What is up with my baby ducks????

[chicks rule]

This is just breaking my heart, I have lost 10 or so ducklings so far. They are hatched here by my hens from my Roen ducks. I feed them medicated chick starter, and they seem to do fine with it. The oldest ducklings were a month old and these last two were a couple weeks old. They eat and drink fine, but, like this morning they just flop over struggle a bit and then are gone????

I unknowingly got a bag of unmedicated chick starter and that is when I lost the first ones, thought I got a bad bag of starter, but now it has happened with the medicated as well.

Any clues as to what may be going wrong????

 

[Lil Chirp]

all together I would forget that food. have you ever tried making your own?

here is my duck food

Try boiling six eggs and put the yolk into a food processor with a cup and a half each of corn meal and 100% old fashond oats.
grind until fine.
In the food dish add water until it starts to look like a slurry.

 

[sonew123]

I too, was worried about med foor but I have been assured by many people on here that med foo is fine as long as the med is ONLY Aprilium? I think that's how it is spelled--As long as the only medication in it is Amprol it's fine to feed them. Im sorry I have only 1 baby duck and it's only a week old so I can't offer much more help than that except to bump you up! good luck and Im sorry about all your bAbies :-(

 

[toletiquesbysam]

I'm sorry this is happening to you and your ducks!! You need to look at everything your doing. Do they have heat, is it too much or adequate for them. Enough water and feed? I was always told NO MEDICATED feed for ducks/geese, so this could be the culprit. Do they have enough space to get into the heat if needed or out of it if it's too hot? Are you feeding them any treats besides the feed? Any vitamins, just anything little you may be doing that needs mentioned? Hopefully you'll find your answer before you lose more!!

 

[chicks rule]

Thanks guys, I am just baffled???? Lil Chick I will give your recipe a try and see what happens. Right now I am down to one duckling

but I do have a couple of hens sitting on a couple of clutchs now. Hopefully this one hangs on until the others get here.

I don't think heat is the problem, no other treats or anything like that, they are fine one moment and gone the next???

 

[Wifezilla]

If you are feeding chick feed, they may have a niacin deficiency. Usually that results in leg problems, but I don't know...I guess it is possible they could keel over.

I would try unmedicated feed with added brewer's yeast. You can also try poly vi sol in the water.

Fungal infections can be a real issue for ducks. Make sure there is no mold in the feed and their pen is clean and dry.

That's all i can think of right now.

 

[DuckLady]

I am so sorry about your losses!

The only time I used medicated starter for ducklings was on accident. I noticed them wobbling on their feet and seeming out of it.

I changed the feed and it went away.

What bedding are they on? Is it changed daily? Bedding molds quickly and that can be fatal to ducklings. Is it cedar? Cedar can be bad for young fowl.

What symptoms are they displaying?

Just flopping over seems sudden. Was there anything that seemed out of the ordinary besides that?

 

[chicks rule]

Quote:
Thanks Terrie, They are in the house, they have heat when they want it, they have Pine shavings for bedding, changed often, and yes they are just literally falling over dead.

I mistakenly got unmed. starter and that was the first time this happened, the ducks were at least a month old, got another bag of medicated and they were ok until this morning, I am baffled????

What would you suggest I switch the feed to? I am going to try the slurry that Lil Chick posted also. Right now I have one duckling, but, have hens sitting on more, I would really like to figure this out before they hatch, geez.

 

[taras.farm]

I don't get it....could the chickens be passing something to them? How hwalthy arre the parent stock. Weird....I think its' unlikely that it's the food....they have water with their food? The can choke or get impacted crops? Call the feed store to make sure there wasn''t a recall on the feed or tll them to look into it! Gosh I'm sorry for you...Its terrible.

Hang in there bud

 

[litredhen]

Hey,
I don't know if these will work for ducks, (others chime in?) but with chickens I add a little apple cider vinegar to water to boost their immune system and a few drops of coloidal silver in the water when they were really sick.
good luck