Duck swallowing non stop and making weird squeaking noise.

[shawluvsbirds]

http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/artquacks.htm

Theres a little thing you can click on in this artixle to hear the difference in voices of drakes vs. Ducks. Drake curls aren't the most reliable way to tell.

 

[Natashamcbride25]

I will have to figure out a way to separate her from the others and give her “nesting box” so she feels at home with the straw.

 

[Natashamcbride25]

http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/artquacks.htm

Theres a little thing you can click on in this artixle to hear the difference in voices of drakes vs. Ducks. Drake curls aren't the most reliable way to tell.

The first thing we noticed was that they quack was softer and then the drake curl came in on one but not on the other.

 

[Miss Lydia]

This is good to have on hand. But my concern is if it would happen to be fungal antibiotics would make it worse.
It's kind of a gamble to throw antibiotics at stuff when we don't know for sure what we are treating for.

I agree. Just having an antibiotic on hand though is always better than needing one and not having it. The best way is by taking her to a vet which I know isn't always feasible so we try and help all we can.
She needs to be separated from the drakes while she isn't feeling well.

 

[Miss Lydia]

She doesn’t eat her normal food. If I give her peas she gets excited and tries to eat, but only eats a little. I don’t remember her standing like this before and we have 2 other Cayugas and they don’t stand like this. Even when she is in the water she stands like this. I just gave her a bath and rubbed her down the vet rx and she is currently just sitting in the water with her butt up.

Now mine doesn't do this stand all the time. I see it mainly after she has been eating or pigging out. It's like she is top heavy for a while.
Is a vet an option? In the morning is her crop empty it looks full in the picture. If she isn't eating that may have something to do with her balance also weak for not getting nourishment.

 

[Natashamcbride25]

Now mine doesn't do this stand all the time. I see it mainly after she has been eating or pigging out. It's like she is top heavy for a while.
Is a vet an option? In the morning is her crop empty it looks full in the picture. If she isn't eating that may have something to do with her balance also weak for not getting nourishment.

My husband got up this morning to get ready for work and woke me up to tell me she that she did not make it through the night. I am hoping whatever was going on with her was not contagious and will not spread to my other ducks. I plan to do a deep clean of the coop today. What can I use to sanitize the coop and run?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am so sorry to hear this.

I use oxine ah for cleaning but most likely you'll have to order it.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

My husband got up this morning to get ready for work and woke me up to tell me she that she did not make it through the night. I am hoping whatever was going on with her was not contagious and will not spread to my other ducks. I plan to do a deep clean of the coop today. What can I use to sanitize the coop and run?

 

[Goosebaby]

I’am so sorry for your loss! I’ve been dealing with a similar situation and found this post a few days back. This might seem like an odd question especially given that’s it’s been a few months but did you get her from Metzer or do you know if she came from birds that were bred at Metzer?

The reason why I’m asking is I’m wondering if this may be a genetic issue. My sweet Cayuga Moonbeam just passed away yesterday. She was only two years old and she had the same symptoms and she came from Metzer.

Normally I would assume her condition and your duck’s illness were unrelated respiratory illnesses and being the same breed was just coincidence as the symptoms do point to a respiratory illness “gaping, coughing, elevated rear indicates airsacculitis or a mass pushing on the rear airsacks.” However she had no nasal, mouth, or eye discharge also.

But Moonbeam had prior issues, she hadn’t molted normally since her first molt. Incomplete molt can indicate a nutritional deficiency, disease, stress, or injury, but she and the other ducks were otherwise healthy with no bullying and no signs of illness. Boosting her protein and giving her extra vitamins didn’t help, she also didn’t have stress bars which are usually present with a deficiency during molt, just poor quality feathers, she would slowly replace her body feathers over the course of a year but her flight feathers she didn’t replace.
Recently Moon had just finished laying for the season and started coughing, there isn’t a vet that would see her in the foreseeable future so I treated her myself. She was on Tylosin and amoxicillin, she was also wormed, I put her on a B complex and multi-vitamin regimen, it didn’t work. Using VetRx to open up her airways didn’t work. Nebulizing her with rosemary too didn’t help either. I started nebulizing her with amphotericinB as a last resort suspecting it was asper. No change. She hadn’t been quacking but when she did her voice wasn’t altered, that doesn’t mean she didn’t have asper but an altered voice is typical in the later stages.
She began declining the day before yesterday and she passed yesterday afternoon.


Your girl I can see was in her first molt which is a big strain to the immune system, but she didn’t have typical symptoms of a respiratory infection either, usually most bacterial, viral, and even fungal infections will produce nasal, mouth, or even eye discharge as it advances. I didn’t feel a mass in Moonbeam’s abdomen either so she wasn’t eggbound and I doubt there was a tumor. Another form of cancer could have caused their symptoms, and both being very young Cayugas that makes me suspect a genetic issue which made them susceptible to cancer, an immune issue, possibly a liver condition. It’s possible that your duck could have ended up with poor feathering also if she had lived longer.

These two cases could easily be unrelated, but if not and it is a faulty gene then there’s nothing you could have done to save her and I hope that is some small comfort.

For anyone else that finds this this might be something to watch for with your cayugas.

 

[Bolfreak]

I’am so sorry for your loss! I’ve been dealing with a similar situation and found this post a few days back. This might seem like an odd question especially given that’s it’s been a few months but did you get her from Metzer or do you know if she came from birds that were bred at Metzer?

Very interesting, @Goosebaby
I have Cayugas from Metzer as well. They’ve been healthy overall except for one hen that developed a touch of Angel Wing on one side (same diet/exercise as my other birds but she wouldn’t tolerate bandages). This hen has also prolapsed twice, the second time from a stuck egg. We since got a pool and our water tested - which showed our water leaches calcium from the environment, so I only feed Layer and free choice flaked seashells. Haven’t had the eggbound issue anymore, but she went through a very hard molt this year (before her 2yr birthday) and hasn’t picked up laying again. Her eggs haven’t incubated properly, either, they seem to be early or late quitters compared to my other successful hens, so I only eat her eggs usually.
I found this thread because my Buffs (not Metzer, got them locally) occasionally have the loss of quack/trying to swallow. I have a young hen that was hatched by a turkey and usually hangs with the turkeys, eating and doing what they do. So I’m not sure if she just doesn’t drink or swim as much as my other ducks and gorges at feed time. I’ve checked throats and massaged crops to rule out hardware disease or her picking up something hard like an acorn. My Buff drake has recently taken an interest in her and leads her to the nest and sleeps in the doorway to protect her, etc and last night he was doing that same thing. I can deworm if gapeworm is suspected (I have geese and turkeys as well, no other kinds of birds). None of them are listless or underweight and they free range all day long. I also give scratch with the pellets so wonder if the gorging is really the issue and once it moves farther down they’re ok.