BROODING AND REARING YOUNG STOCK 



Gapes or Pneumonia. One of .the principal 

 troubles is a disease which is called "pneumonia" by 

 some duck raisers and by others "gapes". It is not 

 the same disease which is called gapes in chickens. 

 In fact, it is a form of cold which approaches pneu- 

 monia. The little dueks stretch their necks up and 

 breathe hard and usually die within a comparatively 

 short time. This disease may affect either the baby 

 ducks or ducks which are old enough to kill. All 

 that can be done is to make sure that the housing 

 and brooding conditions are such as to correct the 

 trouble which causes the colds. 



Fits. In addition, the little ducks for the first 3 or 

 4 days may be more or less subject to a disease 

 which is called "fits" by some duck growers. With 

 this disease they simply keel over and soon die. It 

 is probably a digestive diflSculty of some sort. The 

 feeding of plenty of green stuff or the turning of the 

 ducks out on grass will usually stop this trouble. 



Diarrhoea. This is a fairly common trouble. It 

 may be due to improper feeding, or to too high or 

 low temperature in the brooder. The obvious treat- 

 ment is to remedy the cause or causes of the trouble. 



Lameness. Not infrequently growers, particu- 

 larly beginners, experience difficulty from a fairly 

 large proportion of their ducklings becoming lame. 

 This may grow worse until a considerable number of 

 the birds will die. This trouble may be due to a 

 lack of animal matter and mineral matter in the 

 ration or may be due to digestive troubles caused by 



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