7]

Also, she is 1 year old or so, she hasn't been laying any eggs.

 

[Frank Phinster]

You need to keep in mind that the plumage adds a lot of volume to the shape of a bird. So when the plumage gets wet, even a massive muscovy drake can appear surprisingly slim. If you want to find out whether your duck is really too thin, catch her and feel her sternum. It is normal that you can feel it, but if it really appears to stick out, the duck is likely to be underweight.
It is normal that a duck gets depressed when her partner dies and gets passive. That will change eventually. Getting her an new partner is a little risky with ducklings around because you don't know how he will react towards the infants but if you could seperate the new drake from the ducklings day and night, the duck at least would have sight contact with a new possible mate.
But it may be that your duck does not instantly accept a new partner. When one of my drakes died, his "widow" preferred to stay alone and did not bond with the drake I got her although he followed her erverywhere. But this is not a general rule, though. I had to seperate my runner drake from my flock because of a foot injury and his duck has started to court the muscovy drake...

How old are your ducklings now? When the ducklings get older, they get more independent from their mother.

 

[Amiga]

Also, she is 1 year old or so, she hasn't been laying any eggs.

Trauma will shut down egg laying for a while. Each duck is different. Keeping her safe, properly fed and with fresh water covers quite a bit for her well-being.

 

[Caitlin2013]

She's probably feeling a little depressed and lost. I remember when one of my girls lost her mate. She just stayed to herself, hardly bathed, just didn't look happy. She'd spend a part of her day just wondering around the yard calling for him. It was so sad, you could just see how upset she was. She stopped laying eggs for a while too, it took her about 4 months to start laying again. Just give her time, she'll come around. My duck is now back to being a very spunky happy girl. I have her currently laying on a few eggs and she's as happy as can be