Why is my Pekin duck "sneezing"?

[Chickenkeepr]

I'll definitely try. What size needle do you typically use? I've got .5in 25g needles.

 

[casportpony]

I'll definitely try. What size needle do you typically use? I've got .5in 25g needles.

I use 1" 22's, but need to get some smaller ones.

-Kathy

 

[Chickenkeepr]

No pics tonight. It went fairly wel other than the fact she decided,to start molting heavily today lol. She is back to squeaking instead of phlegm, which I guess is good. Dissolving the de wormer doesn't work very well so I will have to try something new tomorrow. Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, it's HARD to get a ducks feathers wet enough to see skin lmao. I finally gave up and just parted it the best I could.

 

[casportpony]

No pics tonight. It went fairly wel other than the fact she decided,to start molting heavily today lol. She is back to squeaking instead of phlegm, which I guess is good. Dissolving the de wormer doesn't work very well so I will have to try something new tomorrow. Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, it's HARD to get a ducks feathers wet enough to see skin lmao. I finally gave up and just parted it the best I could.

Would you be comfortable trying to tube her? That would be a real easy way to get the medication into her. There are some good picture here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1011195/fecal-testing/60#post_15672418

-Kathy

 

[Amykins]

Would you be comfortable trying to tube her? That would be a real easy way to get the medication into her. There are some good picture here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1011195/fecal-testing/60#post_15672418

-Kathy

I dunno, Kathy...if you're not trained on how to do this sort of thing and you're not real, real careful you can really injure the bird. You could accidentally damage the esophagus or worse, wind up putting the fluid directly into the air sacs! And since the poor duckie sounds like she may be dealing with a bit of pneumonia as either a primary or secondary cause of symptoms, that would be a disaster for the poor thing.

 

[casportpony]

Quote: I mean this in the nicest way possible, but I had no training the first time I did it, and I didn't google how to do it, I just opened his mouth and identified the entrance to the trachea, then gently inserted the tube until I felt it in his crop.

@ChickenKeeper can give *IV* shots to horses, so I think this is something that's *well* within their ability, and I am available by phone to guide them or anyone else through the process. With the right tube (long enough and wide enough), and a little coaching, anyone that can restrain safely restrain a bird can do it. It is much safer than trying to syringe more than a few cc's of fluid into them.

Much over due update. So much has happened since my last post. I gave him all of his SMZ. During treatment he seemed to be getting better but the day after his last dose he took a nose dive. The very next morning he had extremely labored breathing was kind of making a squeaking sound and basically sounded like he was drowning from the inside. So off to the vet. A different vet than the one I had been using.

This new vet really seemed to know his duck stuff. ( He has been asked by the state of Wisconsin to conduct lectures on poultry disease). Yay! Finaly found a vet that is very knowledgeable about chickens and ducks!!

We did x-rays and he said that the x-rays looked better than he sounded but that the air sac that feeds the lungs directly had a lot of fluid in it as well as the lungs themselves. The air sac was feeding infection into the lungs. His other air sacs were pretty clear. Forgive me but I can't remember the names of the air sacs. So anyways, he put him on 7 days of 2xs/day of Bayril IM injections. He showed me how and they are pretty easy.

He also looked at his poop and found that he now had Coccidiosis! Ugh!!!! But the good news is that the capillaria worms were gone. The Safeguard that I had him on for the Capillaria worms is not effective against Coccidiosis. He was put on Corid (Amprolium) for that. It's a drug for cattle but can be used on ducks by putting it in their water. If anyone has experience with Coccidiosis in ducks please give me any info you have. I don't know if he is drinking enough of his corid water to get rid of the coccidiosis.

The vet showed me how to tube feed after I had told him about syringe feeding him and suspecting that I had caused him to aspirate before he went on SMZ, and that I had looked into tube feeding. He said that syringe feeding is dangerous and that tube feeding is the safest way to feed a duck.

After seeing all of the info on here and with a lot of help and then seeing the vet demonstrate it in front of me.........I finally was not afraid to tube feed. It really is not hard to do. It is easier with 4 hands instead of 2 but can be done either way. Please do not be afraid of tube feeding if you are considering it. My biggest concern when I was contemplating it was that I would put the tube down the wrong hole and that I wouldn't get it in far enough or I would put it in too far. My vet told me that with the tube I had (18 French catheter) there was no way I would get it in the wrong hole. He also showed me that as you put the tube in you can feel and see where it is on the side of the neck so you know exactly where it is and all you have to do is get it into the crop. I read all of these things on here and although seeing it in person helped me get over my fears everything I have read on here is exactly how he showed me to do it.

That is where we are at right now. He is still wheezy and his eye still has some foaminess on occasion. We are on Day 2.5 of the Baytril. I'm really hoping to see an improvement over the weekend.

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day Weekend.

Just an update. Rocky is feeling much better and has a horse quack now. That is an improvement over not quacking at all. She also ran from me tonight when I tried to catch her. We are up to 55mL of food and she is handling it very well. I'll give her a full 60mL tomorrow morning and won't be able to give her another feeding till that night. She has been actively foraging.

Skye is also doing better. Not very much panting today even with the heat index of 107*. In the middle of the day they all started to pant a bit but once the sun went down they stopped. She also had one coughing fit this morning but that has been it.

Also my 4 year old wants to put the tube down her now. He is a bit young still but he knows where it does and doesn't go. It goes to the stomach on the side not down the middle to the lungs. Those were his words. Both kids are great at using the syringe and administering the food while I hold the tube in place. If anyone is reading this and is wondering if they can do it, yes you can!

Hope this helps!

Kathy

 

[JadeComputerGal]

I mean this in the nicest way possible, but I had no training the first time I did it, and I didn't google how to do it, I just opened his mouth and identified the entrance to the trachea, then gently inserted the tube until I felt it in his crop.

@ChickenKeeper can give *IV* shots to horses, so I think this is something that's *well* within their ability, and I am available by phone to guide them or anyone else through the process. With the right tube (long enough and wide enough), and a little coaching, anyone that can restrain safely restrain a bird can do it. It is much safer than trying to syringe more than a few cc's of fluid into them.




Hope this helps!

Kathy

I'm going to read up on this from the things you've posted so I have an idea in case I ever need to do it. I kind of wish I could get our vet to demonstrate it in person, but I also don't want to put any of our ducks through that just for the purpose of demonstration.

 

[casportpony]

Quote:

@ChickenKeeper can give *IV* shots to horses, so I think this is something that's *well* within their ability, and I am available by phone to guide them or anyone else through the process. With the right tube (long enough and wide enough), and a little coaching, anyone that can restrain safely restrain a bird can do it. It is much safer than trying to syringe more than a few cc's of fluid into them.

Hope this helps!

Kathy

I'm going to read up on this from the things you've posted so I have an idea in case I ever need to do it. I kind of wish I could get our vet to demonstrate it in person, but I also don't want to put any of our ducks through that just for the purpose of demonstration.

Find a mean old rooster to try it on.

-Kathy

 

[Miss Lydia]

Find a mean old rooster to try it on.

-Kathy

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Find a mean old rooster to try it on.

-Kathy

I don't have a mean old rooster handy. You'll have to send me one of yours to experiment on.