Duck can't walk

About a month ago, our duck seemed to have a broken leg. She couldn't walk at all, and it was very definitely one leg that was hurting. Although, we couldn't find a specific break or injury. She slowly got better and went from unable to walk, to an awful limp, to almost normal again. Then, a few days ago she was incapacitated again. This time it seems like neither leg is working. Could this be some kind of sickness? Or what could be going on?

Now, after a few days with her just lying around pitifully (we thought she was going to die ), I finally got her some vitamins today. She gulped that down and then tried to walk. She can't, though, and we've spent the day putting her back in her bed after she flops around for a while.

Give her time floating in a lukewarm tub of water, and keep up with the vitamins.

If ducks are lacking in B vitamins, that can affect their nervous system.

Here is something I wrote about that -

People often get confused about what to use, so please stick with me here .

You have some options.

I would go with brewer's yeast. Forgive me for using capital letters, but for anyone else who may casually look over this thread, NOT baking yeast, NOT winemaking yeast. Brewer's yeast is a nutritional supplement and it provides niacin and a few other vitamins.

Generally, folks who supplement with brewer’s yeast use a tablespoon per cup of food.

Ducklings need about three times the niacin chicks do. And some ducklings get leg problems or seizures if they don't have enough niacin.

If you cannot find the brewer's yeast, or if you happen to have (here come the capital letters again, please forgive me) PLAIN niacin - NOT no-flush, NOT timed release, then dissolve 150 mg niacin per gallon of water for the duckling’s drinking water.

Another approach is to use B Complex capsules, and use the B3 - niacin - levels as a guide. Again, 150 mg B3 per gallon of drinking water.


Keep the little one on the supplements for about 8 weeks.

Sometimes it only takes a few days to see improvement.

You can also see how it went for Qwackers and Bentley from these threads.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/857143/treating-wry-neck-in-crested-duckling-edited-title

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/761308/peking-duckling-with-crooked-neck-help