Sick and dead birds are now being found at a second retention pond in Winnipeg.

Last month, sick and dead birds were found at a pond Santa Fe Park in Garden City.

Tiffany Lui, animal care coordinator of Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre, says last week a duck was brought in from another pond, on Lakebourne Drive.

"We sent some volunteers out and just saw a whole bunch of dead ducks, found a couple live ones that weren't doing too well, so we started taking birds in from the second pond now," says Lui.

Although Lui says they anticipated finding sickly birds elsewhere, after the first pond was discovered, but not to this scale.

"We kind of suspected it would happen because, you know, one pond having issues might -- if it's due to environmental issues -- there's a possibility that you'll have other ponds involved as well. So we kind of expected it but the extent of it, seeing 30 dead ducks in a pond was a little more than we expected," says Lui.

Lui says they're not exactly sure what's going on. She says botulism has been suspected, which can happen in a dry season with stagnant water, but they're not sure if that's the cause of the sickness yet.

A spokesperson for the city says they are aware of the situation, and in these types of cases typically the city works with Manitoba's Chief Veterinarian Office to determine a cause.

"City staff are monitoring water quality at the retention ponds as well as removing deceased animals," says the spokesperson in an email, also reminding residents not to use retention ponds for recreational activities in which you make contact with the water and not to allow pets to drink from or swim in retention ponds.

The city spokesperson also says residents are not advised to handle dead or dying wildlife, but should instead report it to the province's Sustainable Development department - wildlife branch. Deceased wildlife can also be reported to 311.

Lui says Wildlife Haven is trying to be proactive to go out to the ponds and collect birds that aren't doing well, to get them better sooner.

"At least twice a day if we can," she says.