Hey, Permies!
We share a small nine-acre homestead with our 80+ ducks. We have had ducks for about 1.5 years and have had next to no problems. We paddock rotate them so they don't destroy any one area too bad. We seed behind them to continue to build soil ecology and the feed available to them. The birds are kept overnight in holding pen that uses wood mulch as a base and hay inside the Duck Mansion. Our male to female ratio is 1>14
In the last 6 weeks, we have had 3 different ladies come up with foot problems and 2 other ladies simply lay over and die in the middle of the night. The first lady with feet issues we had to cull, she would not respond to any attempted treatment, the leg/foot was completely pulled up to her belly and would not more, almost like rigor mortise had set in. The second we noticed early and isolated her added some fresh herbs and veggies to her normal Non-GMO ration and she healed up. The third now has both legs/feet showing bad signs and we will likely cull her if I don't find an answer in the next day or so. I am attaching some pictures to help possibly identify the issue.
The weird thing is we have had absolutely zero issues since we started keeping ducks. The only change was a feed change, which we have since switched back. I don't believe a feed change would warrant the two overnight deaths, they had no injuries and no sign of stress. Any suggestions on where to start? Thanks!
