My Pekin duck laid a GIANT egg and now, three days later, she's acting sick! Help!

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

My Jumbo Pekin, Mae, is 5.5 months old and just started laying eggs two weeks ago. The first three eggs were fairy eggs with no yolks! Then we got three days in a row of JUMBO duck eggs, then one MASSIVE DOUBLE YOLKER, then no eggs at all for the next three days. Yesterday, she was panting HARD all day, and even when the sun went down, she kept panting. All the other ducks were snuggling in the hay for bed and she was just panting as if she couldn't get cool or comfortable. It's been HOT (Northeast Florida, been reaching 90F the past three days), and she is a BIG DUCK. Today she's acting strange. She walked slowly out of her hoop coop, didn't care about getting in the pool, and didn't care about preening herself much after she came out of the pool (after I put her in it).

Could she be egg bound? Could she be overheating? I also read that aspergillosis could cause excessive panting, and they can pick up aspergillosis from moldy hay, and I use hay as deep litter bedding in their hoop coop. Should I use a different litter material? What do I do for her? Should she have laid another egg by now? It's been 3 full days without an egg after the giant double yolker she laid.

I'm worried about her. She's my girl, ya know? What can I do for her?

ETA: I put her in the bathtub to keep a better eye on her and she POOPED! That means she can't be egg bound, right?

Could she be niacin-deficient? I have not been diligent about nutritional yeast supplementation since they've gone outside. But I recently read that Pekins might need niacin supplementation for the rest of their lives. Should she still be on niacin? Is there a better and/or more cost effective way other than nutritional yeast?

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

UPDATE: I just looked at her feet while I had her in the tub and she's got dark colored lumps on the bottom of both feet, plus what looks like an old but still open/unhealed cut. I feel absolutely horrible...I haven't checked her feet in a while. We live in a busy urban neighborhood and we've had trouble with broken glass being thrown/kicked up via cars into our yard. We're regularly finding small pieces of glass in the duck pen that they seem to dig out with their beaks when they're tunneling. I'm guessing this is the dreaded bumble foot? This is so disheartening.

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

Bumblefoot?

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

Okay so I just examined her foot more closely outside, and I actually don't know if I'm looking at bumblefoot. There are a couple cuts, but they seem mostly healed. I don't feel any cyst-like-thingies under the skin of her feet. Maybe she was overheated.

 

[Miss Lydia]

The middle toe looks a little swollen you might want to put some drawing salve and use vet wrap keep her foot dry for a few days then check and see how it looks. Do you have any calcium gluconate if you do give her a ml today and it will help her lay if there is an egg that needs to come out.

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

The middle toe looks a little swollen you might want to put some drawing salve and use vet wrap keep her foot dry for a few days then check and see how it looks. Do you have any calcium gluconate if you do give her a ml today and it will help her lay if there is an egg that needs to come out.

Hi Miss Lydia! How do I give her the ml? Over some treats? She's acting very strange now. She's super slow and just standing around panting, not moving much at all. She did poop in the bath...and she ate some peas. Could she still be eggbound?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sometimes you can feel an egg if it’s down low close to the exit have you tried feeling for one. Can you see her vent pulsing like she’s pushing?It’s best to give by mouth to make sure she has a full dose.
How to give meds by mouth
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/
She may have a soft shell she’s working on too they are hard to lay according to my females.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...bound-ducks-preliminary.959537/#post-14940303

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

Sometimes you can feel an egg if it’s down low close to the exit have you tried feeling for one. Can you see her vent pulsing like she’s pushing?It’s best to give by mouth to make sure she has a full dose.
How to give meds by mouth
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/
She may have a soft shell she’s working on too they are hard to lay according to my females.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...bound-ducks-preliminary.959537/#post-14940303

I gave her the calcium gluconate 1 ml over a couple tablespoons of dried meal worms. She wouldn't eat all of them--she maybe ate 3/4 worth of the dose. Then she wouldn't eat any more. I'm afraid that I don't know how to give her the meds by mouth and I'm super nervous about it! But I'm going to read that post. Thanks, Miss Lydia.

To answer your question, no, I don't notice any pushing movements around her rear end. And I palpated her belly and around her vent, and didn't feel any eggs either, but then again, I've never felt a stuck egg, so I'm not really sure what I'm feeling for. I thought I felt her breast bone or something?

I put the ducks away for the night and she's still just laying there panting. I just wish I knew what was wrong! She's acting so strange!

 

[my spoiled chickens]

I recommend(and this might not be helpful) washing out the feet with hydrogen peroxide
Here are some people more knowledgeable about ducks and wounds than me
@Jenbirdee
@WVduckchick
@

 

[Miss Lydia]

I know it can be so hard to figure out. If it’s an egg soft or hard hopefully she’ll have had enough of the cal glu to help. Just recently my Buff was off by herself most of the day I was worried about her finally at time to go to bed she wasn’t with the rest I went looking and found her by a large clump of daylillies where she had laid a soft shell I went ahead and gave her a ml before I put her in the coop. They must be hard to lay. Hopefully if egg she’ll have laid and be back to herself in the morning. Any chance she may have gotten into something toxic like a plant, stagnant water, a bug that might not have been good to eat?