Tuesday, 17th May 2011 - a horrible day.

One bad blow after another;  as if it hadn't been bad enough that Decibels died on us Sunday evening, I found Primmie lying dead and stiff under the damson tree this afternoon.

The signs had been so good for Primmie only yesterday.  Although she had separated herself from the others she had been keen to run up for the pasta I threw her in the morning.  In the afternoon she'd joined the others at the bottom of the frog pond although she didn't go into the water while I was watching:




 
These are the last photos I have of our much loved Primmie, the frog-eater  -  I saw her swallowing a medium sized one down only the other day.
She seemed fine again last night when she was running from the veg beds into their enclosure together with Taffy and Fanny.  And she'd spent all morning with the others, I even saw her swimming in the frog pond.
When I returned from shopping around 4 pm I couldn't see her, I thought she might be a little way from the others hidden by some shrub.  I got a bit nervous though after a while and went searching for her ................ and then I found her, body already rigid, not far from the food container under the damson.  I can't get it into my head even now.

And this isn't the end of the tragedy.  While fetching the eggs out of the top hut this morning I suddenly saw Morf lying down where Decibels had hidden herself.  I tried to catch her to examine her, but she fled out of the enclosure, behind the first big cherry tree, and settled herself on the house side under it,
here:

And that's where she stayed all day.  I threw her a few noodles and rice and she did eat some of that.
Because I'd seen that Primmie had diarrhoea, and because there'd been a lot of green droppings in the hut, I thought that Morf had the runs as well and was feeling unwell because of it. I poured some chamomile tea into her drinking water, but I never saw her going to it.  She changed her position from time to time and even stood up for a while, but she always stayed in that area under the tree.  I had not been prepared for this at all.  Morf had recovered so well from when she'd been eggbound and from her stay in the animal hospital, she'd been so fit again. 

The photos I took of the Welsh girls yesterday afternoon show how well they were looking:

I phoned Chris and Mike Ashton, the most experienced duck~ and goose keepers I know.  After my description of the symptoms Mike immediately thought it was 'Pasteurella', also known as 'fowl cholera'.  Fast, no, immediate treatment with the antibiotic Teramycin was necessary if there was any hope of saving the rest of the group.  And because the ponds they used would be contaminated with their droppings we should keep them out of them.

We drove to the vet's at once, couldn't get Teramycin, but the equivalent Tylan was obtained.  We dissolved a measure in just one water bucket so that would be the only source of drinking water for them and they would hopefully get a dose of the antibiotic that way.  We put food next to the bucket, fenced off the little pond and then drove all 7 into the enclosure - I had already cleaned and desinfected the hut and put in fresh bedding.  It was sad to see both drakes limping slowly towards the hut.  It must have been this condition that made them stay at the bottom of the frog pond all day, lying down, accompanied by all their girls except Morf.

We managed to drive Morf from her place under the cherry tree and she straighaway scuttled under the little ramp to the hut.  A little later, when John offered her a little water from the bucket with the Tylan in it, she fled into the hut without drinking any.

I'm extremely worried about all of them and hope desperately that they'll survive.  I've also asked myself during a sleepless night why just the top group seem to be affected, what was the difference?  3 things came to mind: first, the footpath.  Several people use it to walk their dogs, and now and again I find heaps they've left and either scoop them out of the way or wash them away with the hose.  Second, leftover rubble/rubbish [was there maybe lead amongst it?] from the building works, and thirdly and mainly: rats!  Not long ago we'd seen several of them running between Post Office and garage, helping themselves to the ducks' food.  That was the reason why we moved the food containers to the top of the orchard. 

Thinking about it now, the trouble started after last Wednesday, when I'd seen the upper group busily foraging all along the wall between the Post Office and us: 

 

Everthing seemed so jolly then, and Decibels looks quite perky in the last picture on the very right above.  Now I ask myself if that had been/was a rat run along the wall there, and had our nine picked up more of the Pasteurella bacteria there than is normally present in the environment?  Rats are carriers of these bacteria and "should be eliminated" as Chris Ashton writes on the web site of the Indian Runner Duck Association:

PasteurellaSymptoms: loss of appetite, increased thirst, watery (then green) droppings, loss of co-ordination.
Cause: bacteria in the environment.
Treatment: prompt treatment with antibiotic from the vet may save larger birds. Smaller birds usually succumb. Eliminate carriers, such as rats.

We shall not have answers until after the autopsies on Decibels and Primmie.