Instructions
Build a shelter that offers shade and escape from electrical storms.
Run a hose for ducks to splash in to cool themselves. Ensure that you let the hot water out first.
Avoid letting ducks in muddy or stagnant pools. Bacteria causing botulism multiply quickly in these conditions. Ducks contracting this disease lose muscular control in their legs, wings and neck, and are incapable of swallowing. Give ducks suffering from botulism epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) dissolved in fresh drinking water. Use about 1 ounce of salts to every 50 fluid ounces of water. Use a needle-free syringe if the duck is unable to drink.
Clean the ground frequently of bird droppings and move young ducklings to a new patch every day. Droppings from a duck infected with coccidiosis can cause the disease to spread to others. Signs of coccidiosis include blood in the droppings and weight loss because the duck is unable to absorb nutrients from food. Although not common in ducks, the disease is more likely to occur in hot, wet weather. Avoid coccidiosis by giving ducks clean water and feeding them wheat and pellets. Ducks that have contracted coccidiosis may be sick for weeks. To treat, purchase an anticoccidial medication and dissolve in drinking water; the disease is not treatable with antibiotics.
How to Raise Ducks in Hot Weather
Ducks, like most birds and animals, are more suited to staying warm than staying cool. They have a body temperature, depending on their breed, of between 104 and 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Ducks don't have sweat glands to perspire, and instead pant to rid themselves of excess heat. Heat stress in ducks can have adverse affects, starting with a lack of weight gain (in meat birds), or a reduction in or cessation of egg-laying. Extreme heat stress will eventually cause death. However, it's possible to acclimatize ducks to a higher temperature than they're used to.