# How Would You Treat This Duck?



## casportpony (Aug 22, 2015)

I thought this might be an interesting way for people to share their treatment ideas.

Found a sick Muscovy duck yesterday. She was pale, very lethargic, only 1.5 kg, which is about half her ideal weight. Don't know where she was, maybe on a nest out in the weeds?

Brought her inside and gave her 100 ml of warmed fluids orally. Checked on her 30 minutes later and there was a pile of green and yellow diarrhea. Waited 30 more minutes and gave another 100 ml of fluids. Interestingly, after fluids her color was much better, though far from normal.

So now what? What could make her poop that color? And why is she so thin? Was she sitting on a nest in the hot sun for too many weeks? Does she have an infection? A virus? Coccidia? Worms? Who knows...


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## MikeA_15 (Feb 21, 2016)

casportpony said:


> I thought this might be an interesting way for people to share their treatment ideas.
> 
> Found a sick Muscovy duck yesterday. She was pale, very lethargic, only 1.5 kg, which is about half her ideal weight. Don't know where she was, maybe on a nest out in the weeds?
> 
> ...


It could be Clostridium, Trichomaniasis or Streptococcus, all of which are common. That's quite a loss of weight. From what I understand, yellow droppings over a period of time are a result of enzymes from the liver that is stressed. Metronidazole might be a good consideration at this point. I hope the Muscovy gets better. I always liked Muscovies and our family had them while I was growing up.


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## casportpony (Aug 22, 2015)

MikeA_15 said:


> It could be Clostridium, Trichomaniasis or Streptococcus, all of which are common. That's quite a loss of weight. From what I understand, yellow droppings over a period of time are a result of enzymes from the liver that is stressed. Metronidazole might be a good consideration at this point. I hope the Muscovy gets better. I always liked Muscovies and our family had them while I was growing up.


Thanks for your input!

Normally I would give metronidazole, especially if I was treating peafowl or turkeys, but I didn't want to cause any nausea, which metronidazole can do, so I just gave her a shot of Baytril (enrofloxacin). Twenty four hours later she was eating and drinking, so I gave her another shot. I'm still thinking about adding metronidazole, but need to evaluate her poop first.

Will weigh her again and post her weight.


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## MikeA_15 (Feb 21, 2016)

Enrofloxacin is effective against Enterococcus so that may work. There are coated tabs of metronidazole to discourage vomiting in pigeons available like Aviotrich. They are 100 mg tabs. I hope the Muscovy recovers quick.


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## casportpony (Aug 22, 2015)

MikeA_15 said:


> Enrofloxacin is effective against Enterococcus so that may work. There are coated tabs of metronidazole to discourage vomiting in pigeons available like Aviotrich. They are 100 mg tabs. I hope the Muscovy recovers quick.


I have some of the coated tabs, which I thought about giving, but decided to give just the Baytril. She's up to 1.65 kg, so something is working.


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## MikeA_15 (Feb 21, 2016)

That's good. One of these days I'll get around to getting a scale. I have a small digital which is not good for birds and an old meat scale. Birds don't like sitting in a sling to get weighed on the meat scale, lol.


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## casportpony (Aug 22, 2015)

MikeA_15 said:


> That's good. One of these days I'll get around to getting a scale. I have a small digital which is not good for birds and an old meat scale. Birds don't like sitting in a sling to get weighed on the meat scale, lol.


Scale sure does take the guess work out of giving medications.


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## casportpony (Aug 22, 2015)

Duck recovered, so I banded her and released. Weight at time of release was 1.9 kg.


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## MikeA_15 (Feb 21, 2016)

casportpony said:


> Duck recovered, so I banded her and released. Weight at time of release was 1.9 kg.


That is great news. You mean a little over 4 lbs?


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## casportpony (Aug 22, 2015)

MikeA_15 said:


> That is great news. You mean a little over 4 lbs?


Lol, yes, ~4.2 pounds, which was about a pound more than when she started treatment.


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