Hello!
I've been dealing with some mysterious muscovy deaths, and wondered if you folks might have some ideas or solutions for me.
I picked up 13 muscovy ducklings in March - 5 at a month old, and 8 at a week old. I kept the older ones outside on a raised/fenced deck for a few weeks until they seemed responsible
enough to free-range, then moved them down to my
pond. I kept the little ones in the bathtub until they were big enough to be outside, then did the same with them. They're all together now, free-ranging on my
pond. I have a little shed for them, and I do my best to get them all in at night, but some nights the call of the wild demands they sleep on the pond. I'm feeding them all-flock pellets, just enough to keep them eager to come in at night, and encourage them to forage.
So unfortunately I've lost 4 so far:
The first was a predator - it was when they were young, and left outside for a night - all I found was a few wing feathers, so no big mystery there, and that one's on me.
The second, I went down one night to put them up, and one of them seemed a little lethargic. I encouraged her to go inside, and she got up and trotted in, where she plopped down and let me pet her for a bit. She didn't seem too off, so I didn't think much of it, just that I'd check her in the morning. I let them out at 5 the next morning, and that duck was still sitting in the same spot - I carried her outside, and planned on calling a vet that afternoon when I got home. But by the time I got home at noon, she was dead. I didn't butcher her, since I've always understood it to be bad to eat an animal that has died of natural causes, but I regret that now that I've lost more. Her illness seemed like it could have been poison, or possibly internal bleeding from eating something sharp?
The third, I went down in the evening again to put them up. One duck was laying half in/out of the
water, breathing very heavily. He wasn't able to stand, but fought back a little when I picked him up. It was pretty clear he was suffering, and I didn't want to spend the time researching what could be wrong, so I killed and butchered him that night. All I could find was a large lump of food - small green twigs, grass, etc in his esophagus that seemed stuck. I have to assume that he suffocated on that, even though that seems unlikely to me. They have plenty of access to water (the pond) and I've seen birds swallow crazy things with no problems. It just seems weird. One last note is that he seemed to have a large gall bladder with a lot of dark green/black bile in it. When I pulled the innards out, it looked like a large slug - is that normal?
The fourth was last night - again I went down to put them in, and only 9 greeted me. I put them away, and went looking for #10. After 20 minutes of bushwhacking around the pond I made it to their other hangout, and sure enough there he was, still a little warm. I'll be butchering him this afternoon to find out what went wrong, and can update this later.
Has anyone else experienced this? My understanding was that muscovys are pretty resilient and hardy, so I'm wondering where I'm going wrong. I'm new to this property, we just moved in in January, so maybe it's possible that there's something in the pond I don't know about that's killing them? I'm worried I'm going to lose them all before I start getting eggs, and can butcher according to my schedule and not just randomly!
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