Duck choked on slug

My wife came in this morning screaming that one of our new ducks (not sure how old, maybe 4-5 weeks as the stiff feathers are coming in) was choking on a slug. Usually they eat whatever slugs they can find on the way down to the pond. Sometimes the slugs are a bit big for them, but they love them and appear to manage.

When I got there, he was standing up but he was definitely woozy. We couldn't see him breathing and I couldn't see the slug. While my wife held him, I could feel the slug in this throat near just a bit below his bill. I pushed the slug out like you would with a marble in a tube, and while the duck became a bit more animated at that point, he fell over and started paddling in the air and then he expired.

So sad.

I have not seen anything related to ducks choking on slugs. Afterwards, we looked in this throat and there was a lot of slime in there. I've seen slugs foam up before. Is it possible this was a slug that could cause this with his slime? Or is this just bad luck?

It's hard to keep the other 3 ducks away from slugs.

matt
this evening i was feeding slugs to a neighbor's ducks. the same thing happened. the slug went down the wrong tube and she died in my arms. nothing i did helped. so very sad. i will not be going out of my way to feed slugs to ducks any more:(

I am totally and completely horriffied and upset. I fed a slug to our 4 year old duck and she died 2 days after and im afraid i killed her. I am ashamed of myself because of this. I really hope it was something else that killed my baby because i would never be able to live with this if i did. I cant believe shes dead she ment the world to my family and i. But i had no idea that she would die, i thought ducks ate slugs because they're bugs so i thought she would love it but .. I cant believe this i dont know what to say :(