Noisy duck!

[Castleringer]

 

[Miss Lydia]

My goodness something is surely bothering her. Bless her heart.

 

[Castleringer]

Yes, but what? We really are at a loss. We've even tried giving her a rubber egg to sit on, if it's a lack of laying thing but nothing makes any difference! Believe me, after 4+ hours of it, you're not thinking bless her!

 

[Canadian Wind]

Have you checked her over for sores or anything? It's not an insistent kind of call, more of a 'something's bothering me' call. Sounds like she's in discomfort, not at all like mine who just yelled at everything.

 

[Castleringer]

Thanks. We've checked her, she's eating well and some days she's not so bad which makes us think it's behavioural rather than medical. There is literally no regularity with it. We thought she might be going deaf or blind but she can still hear us and can find her way to the feeder fine. The other girls tend to ignore her when she's 'on one' and just go about their business. We did wonder whether ducks can go senile? Ours were bred in a flock with lots of drakes as even though all girls they all 'hump' each other on a regular basis. But Betty gives as good as she gets so not sure that anything to do with it.

 

[Canadian Wind]

How old is she? Sorry if you said already.

 

[Castleringer]

6 and a half years old. She stopped laying about a year ago.

 

[Miss Lydia]

And nothing in the flock has changed? no one has died and no encounters with predators?

 

[Castleringer]

No one has 'left' the flock but we do have rats occasionally in the stable where they are. We've had them for a long time though and this only started about 6 months ago. It would make sense for the nighttime quacking but not when they're out and about in the paddock as we never see rats out in the day. None of the other ducks are on alert either. Do you think that's what might set her off?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I don’t know but it seems something is upsetting her. We had a rat problem a few years back and they were bold enough to come out in the day. Didn’t seem to upset the ducks just me. I remember someone mentioning CBD for their duck. Maybe try something like that on a special treat and see if it helps relax her?