5 week old duckling wobbly legs and losing feathers- feather picking?

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

I have 2 ducklings from my last hatch that I kept because of health issues. The male had wry neck but that has completely resolved.

The female was very wobbly, had splay legs, and just didn't seem to be thriving. She seems to be much more lively now and is just a bit smaller than the male. I've been giving her extra niacin, b-complex in her water cup, and nutri-drench but she's still having the issue with weak legs as you can see in the picture. Just yesterday, out of nowhere, she had two patches on her shoulders where the new feathers were gone. Today it's even worse. It's like she's reversing her feather growth and it's just down again. I don't know if it's related to her general health problems or if maybe her brother started eating her feathers. Does anyone have any ideas? And what can I do to help her wobbly legs when niacin isn't working? Could it be a different deficiency? They are eating this 20% feed: https://www.chewy.com/kalmbach-feeds-all-natural-non-gmo-20/dp/244681

This is how she looked just a few days ago (she's the one in the back):

This is how she looks now:

 

[Miss Lydia]

That looks like brother maybe helping himself to some extra protein(feathers). You can try some extra protein maybe some high quality cat or dog kibble. Some dried or fresh mealworms. With your little female I’d just use the liquid BComplex 1 ml over a tasty treat daily just for her. Watch how she does in the next week. We've seen some really good recoveries from the liquid b complex

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

That looks like brother maybe helping himself to some extra protein(feathers). You can try some extra protein maybe some high quality cat or dog kibble. Some dried or fresh mealworms. With your little female I’d just use the liquid BComplex 1 ml over a tasty treat just for her. Watch how she does in the next week. We seen some really good recoveries from the liquid b complex

Thank you for the reply; I've never had one do that before so I wasn't sure what it might look like. I could try cat food. I also have some fish meal on hand, do you think mixing some of that into the feed would help? It's 60% protein and I use it for the adult ducks' feed.
I've never had success getting ducklings to eat the b-complex on treats, they're picky . I've always had to syringe into their mouths, which they also hate. But I will give it a try and do the week of 1 ml.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Be very careful syringing into the mouth you don't want her to aspirate. try some fish meal and see if they will eat it if your adults do then hopefully these ducklings will. But for niacin deficiency, the best we've found is the liquid B complex.

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

So I was watching her walk a few hours ago, and something just seems really off. Her tail was pointed towards the ground so she looked like she had a hump in her back, her walk was very staggered, and her legs were shaking so bad that she looked like she was shivering. It's either a very severe niacin deficiency, which would be odd considering their feed and how much I've been supplementing, or else it's something else. Could it possibly be botulism? I've heard it can cause weakness in their legs?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Any ideas of what she could have gotten into toxic?
It sure sounds like a severe case of niacin deficiency but it could be something else.
Even if they have the best feed with the right amount of vitamins we can still have one or more that just doesn't assimilate the vitamins correctly. Sounds like she had a rough start so there could be other things going on with her too.

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

Any ideas of what she could have gotten into toxic?
It sure sounds like a severe case of niacin deficiency but it could be something else.
Even if they have the best feed with the right amount of vitamins we can still have one or more that just doesn't assimilate the vitamins correctly. Sounds like she had a rough start so there could be other things going on with her too.

Yes, she has been wobbly since she was a tiny thing so maybe she has trouble absorbing the niacin. I'm giving her the b-complex 1 ml so I hope it helps. I noticed that their feed has some green flecks in it here and there; it's never been wet and is stored inside so maybe it's just normal coloration, I'm not sure. It doesn't look like mold at all. Just to be safe I'm grinding some adult feed up for them instead so I'll see if that makes a difference. Other than that, I don't know of any toxin she could have gotten. Could have been something from the ground during their outside time.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Let's hope you begin to see improvement by week's end.