So I purchased 16 3/4 week old Muscovy ducklings on June 15, 2019 by June 27, 2019 I lost 7. on June 19th I sent them one deceased duckling off for a Necropsy. I don't have all of the official results back yet, the lab and the vet have just been awesome. We lost our first duckling on June 16, 2019 and pretty much a duck a day thereafter. I'm sure they did not pick up this disease on my property. But now I am concerned that I may have introduced something to mu local area. We have other poultry as well (23 Saxony ducks- 11 weeks old, and 38 Cornish cross-2 weeks old), everyone is housed separate. My other flocks seem health and happy however I am concerned, and could not find any preventative measures besides screaming in coops (which would still allow space for black flies to get in, its doable but, i'm unsure of its effectiveness. So as of yesterday my 9 remaining Muscovy's are on Ponazuril for the next 7 days. The vet suggested not treating the other poultry. IS there a preventative I could give to my other poultry, I'm not sure how to deal with insect born blood parasites? What should I treat the ground with the Muscovy's are on, will DE kill anything living in their poop? should I add Garlic to my feed, I'm not a fan of adding things to my ducks water (I would have no idea how to make sure they got a proper dosage)? Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated. Also, Our animals are for eggs and food, but I still believe that they should have wonderfully spoiled lives, So they are extra spoiled rotten and well taken care of, hence a vet visit , medicine, and a necropsy for Muscovy we plan on eating. With that being said are these ducks something that we shouldn't eat, and I'm not sure about keeping ducklings they may infect other birds on the property ( the vet made it seem like its something most poultry are already carries of and since our ducklings were malnourished they just didn't have a good fighting chance), not even sure if I can breed them for meat next year, or If i should just cull the lot of them and burn the bodies- i wouldn't want to re home birds that may be carrier parasites to anyone else, like this experience is just traumatizing all together-and i wouldn't ant to wish this on anyone. Any tips on recognizing malnourished ducks in the future, still new to ducks and poultry in general we have been doing it for going on 12 weeks now...duck and chicken count got out of hand...really fast.
So this is what we saw with our ducklings if anyone else is going through this.
*(saturday) our ducks were small but healthy looking ( I noticed they were small at purchase but I figured that the farm we got them from just lied about their age. Their feathers were shinny- currently contributing that to the fact they they were brooded by momma). - original owners let them free range with mom and supplemented with organic layer pellets)
*our ducks were running around and eating fine, on day one we noticed they couldn't eat out mazuri maintenance pellets so i crumbled it in a blender. along with dried meal worms and fresh greens (peas and roamine lettuce) and gave them raw honey water instead of electrolytes ( i dont fee comfortable with giving animals salt water if they are drinking water fine), along with plain water
* next day (sunday) fed ducklings ( topped off feed and fresh water and more fresh greens) and watched them to see how they were steeling in, at 8 am by 2 pm we had 1 dead duckling. i then gave them scrambled eggs with extra vitamins in it, made sure they all got some. this was sunday, had not even had the ducks on our property for a full 24 hours.
*Monday morning no deaths. Monday evening at water changing and feeding time no dead, all seem healthy more scrambled eggs.
*tuesday morning 1 more dead I called 2 vets and left messaged waited for call backs. and contacted original owners. evening no dead, scrubbed everything in coop down and fresh layer of bedding (these ducks were already living in a brand new coop).
*Wednesday morning 1 died, Wednesday evening brought to vet sent one off for a necropsy. vet said they felt squishy (like swollen) but otherwise all in good health.
*thursday, no deaths
*friday 2 deaths one in the morning one in the evening- lab said they had enlarged livers and spleens.
* saturday 1 death
* sunday 1 death
monday through today no deaths (saturday) friday evening started medicine and found out that had leukocytozoon infection and were anemic.
after doing some ready I'm very confused with whole ordeal, has anyone been through this. My reading suggested that treatment inst really effective. so I think I might start seeing deaths again.
*things i noticed looking back, before ducklings died. (fine, then sitting when i walked in the coop vs running from me or running to me to steal greens. then the ones we watched die were sitting in the morning then off balance a few hours later only noticed because I was being extra careful, when we brought them in the house they were wobbly, then fell over to their side, then started kicking like death rattles and died- in like a 5-10 minute span from bring in them in the house. we do three coops in the morning and evening ( normally takes about an hour after getting water, moving adult tractor, adding fresh bedding to the two brooder coops, crumbling feed for the ducklings, and washing/rinsing out wateres and feeders, and gathering greens and preparing food buckets for all the coops).
*side note- switched the sicks ducks from mazurri maintenance to organic duck starter and cut with organic oats for the right protien and feed more fresh greens (romaine, kale, peas, spring mix w/o spinach) 2x's a day now, they are almost double in size
above june 15 below june 28
So this is what we saw with our ducklings if anyone else is going through this.
*(saturday) our ducks were small but healthy looking ( I noticed they were small at purchase but I figured that the farm we got them from just lied about their age. Their feathers were shinny- currently contributing that to the fact they they were brooded by momma). - original owners let them free range with mom and supplemented with organic layer pellets)
*our ducks were running around and eating fine, on day one we noticed they couldn't eat out mazuri maintenance pellets so i crumbled it in a blender. along with dried meal worms and fresh greens (peas and roamine lettuce) and gave them raw honey water instead of electrolytes ( i dont fee comfortable with giving animals salt water if they are drinking water fine), along with plain water
* next day (sunday) fed ducklings ( topped off feed and fresh water and more fresh greens) and watched them to see how they were steeling in, at 8 am by 2 pm we had 1 dead duckling. i then gave them scrambled eggs with extra vitamins in it, made sure they all got some. this was sunday, had not even had the ducks on our property for a full 24 hours.
*Monday morning no deaths. Monday evening at water changing and feeding time no dead, all seem healthy more scrambled eggs.
*tuesday morning 1 more dead I called 2 vets and left messaged waited for call backs. and contacted original owners. evening no dead, scrubbed everything in coop down and fresh layer of bedding (these ducks were already living in a brand new coop).
*Wednesday morning 1 died, Wednesday evening brought to vet sent one off for a necropsy. vet said they felt squishy (like swollen) but otherwise all in good health.
*thursday, no deaths
*friday 2 deaths one in the morning one in the evening- lab said they had enlarged livers and spleens.
* saturday 1 death
* sunday 1 death
monday through today no deaths (saturday) friday evening started medicine and found out that had leukocytozoon infection and were anemic.
after doing some ready I'm very confused with whole ordeal, has anyone been through this. My reading suggested that treatment inst really effective. so I think I might start seeing deaths again.
*things i noticed looking back, before ducklings died. (fine, then sitting when i walked in the coop vs running from me or running to me to steal greens. then the ones we watched die were sitting in the morning then off balance a few hours later only noticed because I was being extra careful, when we brought them in the house they were wobbly, then fell over to their side, then started kicking like death rattles and died- in like a 5-10 minute span from bring in them in the house. we do three coops in the morning and evening ( normally takes about an hour after getting water, moving adult tractor, adding fresh bedding to the two brooder coops, crumbling feed for the ducklings, and washing/rinsing out wateres and feeders, and gathering greens and preparing food buckets for all the coops).
*side note- switched the sicks ducks from mazurri maintenance to organic duck starter and cut with organic oats for the right protien and feed more fresh greens (romaine, kale, peas, spring mix w/o spinach) 2x's a day now, they are almost double in size
above june 15 below june 28
