Too much care cannot be exercised on this point, as the bones of the birds are so small and their bodies so frail. As has been intimated before, ducks are not subject to so many diseases as hens,—while they are entirely free from lice or body parasites of any kind. Indeed, I never saw a louse on a duck in all my experience. Still, it cannot be denied that good sanitary conditions, together with plenty of pure air and water, will not only greatly increase the egg-production, but facilitate the growth and improve the properties of the duckling.
Ducklings when confined to yards are sometimes troubled with sore eyes. The adjacent parts become inflamed, the head slightly swelled. This is caused by feeding sloppy food, and from filthy quarters. The feathers around the eyes become filled with the food, the dust adheres to them. The eye is naturally inflamed. Washing out thoroughly and bathing the eye with a little sweet oil will usually effect a cure.
Diarrhœa.
Young ducklings are sometimes afflicted with diarrhoea. This disease is caused more by overheating brooders and the exhausted condition of the mother bird than from improper food. Do not overfeed or overheat the ducklings. Feed bread or cracker crumbs, moistened with boiled milk, into which a little powdered chalk has been dusted.
Abnormal Livers.
This disease is the most dangerous to which young ducks are subject. It is seldom prevalent except during the warm weather, and usually in young birds of from two to six weeks of age. The livers of the young birds enlarge to such an extent as to force up their backs,—a deformity which will cling to them through life. It is caused by a complete stagnation of the digestive organs, and often makes its appearance after a heavy rain, or long wet spell, when the yards are invariably wet, sloppy and offensive. The young birds will, while in constant contact with this mud, absorb more or less of it, clogging the digestive organs, and deranging their appetites. Remove the birds to some dry, shady place, feed sparingly, and give a little of the "Douglas mixture" in the drinking water.
Ducklings must be Carefully Yarded While Young.
A great mortality often occurs to young ducklings when allowed free range during warm weather, from devouring injurious insects. Bees, wasps, hornets, bugs of all descriptions, are eagerly swallowed alive but not always with impunity, and the birds often pay the penalty with their lives. Always confine them, even when designed for breeding purposes, until they are six weeks old, when they can be allowed their liberty.
The most of the diseases to which ducks and fowls are subject can usually be traced to some infraction of conditions, and of course are always more or less under the control of the careful operator. Two young men called here a short time ago wishing to know what was the trouble with their fowls. Hitherto they had occupied a cold building, so open that the snow sifted through on them, and they had never to their recollection had a diseased fowl. Within a year they had put up a nice, warm building with a glass front, and their fowls had been diseased ever since. They had shut their birds in a building that would run up to 100 degrees during the day and that would go down nearly to zero at night, subjecting their fowls to thermal changes, under which neither animal or vegetable life could possibly live, and then expect them to thrive.