Unusual Behavior ? Calling all duck experts !!

[rAZinBaBEEZ]

I have an 8 month old female mallard duck. A few months ago, she had an eye injury which the vet put her on an antibiotic. Her eye is almost completely healed, however, since this illnes, she is acting strange. She is comstanly looking for food. She has access to her pellet and cracked corn 24/7, I am talking about dirt searching for food. All day she gobbles up a mouth full of dirt, runs over to the water bucket, rinses her mouth out, and goes back at it again, like she is starving.
Last week, I thought I saw her throw-up, did not think anything of it, until 2 days ago when she was in the pond, and she threw up. It protruded from her mouth like someone was squeezing her stomach. I got to examine some of the throw-up and it was cracked corn, and alot of grit from the mud. A few minutes later, she is find, going about her business....

Please help in any advice that you can possably give.

 

[rAZinBaBEEZ]

1) What type of bird , age and weight. Mallard - 8 months
2) What is the behavior, exactly. constantly looking for food in the mud / dirt. eats like she is strving, throw-up from overeating.3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. no signs of bleeding in stool or in throw-up4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Was fine until run with antibiotics5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. She is always eating - worms, feed - cracked corn - dirt - always drinking water6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? I do not know what I am to do.8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
10) Describe the housing/bedding in use. she is housed with 2 other mallards, one female, one male. Her cage is 30ft x 50ft, with 1000 gallon pond in middle. Her bedding is in a large dog house which is shavings.

 

[ErieSpurs]

Is she still on the antibiotics? If so what kind? Are they topical or oral? If they are oral, maybe they are upsetting her stomach. Perhaps you can take her off the antibiotics to see if the vomiting stops. Is she losing weight at all?

I have 5 mallards and they are always busily digging in the mud and running to the water, so I'm not sure if you can consider that a symptom. Sorry I can't be of more help. I'll try and think of some more ideas, good luck I'm sure someone else will answer soon.

 

[Wifezilla]

It sounds like perfectly normal duck behavior. In fact, when your ducks DON'T act like they are starving to death and grabbing mouthfuls of mud, that's how you know your duck is suck. Seriously!

 

[rAZinBaBEEZ]

Hello, and thanks for responding. No, she has been off the antiobiotics for several weeks now, this behavior started right after she got off the medicine and has not stopped.
I am mostly concerned with her thowing up. I have seen her do it 2 times in the past few weeks, and I do not know if she does it more when I am not watching. Approx. 5 minutes after she throws up, she is all happy, looking for more food.... should I be concerned with her throwing up?

 

[Wifezilla]

I have seen my ducks do it. Not frequently though. I would get concerned if she started acting lethargic.