Domestic Waterfowl Diseases: Coping with Duck Ailments
Keep your ducks in a clean environment, and very little will go
wrong.
- Make sure that they have clean, dry bedding in a house with good
ventilation.
- Water should be clean and accessible: ducks must be able to have
access to buckets and ponds in order to to wash their eyes and
feathers.
- They should have the appropriate duck food, depending on the
season. Do not use hen layers pellets if you can get real duck food.
- Pellets must also be 'in-date' (Check this on the label.) and not
mouldy. Some moulds produce aflatoxins, which are particularly
harmful to ducks.
- Fence out animals which will harm the birds, and remove any
objects which can harm them - nails, string, glass, plastic etc.
- Watch your birds each day for any signs of illness: lack of
appetite, limping, straining or generally slow behaviour - which
means a bird is off-colour.
- Worm the birds routinely twice a year.
- Note that antibiotics in the UK can only be prescribed by a vet.
Follow appropriate withdrawal times for antibiotics and any other
treatments.
Aspergillosis
Symptoms: laboured breathing, which can also be a symptom of
pneumonia.
Cause: spores from mouldy bedding, especially hay, which should be
avoided.
Treatment: Aspergillosis can be treated with fungicides - but these
are expensive and unlikely to be successful. Avoid this disease by
good management. Aflatoxin poisoning may show similar symptoms. In
this case, the moulds that grow on cereal grains and oilseeds
produce toxins which are very damaging for ducks. Store food in dry,
cool conditions. Never use mouldy food.
Botulism
Symptoms: loss of muscular control of legs, wings and neck - hence
the term limber-neck. Birds are unable to swallow.
Cause: toxins produced by bacteria (Clostridia) in decaying animal
and vegetable waste. The toxins cause the problem.
Treatment: avoid problems by keeping ducks out of muddy/dirty areas
and stagnant pools, especially in hot weather. The bacteria multiply
rapidly in warmer temperatures in anaerobic conditions (where oxygen
is excluded). Give affected birds fresh drinking water. If
necessary, introduce water into the mouth and throat with a syringe
(no needle). A crop tube could be used with the advice of a vet. Add
Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate, available from the high street
chemist) to the water. This is an old remedy which is still used.
Recommended amounts vary from 1 tablespoon in one cup of water to 1
ounce per 50 fluid oz ( two and a half pints) of water.
Coccidiosis
Symptoms: red blood in the droppings; thin birds because coccidia
attack the lining of the gut and nutrients from food are not
absorbed. Birds may be ill for some time: weeks, not days.
Cause: ground dirty with droppings of birds which carry coccidia.
Coccidia are protozoa and cannot therefore be eliminated with
antibiotic. They are more common in summer in hot, wet conditions.
Treatment: anticoccidial medication in the drinking water e.g.
Harker's Coxoid, obtainable from your vet or Interhatch. Follow
instructions about withdrawal times. The coccidiostat added to
poultry (hen) grower pellets is not a suitable treatment. Avoid
problems by growing young ducklings on clean ground, moving their
protective coop on to a new patch each day. Coccidiosis is not a
common disease with ducks, especially if you have clean water and
feed wheat and pellets. Geese are more likely to get it from grazing
on dirty grass.
Enteritis
Inflammation and bleeding in the gut can be produced by bacteria or
duck viral enteritis (more info).
DVE is rare, but will kill most affected birds. Prompt treatment
with a vaccine obtainable from Holland, obtained through your vet,
is the only solution.
Symptoms: if birds are listless and suffering from pinkish droppings
in hot spells in summer, this is more likely to be a bacterial form
of enteritis. Watch the wild birds. If blackbirds etc. are ill too,
then your ducks do not have DVE.
The bacterial disease is probably transmitted by the wild bird
population.Discourage wild mallard from mingling with domestic ducks
Treatment: bacterial enteritis is easily treated by using soluble
antibiotic powders from the vet, in the drinking water (but you must
catch this early.) No other water should be available. Move the
birds on to clean ground a couple of days after treatment has
commenced. Make sure the birds get eight days' treatment. Follow the
instructions about dosage and withdrawal times.
Lameness
Symptoms: hot leg, swollen ankle or swollen hock. .
Cause: bacterial infection.
Treatment: course of antibiotic injections from the vet.
Maggots
Symptoms: dirty vent. Maggot infestation may not be readily noticed.
Cause: birds do not have enough water for keeping themselves clean,
particularly at the vent, during hot weather in summer. Injured
birds may also have flies' eggs deposited at an injury.
Treatment: pick the maggots off the affected area; use ointment,
then fly spray; check the birds each day for several days - any fly
eggs already on the bird will still hatch. This is a rare affliction
in Runners, but the maggots can eat the bird internally. If this is
the case, put the bird down.
Mites
Symptoms: birds scratch a lot. The Northern mite lives on the bird
and sucks its blood.
Cause: mites are caught from other birds at bird shows, and from new
birds you may have introduced. It is possible that they can also be
caught from wild birds.Lice, which are insects, also live on the
birds. These live on bits of feather, and are grey in colour instead
of red.
Treatment: use pesticides such as pyrethrum or ivermectin (see the
web pages on Worms and Mites for the dosage of ivermectin which is a
systemic treatment for pests). Always follow instructions about
withdrawal times which come with these products.
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