Drake is isolating himself

[Jcarnahan]

Two thursdays ago we found two of our hens dead. No idea what happened atleast one of them was bot old. We disnt notice anything weird about them. They were just gone. Now today we noticed one of our favorite drakes is isolating himself. Its been a while since I e been out there but my teen girls feed and give them water and put them in at night so I asked them if they have noticed him going off on his own. They said they hadn’t. Im worried we are going to loose him. We gave him oatmeal and he was wxcited for that. My daughter said she saw him eat but when I was out there he was not interested in any of the treats I took to them accept for the oatmeal. He just seems lost. He still has a little fight in him. Doesn’t seem tired. He is drinking water fine. No one else is acting weird. I thought maybe he is mourning the other two ducks or this is a pecking order thing. I checked for mites or bugs. No drippy noses or discharge other than very very little yellow goop in the corner of one eye. I have left over antibiotics I could try and give him. Doesn’t seem to be any other signs of an infection though. No labored breathing. He seems healthy other than distancing himself from everyone. Im not sure. I cant explain it but he doesn’t seem like himself. Just don’t want to loose another. Plus he is a favorite. Hoping someone has some ideas. Not sure how to treat something that isn’t producing many symptoms.

 

[nao57]

Try doing different feed from...whatever you were feeding when the other 2 died. Also go rinse and thoroughly wash and detox all water bowls/buckets etc.

Try to also increase protein and feed slighly for a few days before going back to normal.

They are herd and prey animals. Herd and prey animals don't like to be alone. Its their nature of 'security' and how to avoid predators... as long as the other herd members are 'their herd'.

You can try stuff like this to help them get back on track.

Although you will see them slow down when it gets cold also. Are you in part of the US getting this big cold blast right now? (Where I'm at we're getting a big cold blast). Sometimes if the protein level, energy from their feed isn't really great and there's cold they do have to slow down from that also. I found I had to increase feed a bit when they hit cold season. But I didn't ever lose any birds from the cold. It was always predators or something else that got my birds instead (small ducklings being an exception though as they could be pretty tricky.)