Duck health guide: first aid kit items, healthcare tips & more

Last Updated on October 14, 2024 by Aaron von Frank

Quick links and table of contents:

1. Overview of duck healthcare
2. How to find the right avian vet for your ducks
3. Why your ducks are considered “production animals”
4. 5 best ways to prevent duck injuries and illnesses
5. What to include in your duck first aid kit
6. How to save money on duck prescription medications
7. Other helpful resources and recommended reading

 

I. A brief overview of duck healthcare & first aid

Like all pets (and humans for that matter), your ducks will get sick, injured, or require medical care at some point in their lives. Additionally, a high percentage of your female ducks will die before their tenth hatch day — especially if they’re producing hundreds of eggs each year, since high egg production takes an enormous toll on their health.

It’s important for duck parents to be prepared for these inevitabilities up front and have a baseline knowledge about what to expect. Likewise, you may want to learn about how to diagnose and treat common duck ailments that are NOT life-threatening at home.

There are countless illnesses, injuries, and diseases that may afflict your ducks, and we can’t possibly cover them all. Also, this article is not meant to be a veterinary guide, nor do we have the medical credentials necessary to write such a guide.

However, based on our experiences: a) raising ducks for over a decade, b) interviewing multiple avian vets, and c) talking with countless other duck parents, the two most common health problems we think you’re likely to experience with your backyard ducks are bumblefoot and egg binding. Thus, we detail prevention and treatment protocols for those ailments in other articles. (Just click the prior links for a deeper dive.)

Rather than taking a deep dive into other less common duck health problems you may encounter, we’d encourage you to utilize your avian vet and/or the third party resources we recommend for diagnosis and treatment at the end of this article.

II. How to find the right avian vet for your ducks

Finding the right vet for your ducks can be harder than it sounds. For one, poultry/ birds are a relatively specialized area of veterinary education, and many vets don’t have that much education or experience diagnosing or treating ducks. That’s no fault of the veterinary sciences, it’s simply due to the fact that the demand for dog and cat “doctors” is far higher than it is for duck doctors.

Nevertheless, you’ll want to try to find a vet with a specialization in Avian Practice. The easiest and fastest way to find such a person or practice is to do a quick search on the Association of Avian Veterinarians’ website. Under the dropdown navigation for “degrees,” select ABVP (Avian Practice) then enter your address.

If you can’t find a vet who specializes in Avian Practice near you, simply call your local vet(s) and inquire about their comfort and knowledge level in treating ducks. If they can’t see ducks, there’s a good chance they know a local vet who can.
We also think it’s important that you like your vet, and find a vet who happily answers your questions during visits. That doesn’t mean you should expect them to provide you with free care or answer numerous questions outside of your care visits — you should value your vet’s time and expertise so they also like you!

We’ve been with our vet in Upstate South Carolina (Dr. Hurlbert at HealthPointe Veterinary Clinic) for 10+ years, and have learned a huge amount from her.

III. Why your ducks are considered “production animals”

If you currently have or intend to have a commercial operation that sells duck eggs or meat, your ducks fall under the category of “production animals,” and are thus regulated by the USDA (or comparable regulatory agencies if you live in another country).

Topical and oral medications given to production animals — including over-the-counter drugs — are heavily regulated. Thus, you need to establish a veterinarian relationship to ensure any medications you give your animals are legal, so you don’t risk paying hefty fines or getting your business shut down.

It’s also important to note that even pet and backyard ducks are technically considered production animals under US law. This status limits what medications your vet can legally prescribe for your ducks.

Many medications (including over-the-counter medications) that we see people recommend for ducks on the internet are not actually legal. Any vet who prescribes them risks losing their license, and any commercial operation who uses them risks legal liability.

IV. Five best ways to prevent duck injuries and illnesses

The best “treatment” for virtually any duck health or medical condition will always be prevention. It’s much easier to keep a biological organism healthy than it is to fix it once it becomes sick or injured. The aim of prevention is to optimize the healthspan and lifespan of your ducks, not to do the impossible, e.g. completely prevent every illness, injury, and death.

In our experience, the five best ways to keep your ducks healthy are:

1. Provide a healthy, balanced waterfowl-specific diet.

See our article: What to feed pet and backyard ducks to maximize their health and longevity.

2. Aim for better health, not more eggs.

Directly related to diet, we’d encourage you to adopt our “duck philosophy,” that is aim to produce the healthiest ducks possible, not the most eggs possible. Why?

Egg production takes an enormous toll on a duck’s body, so if you want to have long-lived, happy, healthy ducks with lower medical costs and death rates, focus first and foremost on your ducks’ health. This means a lower percentage of layer feed in their diet, lots of exercise, swimming, foraging, lots of fresh greens, etc.

3. Provide adequate swimming water

Provide clean water for your ducks to swim in daily. Swimming provides exercise and fun for your ducks, plus it helps with feather health, overall hygiene, and mite prevention. Waterfowl do indeed need water to be at their best.

See: How to build a chemical-free, self-cleaning backyard duck pond. 

4. Maintain clean bedding.

Keep your duck coop and run bedding fresh and topped up (we use a modified deep litter method), so they’re not standing around in their own waste. We use large flake pine shavings for our duck coop.

If we have to bring a duck indoors to sit on a nest or go broody, we use dust-free aspen shavings which are great for in-home applications.

5. Protect those delicate duck flippers! 

Ducks should spend their days on clean, non-coarse surfaces. Ducks are clumsy walkers with big flippers. Thus, surfaces such as rough granite, thick chopped mulch, concrete/asphalt, uncovered hardware wire, etc. will increase the likelihood of foot/ankle injuries and infections like bumblefoot.

For larger areas (like a backyard), we recommend finely ground mulch (triple-ground and aged) or shredded leaves. Due to its soft texture, grass would be ideal, but in our experience ducks will kill any grass they have constant access to (or make the grass wish it was dead). For smaller areas like a duck run, large flake pine shavings would be our recommendation.

With ducks around, exposed soil quickly becomes wet, poopy mud which will foster parasites and anaerobic bacteria, eventually leading to health problems.

V. What to stock in your ducks’ first aid kit

You’ll need to have medical necessities on-hand in the event your ducks get sick or injured, e.g. a duck first aid kit — just as you likely have a first aid kit on hand for the humans in your household. The further you live from a pharmacy or avian vet, the more important this precaution will be.

Below are some of the items you should consider including in your duck first aid kit. We include a tiered rating system based on how important we deem the item to be:

• Essential = must-have from Day 1
• Important = we’d encourage you to have it on-hand if your budget allows
• Helpful = buy as/when needed

For simplicity, items in our recommended duck first aid kit are also organized by category.

Category 1. Supplements

1. Oyster Shell

Essential year round

Oyster shell or other calcium supplements should be provided for egg laying birds. The only kind of oyster shell our picky ducks will eat is the Scratch and Peck Feed brand. 

We also recommend leaving a bowl of oyster shell out for your ducks even when they’re not laying since they know when their bodies need extra calcium and will eat it accordingly.

Note: You should never mix calcium supplements into your ducks’ food, which will force them to eat it (too much calcium can be harmful as well). Rather, always provide oyster shell/calcium supplements in a separate bowl and your ducks will consume it when their bodies need it.

2. Poultry electrolyte 

Essential in summer

These are powdered supplements made of minerals, electrolytes, and beneficial bacteria, aka “probiotics.” On extremely hot summer days, these supplements are great to add to your ducks’ drinking water. It can also be good as a quick nutrient-rich solution should your birds need it. 

Rooster Booster and UltraCruz are the brands we use. 

3. Vitamin B-Complex

Essential

It’s super important that you do NOT buy either the flush-free niacin (inositol hexanicotinate) or timed-release. You just want straight-up niacin (vitamin B-3).

Surprisingly, this can be a pretty difficult thing to find, so we highly recommend you buy it now and keep it on hand if you ever need it. We recommend Nutricost’s Niacin Vitamin B-3 powder, which can easily be added to water, food, or mixed into tube feeding supplements.

We tube fed about a gram of niacin with some liquified Mazuri Maintenance feed to save a friend’s 20lb goose who stopped eating, standing, and walking. Within hours of his first meal with niacin, he was standing again. To be clear, this is not a supplement you’ll have to use often (hopefully), but it can be life-saving when needed.

Another nice thing about niacin is it’s water-soluble, so any excess beyond what the body uses will be excreted. This means you don’t have to be hyper-concerned about precise dosage.

4. Fish oil pills

Essential for larger breeds / Important for small breeds

We use Wholemega pills, 1000mg each. We prefer gel cap pills to liquid fish oil since pills are easier to administer and they don’t oxidize/deteriorate in quality as rapidly as liquid fish oil. If you use liquid fish oil, store it in your fridge, not at room temperature.

We have a handy trick for administering fish oil pills to our ducks… We slice a pill-sized hole in a small tomato, insert the pill, and then hold the tomato on our palm in front of the duck. The duck quickly swallows the tomato, pill and all.

This trick might not work for small breeds or call ducks. For them, you could pinch open the pill and put the oil on a small bit of their favorite treats, such as mealworms.

We use fish oil as follows:

• Prophylactically as a daily supplement for large breeds like Pekins which are prone to joint problems and arthritis (dosage 1 pill per day, or ~1,000 mg). If giving fish oil to smaller breeds, you can use less, ~250mg day).
• When we have a duck who needs help with feather health, preen gland oil production, and/or waterproofing.
• For a duck who has been laying a bit too long and is starting to have egg issues (calcium deposits or soft shells). This oil seems to give them a much-needed boost of healthy fatty acids until we can get them to stop laying or go broody.

5. ProBios

Helpful

ProBios is an excellent probiotic to consider using regularly. Or use following a round of antibiotics to help reestablish GI flora. This product is also safe for dogs and cats.

6. Nutri-Drench

Helpful

Nutri-Drench is a rapid, rich nutritional supplement. We’ll use it if we have a sick bird and they need a quick vitamin pick-me-up, as you would take a botanical health tonic or elderberry syrup if you feel a cold coming on.

Category 2. Products to help with Toxins/Contaminants

1. Toxiban

Essential

Toxiban is a kaolin clay and activated charcoal-based suspension intended for use as an adsorbent of orally ingested toxicants. It is highly effective in treating accidental animal poisonings.

Since this product lasts virtually forever and can save a duck’s life, we’d recommend having it on the ready in your duck first aid kit from Day 1.

2. Activated Charcoal

Essential IF you don’t have Toxiban

Activated charcoal is a little less expensive than Toxiban and easy to add to your ducks’ drinking water. It’s also great for the human first-aid kit when you’re nursing an upset stomach.

3. Milk thistle capsules

Helpful

Our avian vet and a compounding pharmacist we know have seen amazing results from milk thistle supplements. In fact, they’ve seen severe liver damage in ducks completely reversed. (The silymarin compounds are what works magic.)

Milk thistle capsules can also be part of your human health regimen. 

Category 3. Wound Care

1. Vetricyn

Essential

Vetricyn is a great product that isn’t limited to fowl injuries; it can be used on dogs, cats, etc… It’s safe for use in eyes and it won’t make them sick if they accidentally ingest it.

The hydrogel formulation is wonderful for eye injuries because it’s more of a gel and tends to run off less easily than liquid formulations. The Vetricyn Wound Spray is a great all-purpose wound flush or area disinfectant (like you’d use hydrogen peroxide on a human).

Note: You only really need one or the other of the Vetricyn sprays – if we had to choose, we’d go with the hydrogel because it stays in place and doesn’t run.

2. Polysporin or Neosporin

Essential

Both polysporin and neosporin are good animal-safe antibiotic ointments used to treat minor wounds. Important notes:

1. Do not use any ointments containing “pain relief” medicine on your birds.
2. If you are a commercial operation, check with your avian vet or appropriate university extension agent to make sure either of these medications is allowed under USDA regulations for production animals.

3. VetWrap

Essential

Wrap for injuries; great for holding on bandages, etc. Buy it online or you can usually find it locally at any Feed-and-Seed or Tractor Supply store.

4. Non-stick gauze pads

Essential

A great non-stick gauze for injuries. You can also find these at pharmacies or grocery stores.

5. New Skin Liquid Bandage

Essential

New Skin Liquid Bandage is a product our avian vet recommended to us for use on minor bumblefoot cases or foot pad injuries to protect and seal while the flipper heals.

7. Preparation H

Helpful

Yep! That stuff. Preparation H can be used topically to help with inflamed tissue. It can also help with foot inflammation when treating bumblefoot.

8. VetRX

Helpful

VetRX is a botanically-based product that offers effective relief from respiratory disease, crd, croup, scaly leg mites, and favus eye worm. It’s not a treatment for respiratory problems per se, but can help make your ducks more comfortable in much the same way that breathing vicks vape-o-rub makes you comfortable if you have a cold. We just rub a few dabs on their bill.

Category 4. Antibiotics, NSAIDs & Medications

Helpful

Drugs in this category will require an Rx from your vet when the need arises, and are not something you’ll need to stock in advance.

Important: Before you give your ducks any antibiotic, you should always check with your vet and you should always finish the full cycle so you don’t breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Category 5. Supplies

1. Neoprene duck shoes

Essential

Duck shoes are very helpful if you ever have to treat bumblefoot (or other foot injuries) in your ducks. Yes, there are online vendors who sell duck shoes! We’d recommend you have two pairs of duck shoes if at all possible, so you can clean and dry one set while the other is in use.

Recommendation: Search Google and Etsy to look for sellers with the best online reviews.

2. Tube Feeding Supplies

Important

Birds will often become anorexic when they’re ill. Without tube feeding, it’s impossible to keep them hydrated and nourished. We’ve saved many fowl (both ours and our friends’) because we have tube feeding supplies and know how to tube feed ducks, chickens, and geese. 

Here’s a good tube feeding kit that works well for ducks. 

Warning: Please do NOT try tube feeding a duck if you’ve never been shown how or don’t have someone with experience giving instructions. If you put the feeding tube down the glottis (the center hole that opens and closes), you’ll kill them.

See our article and free video tutorial to find out how to safely tube feed a duck. 

3. 35mL Syringes

Important

Our ducks take two, 30mL syringes (60mL total) of food, and you don’t want to have to stop mid-feed to syringe up more food. Buy extra syringes so you have them ready to go.

4. 3 mL Syringes

Important

We use 3 ml syringes for things that require larger doses like antibiotics or benadryl.

5. 1 mL Syringes

Important

1 ml syringes are very useful for smaller dosed medications.

VI. How to save money on duck prescription medications

Unfortunately, our feathered family members get sick or injured from time to time. Unlike with humans, there are zero comprehensive insurance options available for birds. Yes, we’ve looked.

However, most medications prescribed to treat ducks are also used to treat people, so you can take advantage of a few resources that help us humans purchase our medications more affordably. Below are tips that have saved us a ton of money on duck medications:

Tip 1: Use pharmacy discount cards.

GoodRx has saved us so much money! Just download the app, type in the medication name, and show the scan card to your pharmacist. This works great if the drug you need is out-of-patent, meaning it has a generic equivalent.

Tip 2: Make friends with your pharmacy staff and don’t be afraid to ask if they know of any discount programs.

When we had Svetlana, a duck with aspergillosis, we’d often go pick up her drugs in the evening when the pharmacy at Walgreens was less busy. Most of the time, we’d bring her with us, so our pharmacy staff was able to get to know and love her. (She became a bit of a celebrity with the staff.)

Svetlana always wore a diaper, so we were never concerned about “messes” – please don’t take an undiapered duck anywhere, let alone somewhere with sick people!

Any time we’d get her Rx filled, they’d do a quick search through various programs and promos to make sure we were getting the best price possible. We were able to get a big discount because of a new program (at the time) that had been sending out literature to pharmacies, and our pharmacist made a note on our account for the next time we came in.

Tip 3: Call around to a few compounding pharmacies.

The compounding pharmacy we once used had a veterinary pharmacist on staff who worked with the Charleston (SC) Aquarium. She was extremely helpful and was able to put together Svetlana’s Rx for a few hundred dollars cheaper than a standard pharmacy.

We ended up not using them long-term because Svetlana had been taking the suspension form of her medication for a while, and it wasn’t recommended that we switch to pills, which was all the compounding pharmacy could put together in a highly bioavailable form.

Tip 4: Try Costco.

Costco is sometimes much cheaper than any other pharmacy, and you don’t have to be a member to buy a prescription from them. For instance, for one medication, Walgreens was charging $300. Costco offered the same medication for $45!

When we were calling around to check prices, we asked the Costco pharmacy tech to repeat herself, then verified at least two more times before getting off the phone because it was so much cheaper than anywhere else we found.

Using the four tips above can save you a lot of money if you have a sick or injured pet duck who needs medication. We were able to get 3-4 months worth of meds for about what we paid for 1 single month when Svetlana was first diagnosed.

VII. Other helpful resources and recommended reading

Websites:

What about the other 8,000 illnesses or injuries that might befall a duck? Are there any free and helpful online resources when trying to make a quick home diagnosis?

• Yes! We’ve found Majestic Waterfowl Sanctuary’s Diagnostic Chart to be very helpful in narrowing down illnesses based on specific symptoms.
• When it comes to avian medications (including whether a medication is legal for production fowl), Poultry DVM is an excellent resource.

Veterinary textbooks:

With Susan The Tyrant’s biology and research background, she really likes to understand what’s happening to her ducks when they are sick, how the illness will progress, what treatment protocols are available, and what to expect as the ducks get better.

The internet is a great place to find tons of info, but sometimes what you find are halfway educated guesses and the suggested treatments are often not supported by veterinary science. In addition to discussions with our own avian vet, she likes to get information straight from our avian vet and/or veterinary textbooks.

Texts like these could also be helpful if you live in a rural area where there are no avian vets but there are general vets who are willing to see your ducks and help with diagnoses. We own both of these books in the kindle format and recommend them:

• Backyard Poultry Surgery & Medicine. A wonderful textbook written for small animal vets, but has proven very useful for us in understanding illnesses in our own flock. Highly recommend.
• Clinical Veterinary Advisor: Birds & Exotic Pets. Description from the Amazon listing: “Concise summaries of hundreds of common medical problems help you consider differential diagnoses, recommend diagnostic tests, interpret results mindful of unique species differences, utilize important concepts of species-specific husbandry and nutrition, prescribe treatments, and provide follow-up care.”

Other duck books:

We have a small library of duck books because we want to take in as much information about ducks from as many different vantage points as possible. Likewise, we’d encourage you to develop your own “duck library.”

If we could only recommend one other duck book — especially one with an abundance of helpful information about diagnosing and treating a wide range of duck injuries and illnesses — it would be Kimberly Link’s The Ultimate Pet Duck Guidebook. Link is the founder and President of Majestic Waterfowl Sanctuary, a large waterfowl rescue operation in Connecticut.

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We hope you found this duck health guide helpful! If you have any questions about your feathered family members, please ask them in the comments section below!

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Quack on with these helpful articles:

• Duck winter care tips
• 10 summer care tips for your backyard ducks 
• How to build a long-lasting, predator-proof duck coop & run
• Backyard duck molting: what, when, and why it happens
• 17 tips to keep your ducks safe from predators
• How to orally medicate a duck with pills or syringes (with video)
• How to tube feed a duck or other poultry species (w/ video)

and more backyard duck articles from Tyrant Farms!