- May 27, 2013
- 6
- 0
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Sorry it's a bit long
I started out with 12 eggs(I was hatching them for a 4-H project) made up of six duck eggs and six turkey. Due to some issues with the thermometer provided, only four hatched; 2 ducks and 2 turkeys.
I live in a neighborhood, with a small backyard and three dogs, so the birds stay in a pen in one of the rooms in our house. I just recently began to lock the dogs in a room and let the turkeys and ducks roam outside for a while before taking them back inside.
They were doing perfectly up until this morning(3 weeks old now) when I noticed one of the turkeys laying on it's side motionless. I noticed that there was absolutely no water and a very small amount of food, so I immediately supplied them with fresh food and water and cleaned out their pen(they are being fed a chicken feed that was recommended by a man that raises and breeds ducks, turkeys, and chickens, and I'm assuming he knows what food to give them). I let the three outside and put the ducks in the little kiddie pool we had filled for the ducks. i provided both the ducks and the turkey with food and water. The ducks seemed to be doing okay(one of them drank a bit too much water an threw up, so I moved them away from the kiddie pool), but the turkey wouldn't eat or drink. I watched it and it seemed fine for the first little while, but then it started acting really strange; losing its balance, closing it's eyes, falling over. Then it started dying. It was really sad to watch, as it took forever, but I'm not sure if it's behavior might be a symptom because it kept acting like it was trying to fly, but it would just push itself into the ground and flip itself over.
I put the ducks back in their pen, and gave them new water and food. Neither of them ate anything(but when I checked later, there was less food, so I'm assuming they did actually eat) but I noticed that one of the ducks poop was solid black and watery. An hour later, that duck was dead.
For fear of contamination, we moved the last duck into a new pen, gave it a different water bowl, and new food. It seems perfectly fine, the poop is normal, it's just lonely if anything. I'm so confused as to what caused my turkeys and duck to die. Any thoughts would be appreciated, as well as any ideas on what to do with the last duck(seeing as i obviously cant put it in a pen with any other birds in case of disease, and loneliness is known to kill ducklings)
I started out with 12 eggs(I was hatching them for a 4-H project) made up of six duck eggs and six turkey. Due to some issues with the thermometer provided, only four hatched; 2 ducks and 2 turkeys.
I live in a neighborhood, with a small backyard and three dogs, so the birds stay in a pen in one of the rooms in our house. I just recently began to lock the dogs in a room and let the turkeys and ducks roam outside for a while before taking them back inside.
They were doing perfectly up until this morning(3 weeks old now) when I noticed one of the turkeys laying on it's side motionless. I noticed that there was absolutely no water and a very small amount of food, so I immediately supplied them with fresh food and water and cleaned out their pen(they are being fed a chicken feed that was recommended by a man that raises and breeds ducks, turkeys, and chickens, and I'm assuming he knows what food to give them). I let the three outside and put the ducks in the little kiddie pool we had filled for the ducks. i provided both the ducks and the turkey with food and water. The ducks seemed to be doing okay(one of them drank a bit too much water an threw up, so I moved them away from the kiddie pool), but the turkey wouldn't eat or drink. I watched it and it seemed fine for the first little while, but then it started acting really strange; losing its balance, closing it's eyes, falling over. Then it started dying. It was really sad to watch, as it took forever, but I'm not sure if it's behavior might be a symptom because it kept acting like it was trying to fly, but it would just push itself into the ground and flip itself over.
I put the ducks back in their pen, and gave them new water and food. Neither of them ate anything(but when I checked later, there was less food, so I'm assuming they did actually eat) but I noticed that one of the ducks poop was solid black and watery. An hour later, that duck was dead.
For fear of contamination, we moved the last duck into a new pen, gave it a different water bowl, and new food. It seems perfectly fine, the poop is normal, it's just lonely if anything. I'm so confused as to what caused my turkeys and duck to die. Any thoughts would be appreciated, as well as any ideas on what to do with the last duck(seeing as i obviously cant put it in a pen with any other birds in case of disease, and loneliness is known to kill ducklings)
