We're Still Here (and a QT question)!

[3bird]

Hi, Friends. We've been a bit dark as of late (couple years, I'm afraid), as we've dealt with some extended family health issues that have affected farm life, but we are still here. For those of you that know us, we sadly lost out best boy Angus two weeks ago.

FYI: He was almost eight years old. We were sadly out of the country, but we have the most amazing farm sitter who reported that on Wednesday evening he was fine, but on Thursday morning he was lethargic and not eating. Our farm sitter brought him inside (it was quite cold), and got him to the vet early Friday morning. His bloodwork showed low PCV--so he was pretty anemic, but no blood parasites were seen. He died Friday night. The differentials are cancer, and our vet thought possibly testicular (X-rays showed he may have had a mass in his abdomen, which was possibly a diseased testicle). X-rays also suggested his heart was enlarged, and upon examination the day before he died, he had an arrhythmia. We were not due back in the country until Monday, and it was the weekend, so we did not ask our farm sitter to pursue necropsy with the state vet.

This is the first time any of our girls have been without a drake, and it shows! They are all over the place--mounting each other, posturing, etc. Poor girls.

We were planning to move forward with our work with the breed this spring by exchanging some fertilized eggs with another local silver appleyard breeder, but without a drake, we've needed to shift gears a bit. The breeder with whom we were planning to exchange fertilized eggs very graciously offered us a drake.
We have not brought a new bird into our flock that we didn't hatch ourselves in many years, and I'm therefore reaching out to this community to ask what your QT set-up looks like and how you are pursuing QT these days. Any thoughts, pictures, ideas, etc. would be greatly appreciated. I'm also going to start digging through the forums.

Thanks in advance!

Oh! P.S....for those of you that followed the Rosie and Pickle saga, Ella Pickle is a big duck now and she is doing GREAT! She is a bit like a toddler at the old folks home sometimes, but she is big and strong and happy!

 

[ruthhope]

Glad you are back and condolences on losing Angus. I lost a Pekin drake from (likely) a pelvic tumor in October 2023. Like you, I was out of the country at the time. My boy, Ping, was with a friend who is a wild life rehabber as he was special needs and needed care in the home not the coop. His death was sudden and unexpected at that time. So I know how you feel (and can imagine how your sitter feels.

I rescue, rehab and rehome ducks. I always quarantine rescues for 28 days, but I dont always quarantine rehomes if I know where they are coming from--that the rehome and the rest of its flock are healthy. If I don't know the flock where the rehome is coming from, even if the owner says they are all healthy, I quarantine for at least 14 days. I wish I could trust everyone to be honest about their flock's health, but very many of them wanting to rehome a drake are desperate to get him out of their flock. That said, I haven't had any rehomes that have developed an illness in quarantine.

If it's one drake for quarantine, they are quarantine in my house
Sleeping in a dog crate inside a dog pen. I put a tarp down and use zip ties to hold the tarp up round the run, to keep the pine shavings from spreading all over. I have quarantined 2 tightly bonded rescues together in the dogcrate and run in my house. If I had a larger property, I would quarantine in an outer building. But I'm on 1/5th an acre and my home and the front yard are the largest part of my property!

After quarantine, I have the new boy see no touch for as long as it takes: sleeping in a dog crate in the coop with the other boys, but restricted to the coop and a temporary penned area outside the coop door during the day. It's very variable how long they remain see no touch. One boy stayed like that for 4 weeks. Most start integration (supervised time with the other boys) after 1 week or 2 depending on the time of year. My boys are very squabbly in the Spring but settle down over the summer, and are quite laid back by the fall. I can't imagine that a new drake will be hostile to your girls, but he might quickly develop "favorites".

Similarly, I can't image your girls being hostile to a new drake. But ducks can be surprising, hence the need for initial supervision when integrating

 

[3bird]

Glad you are back and condolences on losing Angus. I lost a Pekin drake from (likely) a pelvic tumor in October 2023. Like you, I was out of the country at the time. My boy, Ping, was with a friend who is a wild life rehabber as he was special needs and needed care in the home not the coop. His death was sudden and unexpected at that time. So I know how you feel (and can imagine how your sitter feels.

I rescue, rehab and rehome ducks. I always quarantine rescues for 28 days, but I dont always quarantine rehomes if I know where they are coming from--that the rehome and the rest of its flock are healthy. If I don't know the flock where the rehome is coming from, even if the owner says they are all healthy, I quarantine for at least 14 days. I wish I could trust everyone to be honest about their flock's health, but very many of them wanting to rehome a drake are desperate to get him out of their flock. That said, I haven't had any rehomes that have developed an illness in quarantine.

If it's one drake for quarantine, they are quarantine in my house
Sleeping in a dog crate inside a dog pen. I put a tarp down and use zip ties to hold the tarp up round the run, to keep the pine shavings from spreading all over. I have quarantined 2 tightly bonded rescues together in the dogcrate and run in my house. If I had a larger property, I would quarantine in an outer building. But I'm on 1/5th an acre and my home and the front yard are the largest part of my property!

After quarantine, I have the new boy see no touch for as long as it takes: sleeping in a dog crate in the coop with the other boys, but restricted to the coop and a temporary penned area outside the coop door during the day. It's very variable how long they remain see no touch. One boy stayed like that for 4 weeks. Most start integration (supervised time with the other boys) after 1 week or 2 depending on the time of year. My boys are very squabbly in the Spring but settle down over the summer, and are quite laid back by the fall. I can't imagine that a new drake will be hostile to your girls, but he might quickly develop "favorites".

Similarly, I can't image your girls being hostile to a new drake. But ducks can be surprising, hence the need for initial supervision when integrating

Thanks so much for your thoughtful and detailed response, and condolences regarding Ping. The biggest issue for us is thinking about keeping a drake that has never been alone in his life alone for 21-10+/- days.

Prepare for convoluted story (lol): This drake we are considering was born last year and went with two hens to a family, who recently returned him to the breeder because they moved. The breeder QT'ed them upon bringing them back to her property and then recently moved them along to another local farm (someone we know). They were not QT'ed upon arriving at the new farm, and the new owner only wants the hens, so she offered us the drake (having heard from the breeder that we were looking for a drake). I contacted the breeder again to ask if she thought this drake would be a good option for us (we plan to exchange fertilized eggs, so I wanted her to have a say), and she said absolutely. She has one drake that is a little better in terms of breed standard that she said we could have. The drake we are currently considering may have a better temperament given his situation with the two hens (and he would be dleivered), but he has now "touched" many more birds post QT at the breeders.

So....if we were definitely doing a hard QT (complete isolation) for 30+ days, I think we'd go with the drake we're considering, but the "safer" option feels like it might be going back to the breeder directly (especially if we might do more of a modified QT given it's a solo drake and what we know of the breeder).

 

[ruthhope]

Thanks so much for your thoughtful and detailed response, and condolences regarding Ping. The biggest issue for us is thinking about keeping a drake that has never been alone in his life alone for 21-10+/- days.

Prepare for convoluted story (lol): This drake we are considering was born last year and went with two hens to a family, who recently returned him to the breeder because they moved. The breeder QT'ed them upon bringing them back to her property and then recently moved them along to another local farm (someone we know). They were not QT'ed upon arriving at the new farm, and the new owner only wants the hens, so she offered us the drake (having heard from the breeder that we were looking for a drake). I contacted the breeder again to ask if she thought this drake would be a good option for us (we plan to exchange fertilized eggs, so I wanted her to have a say), and she said absolutely. She has one drake that is a little better in terms of breed standard that she said we could have. The drake we are currently considering may have a better temperament given his situation with the two hens (and he would be dleivered), but he has now "touched" many more birds post QT at the breeders.

So....if we were definitely doing a hard QT (complete isolation) for 30+ days, I think we'd go with the drake we're considering, but the "safer" option feels like it might be going back to the breeder directly (especially if we might do more of a modified QT given it's a solo drake and what we know of the breeder).

Oh poor boy. Please take him!! He should be quarantined for at least 7 days ( you will be certain he doesn't have avian flu by then as the incubation period is 1-7 days depending on the strain. You know your breeder and whether that flock is healthy. I'd be tempted to keep him in strict quarantine for only 7 days. It's a risk but you will be balancing risk against cruelty. That's your call.

Most viral hepatitis and enteritis incubate in less than 7 days and many infections mainly affect young ducklings. There is a widespread but uncommon bacterial infection that causes neurological symptoms in only 2 days and also mainly affects ducklings.

There are other BYC duck keepers should way in on quarantine times, particularly as you are in a farm situation and are breeding your ducks. The consequences of risk are greater for you than for me, although I would be distraught if my boys got an infection from a newbie. The vast majority of my rescues are little fluffies who live in my bathroom well away from my drakes in the back yard, for weeks until they are safe to go out in the back yard with the big boys, or until I can rehome them. So, I do actually fully quarantine ducklings. Like in humans, duckling poop is far more dangerous (harboring viruses and bacteria ) than adult duck poop.