What happened??

[christylynne11]

So, I gave a friend 6 ducklings. Today, at 6 days old, they suddenly became very weak and died. All 6 of them. At the same time.

Background:
The feed store initially sold her non-medicated layer crumbles but I immediately had her switch to non-medicated start & grow.

The ducklings spent about an hour outside in 90° weather just prior to the occurrence. However, they had done the same yesterday with no problem. No chemicals or aerosols are suspected.

There were no symptoms. One minute they were fine, and the next they had stopped moving and were barely breathing. It only took a few minutes for them all to pass away.

 

[Birdie mom]

That is pretty crazy. I have no idea. Maybe there was some sort of gas in the air they were breathing, probably not. Hopefully someone will come along and help solve this mystery🕵.

 

[Birdie mom]

I am sorry they died. RIP

 

[TheOddOneOut]

That is pretty crazy. I have no idea. Maybe there was some sort of gas in the air they were breathing, probably not. Hopefully someone will come along and help solve this mystery🕵.

I agree, what was going on around them at the time?

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

I had the same thing happen! I sold a duckling ( only one that was a mistake ) and she texted me and said “The duckling you sold me died” I was wondering what could have happened??

 

[TheOddOneOut]

I had the same thing happen! I sold a duckling ( only one that was a mistake ) and she texted me and said “The duckling you sold me died” I was wondering what could have happened??

What conditions was she keeping it in? That sounds like a case of stress or bad conditions, not all dying at once, but I could be wrong.

 

[LadyAchee]

Possibly heat or stress.

 

[bluemtnwmn]

You said they spent an hour outside which implies they were inside the rest of the time. Are they in her house? Does your friend have cookware with teflon? Did she use a self-clean cycle on her oven? Teflon off-gassing is deadly to birds and there was a person previously whose chicks all died due to the self-clean cycle that she used on her oven (possibly the interior of the oven was teflon coated and the self-clean cycle caused the off-gassing).

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

What conditions was she keeping it in? That sounds like a case of stress or bad conditions, not all dying at once, but I could be wrong.

I don’t know we meet up i gave the duckling and a 5 week old duckling she took and that was it!

 

[Isaac 0]

No one here is going to be able to give you an exact confident diagnosis on their cause of death, too many possibilities, if you are curious and still have their bodies you could send them into your state veterinary necropsy lab, that'd be your best bet. Read this for more details,


https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-to-send-a-bird-for-a-necropsy-pictures.799747/

https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm


Given the sudden cause of death, I'd be more inclined to say it was related to poor management practices or possibly toxin ingestion. Did she by chance give them COLD water?