# Duck with swollen abdomen - help please!



## fiona W (Aug 1, 2010)

I have a Black East Indian drake who has had a limp on and off for about a week, yesterday he was quieter than usual and he has a swollen abdomen, noticeable when watching him. Any ideas? Could the two things be connected?


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## AlexArt (Apr 25, 2010)

They could be but hard to say without seeing the animal, if in doubt ask your vet! Swollen abdomens usually happen when a female gets egg bound, I've not heard of a drake with one unless it has a major growth like a tumour or infection going on internally. 
If he is off his food/quiet and not behaving normally and you can feel his abdomen is not right then I definitely would get him to a vet and I wouldn't wait as you'll be charged a bomb for an out of hours xmas call out!! Let us know how he gets on, good luck!!


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## LDVet (Jan 31, 2013)

Could be a number of different things - peritonitis, liver disease, internal abcess/tumour, ascites. I would get him to a vet asap. Just wondering, so the limp has been there for the week as well as the abdominal swelling or has the abdominal swelling become apparent more recently? Has he had anything like this before? Have you checked his feet or joints for any heat/swelling? Have you had a feel of the abdomen for fluid/obvious masses? Have you looked inside his mouth to see if the mucous membranes/tongue is paler than normal or a funny colour? Is he eating/drinking/passing faeces/urates normally? Is he the only one with any sort of health problems atm?
Sorry for all of the questions, I'm just a vet student but I am interested to know. Hopefully he gets better! They are gorgeous birds.

EDIT: Just realised that this was posted a wee while ago! How did he get on?


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## fiona W (Aug 1, 2010)

Hi, unfortunately he didn't make it, we couldn't find any swelling etc so took him to the vet who prescribed antibiotics etc but he sadly died later that day. The others are all fine thank goodness


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