[northfifeduckling]

I lost my only pure breed Indian Runner  (apparently only 4 years old) today. She was quite suddenly unwell since yesterday morning and only drank. She started smelling really bad even before she died and her eyes were really sunken since yesterday ( may be just because she was dying...) any ideas what the cause could have been? All the others are fine so far , of course all fingers crossed.

[HesterF]

Could be all sorts of things. Had she been laying recently? I lost a young goose recently to egg peritonitis and that was very fast compared with most of the lingering deaths I've experienced.

I've got a drake that I think is on his way out - but I think that will be slow. He's just not keeping up at the moment and he lost his partner over the winter in a similar way - just slowing down and gradually getting weaker. I think they were just older than I was told when I got them.

Hugs - it's always awful when they go and I've paid for three post mortems so far just because I wanted to know - two of which required samples to be sent off to get an answer anyway (and one of which I didn't bother because that's when it starts to get expensive).

H

[Mammyshaz]

  sorry you lost your girl. Hope you find the cause and the rest of the flock are fine   

[chrismahon]

Sorry to hear that NFD. The only thing that springs to mind, because of a conversation yesterday, is Northern Fowl Mite. They are very difficult to spot and in extreme cases the bird does smell bad with all the rotting flesh. By the time they look ill it is probably too late to do anything. We check for it regularly now as we've had two bad cases in the past.

[northfifeduckling]

OMG, that would be impossible to treat here (catching the ducks  !)   - I've only ever found Red Mite in the hen house but no evidence with the ducks. The IR chose not to swim. she only ever dipped her head in water, maybe that's what may have made her a victim of NFmites. I don't know if she was still laying , I can only try to keep taps on those who are laying outdoors...The only other thing I remember recently was that she tried to fly out of the house in the morning and she landed quite hard, maybe she hurt herself internally....it seemed to have come on fairly suddenly. It's all guesswork now but thanks for the suggestions, will keep a close eye on the others.

[goosepimple]

Bee sting?  Poisonous plant nibbling?  I'd have a goo look at her and in her beak / nostrils to see if you can see anything.  Sorry to hear it though, sounds like you were very fond of her.