Can I do a flush on my whole flock?

[faithandfeathers]

Yesterday I had to put one of my ducks down because when we x-rayed her, we discovered that her gut was full of metal bits. She had stopped eating and drinking and was pretty sick. My concern is that probably a lot of them have some in them since they all range in the same area. I was reading the stickies and saw there is a flush to help birds expel foreign material, so I am wondering if it would be a good idea to do that on everyone. Maybe I could do their water overnight? Would that be a good idea? I don't want to lose anyone else. I have 21 ducks.

 

[azygous]

There is a rare disorder called pica. It affects animals and humans alike. It causes the individual to feel driven to consume weird non-food things such as metal screws, washers and staples, paper, dirt, etc. But it's not socially or pathologically contagious. Chances are it's just the one duck who's got this disorder.

A flush won't flush out metal, and a flock flush wouldn't really accomplish anything. Your best bet is to scour their yard with a metal detector or a magnet to find as much of the offending metal as possible.

 

[faithandfeathers]

Thank you. I put a fence around the area where I think most of the stuff is. Now we can focus on the surrounding yard. I am hoping everyone else will be ok. I should have done that way sooner, but I honestly didn't think about the ducks actually eating any of that stuff. Hard lesson to learn.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Thank you. I put a fence around the area where I think most of the stuff is. Now we can focus on the surrounding yard. I am hoping everyone else will be ok. I should have done that way sooner, but I honestly didn't think about the ducks actually eating any of that stuff. Hard lesson to learn.

So sorry