What the heck is going on - 2 more issues with my ducks?

[TLWR]

This evening I sat with the ducks and see Ally has a crick in her neck - like she's squished it down, but can't stretch it back out, not even for a dish of pees.
Ok, I bought vitamin water to give the girls last night, so I'll go mix it up. Just as I'm about to do that, Cadbury starts tripping. Literally!
She stands upright and her tail feathers go UNDER her and she's standing on them and then her wing feathers get under her feet and then the wings go out and she just crashes to the ground and lays down and all looks fine again. I looked at DH and said "what!" He said he saw Ally do that the other day. Huh, never seen it. Then Cadbury does it again. Then Ally does it. Neither have done it since we grabbed the camera.

So a small dish vitamin water out in the house with them to drink tonight and I'll give them a dish of it tomorrow with some peas so they'll drink some more of it.


But what the heck is going on with my ducks?

 

[gofasterstripe]

OH WOW!!!! Could they of eaten something, it sounds like they have gone off kilter over something.

I hope everything is goin gto be ok!!

 

[jemagsy]

We're experiencing something very similar. We have 8 khaki campbells housed along with our 23 chickens. One of the ducks is missing, while we're feeding/watering tonight before we go to look again one of the ducks has what looks like a seisure, stretches out and then her neck goes limp/falls on the ground. She can't hold her neck up anymore without tightening all the muscles in her body. she's laying on the ground right now. We removed her from the others but the drake and one of the more dominant hens were trying to help her back up and seemed very hyperattentive.

My dad also found two dead chicks this afternoon while we were out. No idea what could be causing it and searching through merck's online manual, but if any of you have any idea I'd appreciate all the help I can get. Also what kind of vitamin mash are you giving them TLWR? What is going on here sounds very much like yours, just falling over. We think they may have eaten something they shouldn't have, but if that mash is helping would love to know what it is.

Thanks!

 

[TLWR]

It's the Save A Chick stuff from Tractor Supply. Picked some up last night.

 

[jemagsy]

Thanks!

She will get up and walk around for about 2-5 minutes and then collapse again and stay paralyzed. We called our vet, but they are on another call right now and want to consult their info back at the office and see what the best course would be.

We brought her in the house, put a lamp at the other end of the tub and also some water in there with her. Will let you know how it turns out. Going to try and get a video tonight and see if we can post it and make sure its the same thing in case one of us gets it fixed. Still haven't found our other duck, but we live in the middle of a forest, so you know Khakis if they don't move, you can't see them.

We'll pick some of the save-a-chick tomorrow and see if it improves her condition. I appreciate the suggestion and will let you know what we find out from our vet.

 

[jemagsy]

Just got off the phone with the vet. They want us to start her on an antibiotic pronto and watch the other ducks for signs of illness. At this point they don't want to medicate the whole flock, just the one who is showing symptoms. It may just be coincidence or its possible she was taken by a predator. We have a bad hawk issue in the area (never lost a bird before now, though we've come close), and also had a neighbor's dog walking around the yard about dark tonight whom we've never seen in our yard before so no telling what is going on.

Please let us know if there are any changes with your ducks as well.

Here's a link to the video: (note I'm not laughing at the duck falling down, my husband just told me that the only thing he could find on the internet about duck hearts was how to eat them. This was one of the theories the vet had, is that maybe she is having a bit of heart trouble). Please also note file is about 14.5 mbs

https://picasaweb.google.com/jamie.cybert/20110514?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ2o0IfVyLbHGw&feat=directlink

 

[AnaD]

Quote:
I'm so sorry! How scarey to not know what is up with them. I hope you find out what is causeing this behaviour...

 

[TLWR]

That doesn't appear to be what my 2 have been doing tonight.

They stand super upright like really good runners, their tail feathers slip under them and between their legs on the ground and they manage to step on them. Then their wings start to come out, they kind of drop on to their "elbows", up again (tail still under them) and then stretch their wings out, run around like that, then fold wings up and plop down like they didn't just do something weird.
Kind of seizure like, but I've never seen a duck seizure, and it isn't like my dog's seizures, but it doesn't seem like it's what they wanted to do, just what their body is doing and they are along for the ride.

I'll keep a camera handy tomorrow so we can video it if they do it again.
DH said it is like they get brain freeze - I was feeding peas, but if Ally did it the other day, no frozen veggies involved.

 

[PlumTuckered]

Have Ya'll tried giving them some Niacin? My Jumbo Pekin acted a little like that 2 yrs ago, she seemed like her legs got weak and wobbly and she refused to walk or swim. I gave her a batch of boiled eggs mixed in milk with Niacin sprinkled on top. She ate most of it and within half an hour was up and running around normally.

Michelle

 

[TLWR]

Ok, Ally's neck is fine this morning. I had some horrible dreams about my ducks last night and in one I asked Blue how she was alive to be dying again

I almost got up to check on them and then almost made DH go out to let them out this morning.
They are fine this morning.
I gave them veggies and filled the dish with vitamin water and then added a little bit of niacin to it.

Working on their pond a little this morning while we wait for the garage floor to be dry to start the sealer on that. Projects galore around here lol