3 w/o duckling with splay leg now has a patch with no fur

[injeniera]

Hi everyone! I hope someone can help me!! I have 3 ducklings, they are around 3 weeks old.

About a week ago, one of the ducklings had a weird leg and I read I had to supplement their feed with niacin, 'cause where I live there is no specific food for ducks and they are eating baby chick food. We supplemented inmediately, and 24 - 36 hours later, he was fine... but then! About 2 to 3 days later, another ducklings leg twisted, it was straight behind him! So we used the bandaid trick, and he started getting up a little...
That was like, 3 days ago, and the thing is that now he has a patch with no fur, and I'm a bit worried... should I be concerned? The other 2 ducklings are thriving!! I've seen him eat and drink... what could it be?

The cage has a puppy pad as a base and 2 cm of shaving for bedding

I hope someone can help me

This is the furless patch:

Here he is "standing up" with a little help (he does it on his own sometimes)

 

[Miss Lydia]

Brewers yeast and Nutritional yeast is good for helping them not to come down with niacin def but there always seems to be one or 2 that still need more help. That is where B complex comes into play. Get them on the liquid B complex TSC carries it and it will say injectable but we all use it orally for our water fowl. Here is info and dosage for age of your ducklings. Usually depending on how long this has been going on determines how long it takes to see full recovery but we have seen it in less than a week.

Where is this bald patch? Have you noticed anyone nibbling on this duckling?

more info https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/nutritional-yeast-vs-brewers-yeast.1393856/

 

[injeniera]

Yes, it is.
I've been meaning to update all of you who took the time to try and help me with this issue.

So, two - three days after my last comment, one of the others ducklings passed away. He started with diarrhea and suddenly he was gone... the one with the bad leg was getting a liiiiittle better, but! He fell in the water bowl, which wasn't deep, so he didn't drown, but it took all of his strength to get out, and it was downhill from there. He passed away 24 hours later.

I believe the 2 ducklings that passed away might have had something different, cause they were around 1/3 of the one that survived!!

The remaining duckling is great, he loves to be held, growing strong, etc. So it is a sad story, with a sour-sweet ending. This is him/her happy in my arms

 

[Miss Lydia]

Lets see if we can get more help. I've had many duckling look very sparse with their down when they are young before pin feathers start coming in but I don't want to tell you it's nothing to worry about if it is.
@HollowOfWisps

 

[injeniera]

So, if there's still someone around... The little duckling is still alive, but his leg is twisted. I can't seem to get it fixed!! I've been bracing him but, it worked a bit and now he seems back to his initial status .... I was using tape but it doesn't seem to be doing the job.
The bedding is still pine shavings

 

[HollowOfWisps]

The bald patch doesn't look concerning. I have ducklings get bald patches right around this age quite often and then start to grow in pin feathers a little bit later.

For the legs. Switch to only the puppy pads and remove the shavings. The shavings can be difficult for ducklings with leg issues to walk in and make matters worse. They need solid ground. I agree with @Miss Lydia to start Durvet's B complex immediately. It might take a couple of weeks to really take affect if the niacin deficiency is bad enough. What type of tape are you using?

 

[injeniera]

Thank you for your replies!!

The patch is on the back of the neck, right under his head... I haven't seen nibbling :-/

 

[Miss Lydia]

Are you beginning to see any new pin feathers starting to come in asking because when they begin to lose their down they can have bald patches.

 

[injeniera]

Nope.... I've seen that, I've had chickens and ducks before. He's definitely bald there

 

[CoriM]

Were you able to located the liquid vitamin B complex and start giving that over treats, in their food, water, whatever it takes to make sure they get enough. - 1 ml a day per duck. Like @Miss Lydia said, brewers/nutritional yeast is good but the liquid Vitmain B is sort of a rescue option when things are going wrong, and you need that in this case. Some ducks need more niacin than others - pekins for example. I had a duckling with splay leg, where she got heavy so fast it became difficult to get up and her legs were splaying to the sides of her body. I used the stretchy vet wrap to make a hobbles for her and hold her legs in the proper position. Did this, along with the vitamin B complex for many weeks, and it corrected the problem. I'm not sure exactly how to brace a twisted leg, but check out the article Miss Lydia posted for ideas. I would think the trick is to figure out how to gently hold the leg in proper position while it strengthens from the extra niacin. The bald patch doesn't seem too concerning to me. I've had a duckling once that had a bald spot on the side of its head and I was worried at the time, but it was nothing and eventually she just grew feathers over that area. As long as the other ducks aren't picking on her and she's not burning herself on a lamp or heat table, it's probably nothing to worry about. If you posted a video of your baby trying to walk it might help others have ideas for you. I attached a photo of what my ducklings looked like with their hobbles on - much bigger than your little ones!