Hi,

I just recently purchased two ducklings,(they were no more than a couple weeks old,) and two days after I got them, one got sick, stopped eating, and died within hours. I was very distraught, but my other duckling seemed to be doing completely fine so I went back and got him a another friend since he was acting distressed at being alone.

Well, today my little duck has been acting strange, and I'm afraid he's sick, as well.

He's not acting like the first duckling acted when she got sick, though. When my first duckling got sick it was really sudden. She just simply quit doing anything and lost ALL interest in eating or playing. This little duckling is being himself in a lot of ways, he's just a little lethargic. He eats, drinks, washes his beak in his water, pecks at random things, and chirps to himself like normal. He has Definitely lost his energy, though, and he does everything a little slower, and with less enthusiasm than normal. He also tends to want to lay around a lot more, and when he stands and walks around he seems a bit weaker than normal.

He also has had what I think might be diarrhea. It had some normal duck poop in it, but it was runny, and had white stuff mixed in with it.

I have both my ducklings in the house in a cage with a heat lamp over them and plenty of fresh water and food. (I feed them duck starter.) They have small animals litter on the bottom of their cage... (It was what they were in before I got them.) I have let them take a bath in the sink with warm water, but I immediately dried them off when they were done, and set them under their heat lamp.

I can't imagine what has caused my little duck to get sick, what he has, or how to help him get better.

Please help. I really don't want another duckling to die!