3 Week old Pekin has a hard time walking

[nessaaxooo]

This is the first time I have ever raised any ducks, so I am really clueless on what to do to help my duck. I bought 2 one day old Pekin ducklings at Tractor Supply in my town. Recently, I have been noticing my bigger one is sitting down a lot while the other is standing and walking around normally. I'm not sure what is wrong with him, not sure if he hurt his leg or it's a nutritional problem? If anyone can help me that would be really appreciated

 

[sourland]

Do an on site search on 'niacin deficiency ducklings'. This may very well be what your duckling is suffering from. The addition of brewers yeast to the diet is one way of dealing with the deficiency. Good luck at resolving this problem.

 

[Amiga]

Here are some notes I have made on niacin and B vitamin deficiency.

And also, sometimes when ducklings grow really fast (as they do), they seem to need to rest quite a bit. It can be tricky to sort out exactly what is going on. So, here are my notes:

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