Call duckling with bad legs?

[member 512732]

We adopted a duck from our neighbor whose legs had a problem. 1 of them turned in. He tried splinting but it didn't work. We tried slinging her but she was too old to fix it. Since she was in no pain, a good weight, and happy so we let her be. To sling a duck you:

Use a large plastic storage box. Fill it with bedding. Wrap some stretchy material around it like a band, cut slits for legs. Sit her in it with her legs through the holes. Make sure the fabric is away from her butt and the box is longer than the duck(remember duck poop shoots straight out, you want it to end up in the box. We duck taped a small plank wrapped in a garbage sack to the front and put a little dish of water and food where she could easily reach. Her legs should not touch the bottom. If her leg is twisted you can splint it to get it strait. Basically this gets her weight off her feet, and lets her heal. We took her out and put her in a wading pool for weight free exercise.

You probably wont see this since your post is 12 yrs old but its hard to understand exactly what you are saying...to keep the duck off the ground in a sling? If you do see it please message me. My three day old duck isnt walking well and he is with a two day old chicken. I gave the duck niacin yesterday and will keep it up along with electrolytes and some nutritional yeast. It is my first time using an incubator and all the chicks and ducks are hatching at different times so I have five boxes of chicks and ducks and one with a chick and duck born the same day. Now I know how parents feel when they want the kids out of the house....Today I can put the two oldest ducklings outside in a kennel since they are being brats and knocking over their water every five minutes.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Ducklings need niacin everyday until at least 10-12 weeks old 1 tab of nutritional yeast over each cup of feed you give them. But when one is having issues they need the liquid BComplex it is really the best for getting niacin def under control. TSC has in called Durvet liquid BComplex it will say injectable but we use it orally. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/niacin-deficiency-in-waterfowl.1367557/

 

[Miss Lydia]

Also there are homemade waterers that work for messy ducklings place something like this on a tray or broiler pan to keep mess down