8 week old Muscovy duckling constantly sits

[scrossley]

We feel there is something seriously wrong with our 8-week old Muscovy duckling as she will not walk very much. She seemed perfectly normal before she started constantly laying down, about 6 days ago. After the first day of noticing this, we took her down to our local wildlife care center and explained that she appeared to be laying down an abnormal amount. They took her in the back, supposedly examined her, gave her fluid and told us there was nothing wrong with her. Since that time she seems to lay more and more. She is eating and drinking well, but she will lay down while she is eating. She was swimming in the lake today and bathing and preening, but upon getting out of the lake, she took 2-3 steps and laid down. It looks like it hurts her to walk and as she will take 3-4 steps and then lay down.
In researching her symptoms, we've read about niacin deficiencies, etc. I asked a local rescue group if they thought that could be it, but they said since they were raised on duck/flock crumble and pellets they shouldn't have a niacin deficiency.
If anyone has any suggestions on what we can do we would greatly appreciate it.

 

[JustCallMeMaple]

Ducks lay to eat, lay to drink.. They lay a lot at least my Pekin do, they are motivated to move by my khaki campbell because she gets the zoomies like a dog when excited. They lay when they are comfy. Niacin will present with legs being crooked. Maybe she tired herself out having fun?

 

[Jmiller89]

Muscovy duck do lay a lot, males more so from what I understand. Seems like yours may be a bit too much. If it was me I would add niacin through brewers yeast/nutritional yeast just to be on the safe side. Maybe also check feet and legs for bumble foot.

 

[scrossley]

Ducks lay to eat, lay to drink.. They lay a lot at least my Pekin do, they are motivated to move by my khaki campbell because she gets the zoomies like a dog when excited. They lay when they are comfy. Niacin will present with legs being crooked. Maybe she tired herself out having fun?

Thank you for responding but this has been going on for too long - more than just having a day or two of fun that is tiring her out. All our other ducklings are acting 'normal' walking/running around she is the only one that is constantly laying down, and as I said, it appears to be a struggle when she walks as she only takes 2-3 steps before laying down.
Her feet appear to be 'closed' the whole time she is laying down and she only spreads her 'toes' when she takes a couple steps

 

[JustCallMeMaple]

Have you checked her feet like Jmiller89 asked about bumblefoot that could make walking hurt. If it hurts to walk why walk?

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Can you take a video? You need to use a video host like vimeo or you tube to post here.
It could be your gal is a boy - they tend to sit a lot more than the females do.
Or it could be that their diet isn't sufficient. What are they currently eating? Any supplements?