Reply to thread

I've got a two-year-old Swedish blue duck that's having some sort of respiratory problem. Her breathing is very labored: you can see her body contract when she exhales, especially when she's laying down, and she opens and closes her mouth slightly with every breath. It's been going on nearly two weeks.

It could be aspergillosis (possibly from some slightly moldy straw bedding in the duck yard) but I would have expected to see other symptoms, if that were the case. I haven't noticed even a slight change in her behavior: still eating, foraging, laying, grooming, running around -- all normal. The labored breathing is the only noticeable change. The half-dozen other ducks in our flock are unaffected.

Does anyone have any idea what this might be? We don't have any avian vets in our area, so I'm trying to sort this out on my own.