# what can you tell me about Water Belly in ducks?



## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

When we slaughtered our young ducks last month, we decided to cull a year and a half old Appleyard duck, because she looked very odd, dragging her enlarged belly and having trouble getting around and was thin. When we did the necropsy, she was FULL of liquid (clear yellowish serum), probably about a quart in our large duck. I read up on it and it was clearly water belly. Her heart was abnormal and her oviduct was twisted. Not sure if that put pressure on the heart causing the problem or not...

However, on looking at my flock, I realized that my favorite 4 yr old Appleyard duck has a loose, soft squishy belly too, though not nearly as bad as the younger one. We've also had one drake manage to hurt himself so badly he didn't recover flying into a fence one evening and another die from a prolapsed intestine. When we slaughtered the young ducklings, of the 5 Appleyard ducklings (sired by the one who prolapsed) two of them had what seemed to be abnormal "poochiness" at the bottom of the intestine. 

At this point I have one 4 yr old Appleyard duck with what looks to be a problem with water belly, a year and a half old duck that seems fine (she was the smallest of the day olds we got last year and the most vigorous) and from this spring one Appleyard duckling who is ok so far and a half Appleyard drake that is gorgeous and his half Appleyard sister that seems also to be fine. 

Do we have a genetic problem going on? All of these ducks were from the same breeder or offspring of the ducks we got from this breeder. I love my Appleyards, but I'm discouraged. Is there any chance there is something environmental? What should I look for? What would cause water belly in adult ducks? What I read up on was related to overly fast growth in young chickens and didn't seem to be relevant to my problem. 

Also, I love the look and temperament of my Appleyards, is it common for them to have more problems than other large breeds? Should I get some from another source and see how they do? 

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

It is possible that the ascites was caused by peritonitis since there was a twisted oviduct that could have caused internal laying.

There may be a genetic predisposition, hard to say.

I'd suggest that you breed heavy and cull hard and you stand a good chance of clearing it out if it is a genetic problem. Many of the rare breeds are not bred and culled properly and it leads to setting in of genetic problems.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

There wasn't really any sign of infection, except that a few of her "eggs" were black instead of clear as the others. All the liquid was clear and serum like and not foul smelling or snotty yellow. I was wondering also if really hot weather could cause this in a large duck? 

I don't have a purebred drake, I was so discouraged that I butchered all the drakelets this summer. I'm thinking of looking for another source of Appleyards, since I really enjoy them and seeing if I have better luck. 

I'm not really afraid to breed and to cull, but not really sure how to tell which ones to cull. I'm used to breeding dogs, where I knew the genetic predispositions and how to test for them. I'd welcome some ideas as to how to know which ones to keep.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Peritonitis does not have to be bacterial. It can be caused by foreign bodies like an egg yolk bursting in the peritoneal cavity.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

Would there be some sort of artifact? She had been dragging her belly for a while, because I didn't realize what sort of problem it was. 

Having mentioned the "real" name for it, I did some more Google searching. Still not very helpful! It was pretty clearly a classic case.

Is there anything you know of I could do for the older (special pet) that is headed that way? I'm sure her belly feels the same, just not nearly as big yet and not dragging. She seems to still feel good, eat well, etc. 

One possibility mentioned was eating something toxic... but with the drakes showing the weakness right above the vent and their daddy having prolapsed his intestines, I'm favoring some sort of genetic weakness. I know that you end up doing a lot of inbreeding of rarer breeds, so I suspect that outcrossing might give me some hybrid vigor - if I can find a line that isn't closely related. Looks like I'll be asking around this winter to see who has Silver Appleyards and where they got them. 

Now that I'm over the first distress, I need to email the hatchery too and let them know the problems I'm having, perhaps they have some ideas as to what could cause it too.


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## lasergrl (Nov 24, 2007)

In pet cage birds the fluid can be drawn out with a syring but it needs to be redone when filled up again.


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