- Nov 16, 2015
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The other day I caught one of my ducks breaking into the vegetable garden and realised when I picked her up that she was extremely thin. As in her keel was like a knife and every other bone was clearly defined, no fat on her at all."
She is fed a balanced diet consisting of pelleted feed, soaked fermented or sprouted grains with molasses, and blood, meat and bone meal, plus vegetables, vitamins and minerals. She is in a run at night with a group of other ducks, no social issues or pecking order problems seen, 3 of the other ducks ar her siblings and preferred social group. They are feed around 5pm and most nights there is still food sitting in their bowls at midnight so there shouldn't be any issues with having to compete to get to food first.
She is about 10 mths old, not laying and of her 4 siblings I got her with, 2 are normal weight two are actually lookin a little porky!
She has no physical symptoms, energy and behaviour is normal, vent clean and normal size, eyes clear, nares clear, breathing fine, legs fine, feet fine no bumblefoot, no signs of external parasites. I put her in a separate run for a couple of days to observe and feed up, and she is eating well, but not like she is starved, ie eating good meals and enthuastically about her fav treats, but picking at stuff she isn't so fussed on,
Faeces look normal, no visible worms etc. I have wormed her with abamecton under her wing. Have not given any antibiotics as I can't see any evidence she has any sort of infection.
Have researched possible causes of weight loss and came up with only worms and coccidiosis, and the latter it would seem that she would,probably have diarrhoea, or blood in faeces, and be looking unwell etc which she isn't.
Her feathers are smooth, shiny and not broken etc. behaviour seems normal.
Anyone got any ideas as to what other causes might be behind this?
or ways to try and put a bit of weight on her? While she seems perfectly healthy, she is so thin, I worry that she's got no reserves in terms of staying that way...
Have been handing a number of ducks for various reasons in the last week(I have around 100 domestic and wild rescued ducks) and every other duck I have handled has been a normal weight.
She is fed a balanced diet consisting of pelleted feed, soaked fermented or sprouted grains with molasses, and blood, meat and bone meal, plus vegetables, vitamins and minerals. She is in a run at night with a group of other ducks, no social issues or pecking order problems seen, 3 of the other ducks ar her siblings and preferred social group. They are feed around 5pm and most nights there is still food sitting in their bowls at midnight so there shouldn't be any issues with having to compete to get to food first.
She is about 10 mths old, not laying and of her 4 siblings I got her with, 2 are normal weight two are actually lookin a little porky!
She has no physical symptoms, energy and behaviour is normal, vent clean and normal size, eyes clear, nares clear, breathing fine, legs fine, feet fine no bumblefoot, no signs of external parasites. I put her in a separate run for a couple of days to observe and feed up, and she is eating well, but not like she is starved, ie eating good meals and enthuastically about her fav treats, but picking at stuff she isn't so fussed on,
Faeces look normal, no visible worms etc. I have wormed her with abamecton under her wing. Have not given any antibiotics as I can't see any evidence she has any sort of infection.
Have researched possible causes of weight loss and came up with only worms and coccidiosis, and the latter it would seem that she would,probably have diarrhoea, or blood in faeces, and be looking unwell etc which she isn't.
Her feathers are smooth, shiny and not broken etc. behaviour seems normal.
Anyone got any ideas as to what other causes might be behind this?
or ways to try and put a bit of weight on her? While she seems perfectly healthy, she is so thin, I worry that she's got no reserves in terms of staying that way...
Have been handing a number of ducks for various reasons in the last week(I have around 100 domestic and wild rescued ducks) and every other duck I have handled has been a normal weight.