Please Help! My duck has been very quiet

[Pippa3Hurley]

Since this afternoon my 11 month old Black Sweetish has been weirdly quiet. Usually when I talk to her I can get her to quack pretty much on cue, but no matter how much I try she will barely make any noise. I tried to get her to talk by giving her some greens; she always gets excited for them. She ate excitedly for a few moments then she started just picking at her food. A few minutes later she shook her head and shook some greens out, which she promptly ate. This seemed to make her feel better, but I still can’t get her to quack. This is NOT normal for her and I am very worried.

 

[Amiga]

It is difficult to know just what is wrong. It could be an off day, it could be something serious.

If you have access to a vet, you might want to get her in. In the meantime, extra poultry vitamins with electrolytes and probiotics to help perk her up would be good.

Some give a tablespoon or three of unpasteurized apple cider vinegar in a half gallon of water as a tonic.

It could be a virus, peritonitis, reaction to something she ate, egg binding . . . . so many things.

How is her poop? Has she been anywhere different? Is it possible she ate something rancid or rotting? If so, some activated charcoal powder (not briquettes, but the supplement) in her water, a few tablespoons in a quart of water, may help.

There is a sticky about different flush methods if you think it is toxicity. But it must be your call, we can only make some guesses and suggestions.

 

[Bellevue]

Hey, I don't have any suggestions as I am a newbie but I would like to add to the thread as I am a little concerned about my 6 mth old female pekin too.

I have three ducks and I have been doing a lot of learning. Muffin is the boy, and Bubbles and Squeak are the girls. Squeak is the bigger girl and she has alway been the dominant leader. We thought she was going to be a boy to begin with. On the 30/9 one started laying and then the other. We went on holidays on the 1/10 so it was bad timeing. All seemed to go well with my neighbour tending to them. When we got back there were plenty of eggs. Then came 2 huge eggs that ended up being double yokers. Then my big girl Squeak stopped laying. She became quiet and lagged behind the others, She looked bottom heavey and uncomfortable. I spent a lot of time watching her and reading info on the Internet. I decided to give her a warm soapy bath for 30mins and some vasso on her bot. That evening she laid an egg not long after the bath. In the morning she seemed to be her chirpy self again.

I have added a bowl of shell grit. I have been giving them Berocca as I do not know where to get vitamins from and the vet some time ago said Berocca was a good substitute. I have been adding some egg and egg shell to the feed as I read it could be a calcium problem. I gave them a treat of yogurt yesterday too. Well she looks ok but not as assertive and chirpy. Her beak is very pale. She is not right off like the day I bathed her but just not quite herself. I have also noticed that the boy Muffin, although he told us off when we picked her up and continued to tell us off while we held her in the warm bath, he is not frisky with her. He is very frisky with Bubbles. Not sure if he just has a preferred mate or if he knows Squeak is sick?

I feed them the extra egg pellets plus a bowl of veggies. Two serves a day. They have a water trough next to their food a nice A frame duck house, free range in our backyard and a small swimming pond only 900 diameter.

Any advice would be good.

Cheers, Kerry

 

[Amiga]

Hi, Kerry,

Welcome to the forum.

You are doing a good job. Egg problems are tough. I pray all goes well, but I must say I have lost two of my runner girls to egg yolk peritonitis. That does not mean your little Squeak has that, just that things can get serious. Is her belly distended and squishy?

So calcium is good, here (New England U.S.A.) I can get calcium gluconate liquid to put in their water or food. There is prescription calcium, called neocalglucan, too that sometimes the vet recommends, and I give that by smooshing some green peas and adding the syrupy liquid to that for the affected duck. It seems to help with egg troubles.

Sufficient Vitamin D and phosphorus are also important. Some people, I am told, keep their ducks in the dark for a while to slow down their body's egg-making. This has been done after a duck has a prolapse.

 

[Bellevue]

Thank you for the advice. I will see what I can get from the pet shop. We have found our local produce places only cater for chooks. So getting duck food has been a nightmare. I will look into all of the suggestions re supplements. Cheers.

 

[Amiga]

You may want to read the thread about the U.S. drought fallout, as it has led to some interesting discussion about alternative feed regimens in case of concern about aflatoxin poisoning.

 

[Bellevue]

Thanks for that I just read it. I will keep it in mind even though a little over my head at this stage. I live in Australia and not sure how it affects us down under. I would like to look into getting a wheat free diet for my ducks. A little off topic but I got my ducks because I have a lot of allergies and wheat is a big problem for me. I have found some of the eggs... not all have given me a mild wheat allergy reaction. Do you know what I would feed them if I was not going to buy commercial pellets?

Cheers, Kerry

 

[Amiga]

Take a look at Countryside Organics layer pellet recipe. I think you can find it somewhere online. They use field peas and kelp as well as a number of other things in their mix.

I am GF, also, and don't seem to have trouble with my ducks' eggs even when I feed them wheat. But some of us are more sensitive, I think.