- Mar 7, 2012
- 170
- 28
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Hi,
I am not an experienced duck person at all, so please forgive the remedial nature of this question: Are ducks supposed to be completely silent when breathing? Does any noise at all indicate a respiratory infection?
Background:
I got this young male Pekin duck back in July. He seemed to be doing fine outside until I noticed one day he wasn't swimming w/ his 2 duck friends. I brought him inside and realized he had labored breathing plus coughing. Took him to the vet, and a fecal test showed an overwhelming amount of gram-negative bacteria, so we put him on Clavamox. Didn't have enough $$ to do the fungal test, so we just started with the Clavamox.
He is halfway through the Clavamox, and now acts completely normal (seemingly), but I can still hear his breathing -- as in a slight whistle on the exhale. If I had heard this 3 months ago, I wouldn't have thought anything was wrong with him, but since the vet told me my duck's respiratory disease had been going on for a long time already by the time I brought him in, now I don't know what to think is normal.
The reason I am concerned is that the vet suggested that he might also have a fungal infection in addition to the bacterial infection -- but since I have limited money, I didn't test for the fungus and just did the antibiotics to see if they would cure him first. I don't know if he is cured now or if he is still harboring something horrible like aspergillus. (As I said, we didn't test for that since I didn't have the money.)
His breathing is not labored at all, he is eating, swimming, fluffing, and acting normal (to me), but when he is sitting right next to me and everything else is silent, I can hear a slight whistle-noise as he exhales.
So, are ducks supposed to be completely silent when breathing?
In an ideal world, I would take him to the vet for a follow-up right now, but she is out of the office until Tuesday. If he had asper, would there be really obviously labored breathing, inappetence, and lethargy? Or does it have to be really bad before the overt symptoms appear?
I am not an experienced duck person at all, so please forgive the remedial nature of this question: Are ducks supposed to be completely silent when breathing? Does any noise at all indicate a respiratory infection?
Background:
I got this young male Pekin duck back in July. He seemed to be doing fine outside until I noticed one day he wasn't swimming w/ his 2 duck friends. I brought him inside and realized he had labored breathing plus coughing. Took him to the vet, and a fecal test showed an overwhelming amount of gram-negative bacteria, so we put him on Clavamox. Didn't have enough $$ to do the fungal test, so we just started with the Clavamox.
He is halfway through the Clavamox, and now acts completely normal (seemingly), but I can still hear his breathing -- as in a slight whistle on the exhale. If I had heard this 3 months ago, I wouldn't have thought anything was wrong with him, but since the vet told me my duck's respiratory disease had been going on for a long time already by the time I brought him in, now I don't know what to think is normal.
The reason I am concerned is that the vet suggested that he might also have a fungal infection in addition to the bacterial infection -- but since I have limited money, I didn't test for the fungus and just did the antibiotics to see if they would cure him first. I don't know if he is cured now or if he is still harboring something horrible like aspergillus. (As I said, we didn't test for that since I didn't have the money.)
His breathing is not labored at all, he is eating, swimming, fluffing, and acting normal (to me), but when he is sitting right next to me and everything else is silent, I can hear a slight whistle-noise as he exhales.
So, are ducks supposed to be completely silent when breathing?
In an ideal world, I would take him to the vet for a follow-up right now, but she is out of the office until Tuesday. If he had asper, would there be really obviously labored breathing, inappetence, and lethargy? Or does it have to be really bad before the overt symptoms appear?
