Ducks may be fragile but ducklings are even more fragile than their adult counterparts, a variety of illnesses can result in the death of your ducklings so knowing what to look out for and how to treat the bird is imperative.
If you realize that your duckling has developed a swollen chest then this article will be of help to you
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Duckling swollen chest
Keeping an eye on your ducklings is a must, if you’re keeping an eye on your birds, and you realize that the bird suddenly developed a swollen chest then this may be happening because of one of four reasons
Full crop:
Ducks who have just hatched don’t know how to be ducks yet, they won’t know what to eat and drink. They simply follow what their peers and mother eat and drink and they don’t know how much to eat and drink when they do finally eat and drink.
If your bird’s chest becomes enlarged then the bird may simply have a full crop. The crop is an organ that stores food for the bird before the food makes its way to the bird’s stomach, it expands and contracts according to the amount of food in it.
If your bird simply eats too much food then the crop will expand and make the bird look as though it has a swollen chest. This may be what you’re seeing
What to do:
This is a normal occurrence, it happens in ducklings and happens in other types of birds as well.
As long as the bulge goes down by the time the bird eats the next day then your bird should be fine
Crop impaction:
Just as ducklings don’t know how much to eat they may not know what to eat, ducklings should be eating specialized duckling feed in the early stages of life but if they are allowed to free roam they may eat some long grasses as well
The long grasses that these birds eat will form a clump in the bird’s crop that can’t be passed causing the bird to develop a swollen chest.
As the bird eats more food the added food will become stuck in the crop and the bird’s chest will become even bigger if not addressed.
What to do:
Treatment for crop impaction in ducks is to give the bird a little olive oil and then massage the bird’s neck to get the mass to break up and go down.
If this doesn’t work, or if you’d prefer to have a vet handle it, then the vet will surgically remove the mass from the bird’s crop.
Blocked crop:
Ducklings are curious creatures, they will eat a lot of food that they shouldn’t. This includes eating large hard objects like stones.
The stones that your bird may have eaten may have been able to get past the bird’s bill but may have not been able to move past the bird’s crop into the bird’s stomach.
The stone stuck in the bird’s throat may be what you are seeing stuck in the bird’s chest.
What to do:
You cannot massage the stone stuck in the bird’s crop in an effort to get it to break up and go down but you can take the bird to the vet who will surgically remove the stone thus getting your bird back to normal.
Leaking air sac:
Another cause of a swollen chest in your birds is a ruptured air sac. A ruptured air sac can develop if the bird becomes injured in an accident
The air sac may have ruptured causing an accumulation of air under the bird’s skin and a lump developing in the bird’s chest area.
These lumps can differ in size depending on how much air is let out by the air sacs and these air sacs can become quite big in a matter of hours.
The air sac when touched may feel spongy and soft but brittle sounds may be released when you do this.
What to do:
Releasing air from the area is the treatment for this condition but it is recommended that this be done by a vet. The air may need to be let out a couple of times before the bird goes back to normal.
Antibiotics may also be necessary to keep the opening from becoming infected.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other duck related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Do Ducks Protect Chickens?, Why Is My Duck Acting Drunk?, Why Do Ducks Waddle?, Why Are My Ducklings Chirping So Much?