Wobbly duckling

One of my little crested Rouens is very uncoordinated. Daffy (no I didn't name it) walks a few steps then falls to its side, gets back up walks sideways a bit, falls over etc. This is extremely upsetting for me, but honestly Daffy doesn't seem upset.

Daffy is a little over three weeks old and has been doing this from the start. I thought the little cutie would either get better or worse, but really no change. He/she is a swimming champion though. Loves the water and does very very well. He/she swims almost as well as the other ducks, if I wasn't watching I probably wouldn't notice the difference in the water.

Daffy is growing just slightly slower than the other ducklings and she spends a bit less time at the waterer and a bit more time under the heat lamp.

I have seven ducklings, they are in a 4' x 8' pen with pine shavings covering 3/4 of the floor and 1/2" mesh on the other 1/4 under the waterer. They started with Purina chick starter with Niacin dissolved in their water per the directions in my duck book. They are now eating Purina flock raiser and I've been adding a general poultry vitamin to their water to see if this might make any difference.

I make sure Daffy gets to swim everyday, I'm hoping this will help develop muscle and coordination. Luckily the other ducklings don't even seem to notice that Daffy is different.

Does anybody have any idea what I can do for this little one, or what I can expect for his/her future? I've searched the internet and found out that crested ducks can have neurological problems but the article does not give details.

Crested ducks do have issues form time to time relating to the brain...swelling.bruising etc... because of the hole in the skull they are more suseptable to brain injury and neurological issues. But your duckling may have an issue totally unrelated to the fact it is crested. A bit hard to say for sure. I guess for now just continuing to give him the extra TLC is all I can suggest.

I had a duckling hatch last year with a severe vitamin deficiency- the vet prescribed doses far beyond the recommended maintanence dosage on the container to get her levels back up to normal- however growth and developement were already effected and she has always looked a little odd. Giving your ducklings a little boost is a good idea and will help ensure this little one gets a liitle extra to help with whatever the problem may be.

Good luck with Daffy. He sounds very special.

Thanks Duckyfromoz,

Before I purchased these little ducklings I did not know the crested ducks had actual skull deformities, I just assumed it was a feather abnormality - like being a silkie chicken. I imagine this little duckling has a complication from the crested deformity but I will keep up with the vitamins and swimming rehab and see what happens. As long as his/her quality of life appears OK I don't mind spending the extra time.

Thanks again for your help.

This is a long shot, but might he be sensitive to the aromatic pine shavings? I know it's recommended for a number of small animals not to use pine. Just a thought - like an allergy, perhaps.

Could he and a buddy be put in a separate area with different bedding for a few days to see how it goes?

Thanks Amiga, I can try that. I can put them all on towels for a few days.

How long do you think it would take to see a difference?

Probably a day or three. In the meantime, I would use vitamins and electrolytes (not too much, just a boost).

It occured to me that this might be a problem occasionally because I just discovered that I and my DH are allergic!


Then I did some looking into it, and found that many pet people recommend against using pine shavings for small animals, especially ferrets and rabbits. The idea is that, unlike larger livestock, small animals' faces are right close to the shavings, where the aromatic oils are most concentrated.

My beloved had to leave the house for a couple of hours because he could barely breathe. I simply had a nasty headache.

The ducklings showed no symptoms, but it doesn't mean they weren't affected - they cannot complain of a headache, for example. (BTW, they kept snacking on the shavings and that did not give me a good feeling, either. Some sources indicate that ducklings may eat too many shavings if they are put on them too young, and have digestive problems.)

Yes, many people use pine shavings. And a number of sources suggest they are not a good idea for all critters, especially the smaller ones, especially indoors.

In our case, the brooder is in a spare room, so it is warm, but less airy than a shed or a barn, so the oils gassing off would be more concentrated.

In any case, I hope you can find a solution.

Amiga, Thanks for the info.

I too was worried about the amount of shavings they were eating when I first tried taking the paper towels off the wood shavings at about a week old. So I just re-covered the area with paper towels for another week. When I took them off recently they did not try to eat them.

I may try shredding some of the brown paper from my horse feed bags and see if that produces a decent bedding - I'm worried about dust. I know you shouldn't use shredded paper due to the chemicals used for bleaching and the inks from printing but I think the brown paper may be more neutral. Has anybody ever used this?

No change in the duckling in the last few days. No better, no worse. Still eating, drinking and swimming just fine. Still falling over and having a tough time getting back up when on hard ground.

One of my Rouen ducks had a niacin dificentcy. She did exactly as you described. She would try to follow the others but would only walk a few steps then fall down like her legs gave out. She also was noticably smaller than the other ducklings. I started searching and found some info about ducks not getting enough niacin or not being able to process the niacin supplied in chick starter. It was Good Friday when I went and bought niacin caplets from Walgreens and crushed them and disolved them in their water. By Easter Sunday she was showing major improvements so we named her Easter. Look up Niacin dificentcy in ducks I want to say it was like 150 mg of niacin to 1 gallon of water. I hope this helps. Oh once my ducks were outside and foraging their own food she no longer needed the Niacin due to the high content of it in insects and such. I do go get them Crickets every now and then as a treat and just to make sure she has a little boost.

Thanks for the niacin suggestion Tajmachicken.

I had read that about the niacin also. The Raising Ducks book by Mr. Holderread says to supplement the water with 100 mg of Niacin per gallon so I did what you did, I went to the drugstore and bought 100 mg Niacin tablets, crushed them to powder and mixed them with a gallon of water. I was sure this was the problem - no change. I started with the Niacin the second day they were here, so that would be about 4 days old. I was VERY disappointed that I saw no change.

After about 5 days on the Niacin, I put them on a poultry livestock vitamin and mineral supplement that has plenty of niacin (also dissolves in the water) still no change.

The Holderread book said not to over supplement the Niacin as it may be toxic in large quantities. I'll do some more online searching and see if I can find more info on the dosage. Maybe I wasn't using enough.