Duck sleepy and not very active, breathing heavy.

[Mistyclouds]

My three week old pekin duckling Gertie recently about a week ago started breathing heavy, but most recently she started sleeping a lot. we have three ducklings in total. I have taken them all to the vet and the other two though wheezing some, were reported to be healthy while Gertie was said to have heart disease or vitamin E deficiency. I wanted to know whether others have had these similar problems. I just hope it is not heart disease. I have given her the Vitamin E and she already seems better. I have looked everywhere but have not found anything on ducklings having heart disease. Could this be something else?

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

Welcome, I hope she'll be OK. Maybe @Ravynscroft can help. She's very knowledgeable about ducks and a great person. Hopefully she can pop in and chat. Good luck

 

[Ravynscroft]

What are you feeding them, exactly? Regular chick starter doesn't have enough Niacin for ducklings, and especially Pekins.... they're notorious for needing a bit extra than other ducklings... brewers yeast (not baking yeast) sprinkled in their feed, 1Tblspn per cup of feed can help... or plain (not flush free or time release) Niacin tablets (or Vitamin B complex tabs) crushed up and dissolved in their drinking water, 100-150mg of Niacin per gal, fresh daily might help...

 

[Mistyclouds]

well for a while I gave them Dumor chick starter i added Niacin to there water and brewers yeast to there food, they now are on Purina flock raiser. I read that the flock raiser should have enough niacin in it so I stopped adding the Niacin and brewers yeast. should I still add brewers yeast? we have been giving them VetRx for the other two because they had been sneezing and breathing heavy, I am still giving it to all of them.

 

[Ravynscroft]

well for a while I gave them Dumor chick starter i added Niacin to there water and brewers yeast to there food, they now are on Purina flock raiser. I read that the flock raiser should have enough niacin in it so I stopped adding the Niacin and brewers yeast. should I still add brewers yeast? we have been giving them VetRx for the others because they had been sneezing and breathing heavy, I am still giving it to them.

Purina flock raiser is great, I use it myself, but I also don't have Pekins... might just add a little brewers yeast just to be safe...

Sneezing and heavy breathing is worrisome though... VetRX won't help for anything serious, it's the equivalent to Vicks VapoRub for poultry... what bedding are you using? How warm is the brooder? Have they had ground access yet?

 

[Mistyclouds]

they are inside a dog crate with a liner to prevent there heads from getting stuck. The dog crate is in our house, the house temp is at 75 degrees.They only sneezed after they foraged in there bedding(which is Aspen shavings) or when after eating. They usually wheeze when sleeping, but to me it sound like more of a whistle in the nose. They have a dish that they can get there whole bills in and we allow them to free rome the kitchen and take baths in a big tuberware bin filled with water everyday. Because of wheezing we decided to try just newspaper in there brooder and minimal shavings. We should be moving them outside soon.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Hmm... might be a respiratory issue then? Did the vet do a fecal float or take blood samples? I'm gonna tag some others that might have more insight...

@casportpony @Miss Lydia @Amiga

 

[chickens really]

Your Ducklings are old enough to be outside in the Coop and Run...To me it sounds like the air is too dry in your house...Ducks/Ducklings do better when the have free access to water they can get in and out of on their own...
I don't think your Ducklings are sick?...Just dry nasal passage....

 

[Mistyclouds]

Hmm... might be a respiratory issue then? Did the vet do a fecal float or take blood samples? I'm gonna tag some others that might have more insight...

@casportpony @Miss Lydia @Amiga

Thank you for the help. the only testing our vet did was to see if our pekin had excessive fluid ( a symptom of heart disease) and the vet said there was none.

 

[Mistyclouds]

Your Ducklings are old enough to be outside in the Coop and Run...To me it sounds like the air is too dry in your house...Ducks/Ducklings do better when the have free access to water they can get in and out of on their own...
I don't think your Ducklings are sick?...Just dry nasal passage....

Thank you for the help, we will be moving the ducks outside as soon as possible.