very sick duck - please help

[watchdogps]

Thee and a half month old duck, sitting still and raspy breathing. Obviously a respiratory infection. Its cold and rainy here, so I need to bring him in. I can put him in a dog carrier, what do I need to do for him? He's also coated in mud, can I give him a warm bath?

 

[watchdogps]

Anyone? I brought it in, put it in a few inches of warm water, but I didn't leave him there because I was afraid he'd drown. He's in the tub, no water with a warm towel over him till I get some instruction on what to do next...

 

[PoultryPedia]

It should really help him being in where it's warm & dry.

Get some vitamins, minerals & electrolytes into him right away if you can. Do you have Poly-Visol children's liquid vitamins (the kind WITHOUT iron)? Or Gatorade? If so, I'd give him some to help boost him back up.

You can use Search here on BYC or an internet search engine to try to find info on diseases & treatments. There are also some very good links to info at http://www.poultryhelp.com/link-disease.html. Disease charts that list symptoms may be a good place to start, to help you figure out what your duck most likely has. Then you can look up more detailed information on that specific condition.

You might also use the "Sticky" post at the top of this "Emergencies..." index (https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569) to put together a detailed description of your duck's problem that will help in diagnosing him more easily & in getting advice from others.

Best wishes!

 

[watchdogps]

Nope. He died. It was a respiratory infection, very raspy. Its been cold wet and miserable here for a while. These ducks won't use any shelter I give them.
Now what do I do in case the others are sick and just not showing it yet?

 

[PoultryPedia]

I'm sorry that happened.

Hopefully something on the link I gave where you can look up info on diseases could help you figure out the problem & how to treat it.

If you think that in the last few weeks the ducks may have been around some moldy bedding, they may have a respiratory infection being caused by a fungus. If so, Oxine AH would be a good treatment. You can read about that on the page on my website at https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/chicken-fungal-infections.

 

[CMV]

You will need to monitor them closely for signs of infection/illness. At the first sign of anything awry you will need to put the sick birds in quarantine.

Cold, miserable, wet weather is not something that should bother a duck too much. In fact, they seem to be the only ones that actually enjoy cold, wet, miserable days. They are pretty tough little critters. Your bird did not get sick because of the weather. It got sick because it was exposed to an illness (or had an injury that mimicked a respiratory illness).

I hope it was just a fluke and the rest of the flock remains healthy. Good luck.

 

[watchdogps]

Probably bacterial. My husband keeps promising to build them a proper enclosure and hasn't, soo they have been in a small pen that gets nasty qquickly. I move it around, but I'm sure it isn't very sanitary. I built a makeshift pen the other day, but I guess it was too late for this one.