11 week old Pekin Duck not walking

[dasangeleyez]

Hello, this is the first time I have hatched and raised a duck. I went on vacation and when I got back my duck started limping. This was around November 15th. This got worse until it doesn't want to walk at all. I have the duck in a tote in the bathroom with pine shavings. I have been giving her antibiotics in her water. The leg joint was swollen but now isn't. Do you think she will walk again? The antibiotics I am using are Enrotex. I also feed with duck crumbles and give her peas everyday.

 

[Eggcessive]

You might want to try some human vitamin B complex, which contains niacin and all other B vitamins, 1/4 tablet given orally daily. There are liquid forms as well. Swelling in a leg joint could have been a slipped tendon, but pictures might help. I am more familiar with chickens, so hopefully other duck people will help you.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

PICTURES!

What do you feed her/him? (Brand, "style", etc)

Ducks, particularly young ducks, are sensitive to diet in ways that tend to appear most prominently in the joints.

We want to see both knees, for comparison.

Also, feet! Have you looked for foot injuries which might promote inflamation at the knee?

Lay off the peas. Peas are HIGHLY variable in their nutritional aspects, but can contain high lelvels of trypsin inhibitors, tannins, and lectins - all of which can interfere with a commercially complete diet. Without knowing what peas you've got, better to eliminate that variable first, consider working it back in (10% or less, by weight) later, after the bird has four or five months, and the majority of its development/growth behind it.

A lack of niacin is quite common in young duck diets. Suppliment - nutritional yeast is a common, off the shelf, solution. Young ducks need niacin like humans need niacin, at levels well above what a chicken needs. If the feed isn't specifically formulated for waterfowl, or one of the big name feeds whose niacin content has been previously verified as adequate, that's a potential you want to chase down fast.

 

[dasangeleyez]

You might want to try some human vitamin B complex, which contains niacin and all other B vitamins, 1/4 tablet given orally daily. There are liquid forms as well. Swelling in a leg joint could have been a slipped tendon, but pictures might help. I am more familiar with chickens, so hopefully other duck people will help you.

I will take some pictures and post them to this thread. Thank you for letting me know about the vitamin b complex. I have some here in tablet form. How many MG?

PICTURES!

What do you feed her/him? (Brand, "style", etc)

Ducks, particularly young ducks, are sensitive to diet in ways that tend to appear most prominently in the joints.

We want to see both knees, for comparison.

Also, feet! Have you looked for foot injuries which might promote inflamation at the knee?

Lay off the peas. Peas are HIGHLY variable in their nutritional aspects, but can contain high lelvels of trypsin inhibitors, tannins, and lectins - all of which can interfere with a commercially complete diet. Without knowing what peas you've got, better to eliminate that variable first, consider working it back in (10% or less, by weight) later, after the bird has four or five months, and the majority of its development/growth behind it.

A lack of niacin is quite common in young duck diets. Suppliment - nutritional yeast is a common, off the shelf, solution. Young ducks need niacin like humans need niacin, at levels well above what a chicken needs. If the feed isn't specifically formulated for waterfowl, or one of the big name feeds whose niacin content has been previously verified as adequate, that's a potential you want to chase down fast.

I feed her (atleast i think its a her) I switched her back to duck food when I got back from vacation. I think the roommate feed her chicken raising flock food for the 11 days I was gone. Here are some picutres. When I let her go in the small tub I have she moves both legs around. But not just in the tote.

 

[Quatie]

Dumor feed is good about having the minimum amount of naicin. So if you want to stay on that feed you can. However, pekin duck need more naicin than any other breed and the minimum is just not enough for Pekins. A lot of people supplement the naicin levels for pekin with Brewers yeast or nutritional yeast. That sometimes works, but even that can sometimes be not enough naicin for Pekins. This is why the vitamin b complex is suggested. There looks like there may be a bow in the legs, which would most likely be caused by naicin deficiency.

Most ducks don't need extra naicin once they reach maturity, but Pekins again sometimes do.

Also how much is the duck and drinking eating now? Sometimes when a duck gets an injury, it reduces or stops eating. This leads to the duck being too weak to walk.

 

[dasangeleyez]

Hello,
I will get the liquid Vitamin b complex tomorrow to add. Should I do both the brewers yeast and the vit b complex? The duck is eating well still, not as much as before but drains her water bowl which has 4 cups of water at least once. The food bowl is about 1 cup and she eats about 1 1/2 to 2 a day.

 

[Quatie]

You can do both if you like. It certainly can not hurt to have the brewers yeast with the vitamin b complex. The b complex has high levels of naicin, so you don't need to provide brewer's yeast as well.

This is what I use. You can get it at TSC or a similar one at other feed stores. You can give 1 ml a day. I like to give it orally, but some people put it on small amount of treats. It depends on your comfort level.

If you choose to do it orally, here is how to administer it so it won't go down the wrong pipe.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/