10 Secrets
Guard your birds against disease by applying these essential tips.
Aflock of healthy, happy ducks is a joy to behold: tails a-wagging, they greet the day with enthusiasm — cavorting in their swimming pool, preening their glossy plumage and searching bright-eyed through the grass for delicious bugs. When your animals are the picture of good health, life on the farm feels right.
For those of us who have become completely enamored with our little flocks, that feeling of well-being changes drastically when a duck falls ill. You notice one morning that Daisy doesn’t come speed-waddling over for breakfast with her companions. Instead, she sits in the back of the house looking listless, feathers ruffled. Suddenly, it seems as if a black cloud has blocked out the sun. How sick is she? What’s wrong with her? Will the rest of the flock catch whatever she has?
Happily, waterfowl tend to be hale and hearty creatures when given proper care. But even the most conscientious management won’t guarantee that your birds will never get sick or injured. In
this article, we’ll look at proper ways to handle ducks in sickness and in health. We’ll also cover basic information on some of the health problems your flock can experience.
DISEASE prevention BASICS
Let’s begin our discussion of flock health with an important question: How do you prevent illness and injury from ruining your ducks’ day — and yours — in the first place? Let’s look at some savvy strategies for minimizing problems.
1 . Choose good STOCK
Start with healthy stock from a reputable source. Whether you start your flock with ducklings or adults, obtain your birds from a good source that carries healthy stock. If you are picking out the ducks yourself — at a feed store or a farm, for example — choose ducks and ducklings that appear vigorous and active. Avoid those with pasty rears, discharge from the eyes, or leg problems as well as any listless-looking birds that just sit around with their eyes closed all the time.
2 . maintain A good Diet
Feeding your birds a healthy, balanced diet with ample fresh water is critical. An inappropriate or unbalanced diet ranks as one of the leading causes of health problems in domestic ducks. Ducks can’t thrive on a diet of bread alone — or corn or lettuce or grass — any more than we can. Overdoses, deficiencies and imbalances of specific nutrients can be bad news for your flocks’ health.
3 . Hydrate often
Waterfowl also require an abundant supply of clean drinking water to remain healthy. With ducks’ dabbling and bathing habits, keeping their water sparkling clear all the time is impossible, but do change it at least once or twice a day, and scrub the containers regularly to keep the water from turning foul and stagnant.
4. maintain proper Hygiene
Avoid crowding your ducks. Ducks are social animals, but they don’t enjoy being packed like
sardines. Overcrowding causes filthy conditions, promotes the spread of disease, and increases aggression and stress. So ditch the factory-farm mentality, and give your ducks plenty of space to breathe, bathe, eat, preen, interact and basically behave like ducks.
Keep your flock’s housing, pens and swimming pools or ponds as clean as you can. We’ve said it once (or twice) and we’ll say it again — ducks are messy creatures, especially when confined in small houses and pens rather than being allowed to roam a larger area. Regular cleaning of your flock’s abode, dining spot and enclosures will cut down on parasites, diseasecarrying flies and rodents, and harmful molds and bacteria. It will also prevent your ducks from experiencing the sheer stress — and thus lowered immunity — that comes from living in a filthy, foul-smelling environment. You should also clean or flush your flock’s bathing facilities regularly to decrease health risks associated with stagnant, dirty water.
5. protect DUCKS from other Animals
Control pest populations and keep your ducks away from wild birds. Rats, mice, crows and pigeons drawn to a leftover buffet courtesy of your ducks can bring disease and parasites. So can the migratory waterfowl alighting on your pond and the pretty wild birds flitting about feeders. If possible, use fencing or enclosures to bar your ducks from areas frequented by wild waterfowl; these birds pose one of the biggest disease risks to your flock. You should also prevent access to the ground around your bird feeders where
droppings accumulate. Control rodents as much as you can, but with common sense and caution; you don’t want your ducks or pets ingesting poison or getting caught in a rat trap.
6. Keep A Closed flock
A closed flock means that no new birds enter until it’s time to replace the flock completely. It also means that all the resident birds stay put — no going back and forth to shows or fairs to mingle with other waterfowl and poultry. Closed flocks are standard procedure on large commercial poultry farms, where biosecurity is a big, big deal. Obviously, not every small duck farmer can — or even wants to — keep his or her flock completely closed. Still, think carefully before saying, “Sure, why not?” when your neighbors offer you their last two ducks
(hey, what happened to the rest, anyway?) or when you’re tempted to take a few free surplus fowl sitting in a cage at your local feed store. Some birds come with stuff you didn’t bargain for, such as infectious diseases and parasites.
7. quarantine new or SICK BIRDS
If a closed flock isn’t an option for you — for example, you regularly purchase or exchange breeding stock or you love to show ducks — then put new or returning ducks through a quarantine period before mingling birds.
Even fowl that look completely healthy can harbor disease, and some illnesses have long incubation periods. Keep new birds isolated from the rest of your flock for at least four weeks. Ducks back from the fair or show should stay in quarantine for a minimum of two weeks.
Have a separate set of cleaning equipment, feed dishes and other paraphernalia for each group of birds (or sanitize everything well before exchanging supplies), and take care of your resident flock before tending to the quarantined birds. Any fowl showing signs of an infectious disease should be promptly removed and isolated from the rest of the birds for observation, diagnosis and possible treatment.
8. Be Biosecure
With highly pathogenic avian influenza a looming threat (see the sidebar “10 Facts About Avian Influenza”), biosecurity is definitely for our birds and not just for commercial operations anymore. Biosecurity encompasses measures that keep infectious diseases off your farm, including the strategies outlined above. Other sensible measures include restricting visitor access to the area where you keep your
ducks (especially bird-owning folks); using a disinfectant foot bath; changing your clothes and footwear after you’ve visited another farm, a fair or an auction; disinfecting poultry cages and equipment that have been to another farm or the fair; and disposing of any dead birds promptly and properly.
9. Keep their environment Safe
A strand of wire dangling loose off the fence, a sharp nail protruding from the duck house wall, shards of broken glass, a bottle cap, a hole into your ducks’ enclosure large enough for a raccoon or mink to squeeze through — all these hazards can spell disaster.
When caring for your ducks each day, survey their environment: If their bin of feed smells moldy, chuck it. If a bald eagle is hunting overhead, you may need to revamp your duck yard or management techniques to keep your flock safe. If you spot a clump of baling twine in the grass, ready to snag a duck leg, pick it up immediately.
10. recognizing Abnormal Behavior
While duck keepers should know the warning signs of ill health or injury in their birds, learning each duck’s normal appearance and behavior is just as important. Ducks may not be as obviously individualistic as dogs or horses, but they often have different personalities, even within the same breed. Some are shy, others outgoing and friendly; one top duck always rushes the food dish first, another bird at the bottom of the pecking order hangs back. You may discover that your birds’ behavior changes during the course of the year: a normally active, vocal duck becomes subdued while molting; a friendly quacker turns aggressive when she hatches her brood.
Be a good observer of your ducks when they’re healthy, and you’ll find it easier to quickly identify any abnormal behaviors or signs that indicate ill health or injury. Give each of your birds a billto-tail inspection at least once a day, and really focus on its appearance and behavior. In general, a healthy duck has smooth, glossy feathers except during molting periods; bright, discharge-free eyes and nasal openings; a clean vent area; and a good appetite. A vigorous duck will take baths throughout the day and spend time preening, foraging, drinking and sleeping.
Symptoms AND warning Signs
Many domestic animals, like their wild kin, instinctively take great pains to hide sickness or injury so they won’t be seen as easy prey, and ducks are no exception. Signs of illness in birds may be subtle and difficult to spot, so vigilance is important. The following symptoms should set off warning bells in your head: coughing, sneezing, gasping, nasal or eye discharge, sluggishness, depression, ruffled feathers, watery or bloody diarrhea, poor appetite, an unusual loss of feathers, abnormal drop in egg production or soft-shelled eggs, swelling of head and neck,