It’s common to see human babies drool, this is normal. Human babies drool because they don’t have full control of the muscles that control swallowing, but it’s not so common for adult ducks to drool.
If your duck has started drooling then your alarm bells are likely ringing, this article explores why this happens.
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Why is my duck drooling?
Drooling is not normal for ducks, but it can happen. While ducks do have salivary glands, these birds don’t drool the same way that humans drool.
There are a variety of reasons why your duck may be drooling, not all are dangerous but some are, here are reasons why this may be happening:
Eating or drinking too much:
If you have ducklings you’ll know that these young animals aren’t as advanced as adult ducks are. Sometimes, ducklings don’t know when to stop eating or drinking.
Your baby duck may start to drool after eating too much food, or drinking too much water, and doing this too fast. The drool will spew out of the bird in this case.
What to do:
The drooling bird will get used to eating and drinking and won’t eat and drink so much that the drool starts to pour out of its mouth after eating.
Just keep an eye on the bird to make sure that it doesn’t show any signs of stress or show signs of illness.
Dehydration:
If your bird is producing a thick mucusy drool then the bird may be hydrated.
Ducks show that they are dehydrated in a number of ways, including extending their wings away from their body, weakness, unresponsiveness, lethargy, and drooling a thick mucus
What to do:
Giving the bird access to cold water is recommended, if the bird is too weak to drink the water itself then you can hold the bird’s beak into a small dish of water to get the beak wet and get the bird to open its mouth to drink.
You can also offer the bird water-rich foods like watermelon, grapes, and blueberries.
Canker:
Another reason why ducks drool is that the birds have canker. This disease can, unfortunately, be fatal to the bird if it is not addressed.
Canker is caused by a single-cell protozoan called the trichomonas gallinae. This disease can affect a variety of birds including parrots, pigeons, budgies, cockatiels, and ducks to name a few.
Healthy birds can get this disease if it has beak-to-beak contact with a bird who has a canker, and through food and water contaminated by the saliva or feces of a bird with canker.
Duck mouths are usually dry, the bird only needs saliva to lubricate its throat when consuming food. The bird doesn’t need saliva in its beak, this is why the inside of the duck’s beak is usually dry
However, canker needs a moist environment to thrive in and it causes the bird to drool in order to survive in the bird.
Canker causes ulcers to develop in the bird’s beak as well as inflammation, these ulcers and inflammation will make the bird drool and will enable the canker to survive.
Other signs to look for if you think your bird has canker include a bird who is emaciated, ulcers, grey or yellow plaques on the bird’s tongue, the inability to swallow, droopy wings, vomiting, increased water intake, diarrhea, ruffled-up feathers, dull feathers, ashy feathers, and moist plumage
Canker is contagious among birds so if you think that your bird has this ailment then you’d need to quickly address it.
What to do:
Taking the bird to the vet is the recommended course of action in this scenario, the vet will be able to verify that the bird does indeed have canker.
Treatment options that your vet may suggest for your bird include carnidazole, given as a single dose to the bird, as well as ronidazole mixed with some water. You can serve ronidazole mixed with water for a week
The bird should make a full recovery after taking this medication as instructed.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Duck Is Choaking, Duck On Its Back, Duckling Flipping On Its Back, Duck With A Runny Nose, Pekin Duck Swollen Leg,
