Advice for injured duck

[DuckyBabies]

Hello all! I have a jumbo pekin named Bingo who is having some troubles. He is about to turn 3 this year. For backstory, he has walked with a slight limp for a year now (he’s a very chunky duck). I noticed a couple weeks ago, that he is having a really hard time walking. He spends his days either in his pool or in the same spot in the yard. He no longer forages and rarely even moves. When he walks, he can’t take more than 3 steps without extending his wings and using them as a crutch while his whole body shakes. Sometimes he just falls down and lays there. His feet look fine, as do his legs. I see no signs of injury. My other duck is fine, so I’ve ruled out any kind of toxic related problem. He still eats, drinks, and poops, and preens, he just can’t get around. It takes him a good 10 minutes to walk to the coop at night to be put up. It’s really hard to watch. We have no vets that will see ducks. I’m just wondering if it’s something due to his size and if it’s potentially time to put him down. Any advice is welcome!

 

[SolarDuck]

What do you feed him?

 

[DuckyBabies]

He’s been on this since becoming an adult.

 

[Isaac 0]

Could you try to get a video of him walking? To post a video, upload it to a video platform such as youtube, or Vimeo, and copy/paste the link here. Unfortunately, what you're seeing is a very common problem with Pekins, and could indicate a wide variety of problems, such as a niacin deficiency, hepatic lipidosis, trauma, bumblefoot, bone infection, heavy metal poisoning, arthritis, etc. Hopefully, with some more information we can help narrow down things.

 

[DuckyBabies]

Unfortunately, I’m not gonna be able to upload a video. I’ve checked his feet and don’t see any sign of bumblefoot, and I don’t believe it is poisoning because my other duck does everything bingo does and he is perfectly fine. My gut says it may be because he is so large. I just feel like I have no way of knowing what it truly is. I’ve been sneaking him B-Complex since I’ve noticed it and it isn’t helping yet.

 

[Isaac 0]

Unfortunately, I’m not gonna be able to upload a video. I’ve checked his feet and don’t see any sign of bumblefoot, and I don’t believe it is poisoning because my other duck does everything bingo does and he is perfectly fine. My gut says it may be because he is so large. I just feel like I have no way of knowing what it truly is. I’ve been sneaking him B-Complex since I’ve noticed it and it isn’t helping yet.

It becomes quite hard to help without some sort of video of how he walks.

You mentioned you checked both his feet, correct? That means you have checked the bottom of the footpads for any lesions, all the joints bend correctly, there is no swelling or discoloration in the legs? (Just confirming).

If you pick the duck up, and gently pinch its distal toes with forceps, does he show a reaction to the pain?

For clarification, when I mentioned toxicosis, that includes heavy metal poisoning. Just since he ate a piece of metal, does not mean the other duck would have eaten a piece. So that as of now can not be ruled out, and will be hard to rule out without blood work.

Unfortunately, in the majority of cases, vitamin B3 therapy tends not to work in birds this old as their bones are already more set in place, and unlikely to correct themselves solely via that.

What I would suggest for basic treatment would be all-around supportive care. That would include making sure he gets in water each day, when he's out of the water, on something soft to avoid the possible development of hocks sores. Some folks will make a sling for the duck so weight can be relived off the legs. Whether you want to proceed with those things, or euthanize the duck is solely up to you.