Ancona with issues

[davneub]

For Easter we got our daughters two baby Anconas. They were the same age (roughly) when we got them. One of them has grown MUCH more than the other since Easter. The bigger one has lots of feathers and the other just seems to keep falling behind the bigger one. The smaller one is really clumsy and has balance issues. She can't move very quickly and sits a lot. She also falls over pretty often. When walking she will fall back onto her behind and then just sit down.

 

[davneub]

I posted a video on vimeo but it's going to take a while to upload. I'll post it when it's done. She just looks like she can't keep her balance very easily. When she's standing she keeps shifting her weight forward and back to not fall over.

 

[davneub]

 

[Amiga]

She may have hardware disease (has eaten something metal). A good duck vet may be able to help you with that. There are chelating agents that can be given to mitigate the effects until the object passes out of the system, if I understand correctly.

Or she may have an infection - in which case she needs the appropriate medicine (it could be a bacterial, fungal or viral infection).

She may have ingested something else toxic - perhaps some food grade activated charcoal in the water would help absorb some of the toxins (I would try a teaspoon activated charcoal per cup of water).

Some ducks have congenital problems - but I would look at some of these possibilities.

It would be good to give them both poultry vitamins with electrolytes and probiotics once a week in any case.

 

[davneub]

I'm still not sure what to think with this poor little duck. She eats and drinks just like the other duck and wants to play like the bigger duck but she just can't get around. When she walks she just wobbles around and falls over. Sometimes she has a hard time getting herself standing back up after falling over. My wife read on here about something possibly wrong with the big joint in her leg and how to tape it to help support it. She did that with bandaids like she read and it seemed to help some, but not much. Any thoughts? Is this just a leg/foot issue or something more?

 

[Amiga]

I would start her on brewer's yeast (not baking yeast), one tablespoon per cup of food. It should be okay for both of them to have it. Within a few days if it is a B vitamin deficiency, you should see improvement.