Bah! Crooked Feet

[astronomer]

So all my 3 week old ducklings have crooked feet. The Pekings are the worst. I have been giving brewers yeast in the water (1Tbsp per 1/2 gal), and putting it in their feed. What is going on?! Is my brewers yeast fake or something? Anyone know of a good brand of niacin? Everything I find at Walmart or GNC is non-flushing. I got this stuff on Amazon.

 

[Orca5094]

Can we see some pics? Maybe it's something that needs to be taped/hobbled to be fixed? Sometimes just adding niacin or brewer's yeast isn't enough, they might need more help to get them straightened out. Does it interfere with their walking or being able to get around?

 

[Amiga]

Could you remind us if these are ducklings you hatched or bought, and yes photo's would be great. Some ducklings have awkward feet that they outgrow as they mature. What is their bedding surface? Do they get any swim time in warm (same temperature as brooder, or maybe 5˚F lower) water?

 

[astronomer]

I got them from Metzer farms. Their brooder is built on top of an old wire mesh patio table. It makes for easy cleaning and most food/water/poo can be rinsed off easily. They do swim in our pond.
It's only really bad on the pekings. They sometimes trip over their own feet, but they all seem to get around ok.
I'll try to get some pics when I get back in town.

 

[Amiga]

Have you looked closely at the bottoms of their feet? Some folks who have used wire mesh find problems with abrasions and cuts and bumblefoot.

70%cocoa covered the wire mesh with an old towel - liquid would spill through and she could shake out and replace the towel pretty easily.

 

[astronomer]

 

[Amiga]

Look up slipped tendon, see this page

https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

 

[Orca5094]

Wow, yeah that's not good. It does look like a slipped tendon in the leg, which is very difficult to fix. I would definitely cover that wire mesh, that isn't the best substrate for ducks.

 

[astronomer]

This must be genetic. It appears to only affect the pekings. The others are fine now. I'm trying a different brand of brewers yeast. This one from GNC instead of Amazon.

Wire mesh isn't really the real word I guess. It's more of a wrought iron table. Similar to this:

 

[Orca5094]

Does it have some kind of traction on it so they aren't slipping all over it? That can cause leg/foot problems as well.

You might be right that it's genetic if it's only affecting the Pekins, though. In that case there probably isn't much you can do to help them. Back at my zoo we had Redhead Ducks that had some bad genetics. All of their offspring came out with slipped tendon problems so bad that eventually they weren't able to walk. We tried everything to fix them and keep those tendons in place, but to no avail. We unfortunately had to humanely euthanize the ducklings and just not allow those birds to hatch out young again.