CAYUGA DRAKE BABY NOT WALKING

[riodajanero]

Hello everyone.

I just joined the forum this morning because I have a boy that is not getting around very well. Here are the details:

Bought 10 ducks (5 Cayuga and 5 Welsh Harlequin) from a hatchery at 3 days old and put them on a gamebird starter feed of 21%

They all ate that very well for the first month and then we started buying duck food from our local MFA and it is a 23% and they have been eating that for almost 2 months.

They have always had fresh water and just last week they were released onto our 2 acre pond.

They go out in the morning when I let them out of the barn and come in at night like clockwork. However my husband a I noticed a slow moving drake 2 nights ago and started watching him.

He doesn't seem hurt, I checked all limbs and entire body. He still remains hungry and is eating and drinking well.

When he is on ground he will get up walk two steps and then sit and then sometimes he struggles to get to his feet. But when he is in the pond he gets around very well and stays up with the rest.

So yesterday I went and bought 500 mg niacin tablets and diluted 2 tablets into their 15 gallon waterer so all of them got that last night including our crippled guy. I also bought some Tetracycline water additive which I have not used yet and something called Rooster Booster which the man from the store said was safe for ducks. It is a multi vitamin-wormer crumble that you add into their food, which I added for the first time last night.

This morning I kept the drake in and he doesnt seem any better this morning but doesnt seem worse either.

So any suggestions? Thank you

 

[Jujubeans2008]

I'm pretty sure it is probably a Niacin defeciency You might want to also get some brewers yeast (made to brew alcohol), or nutritional yeast to sprinkle on their food as well. It will take a few days to see a big difference, but it should get better over time.

 

[dotknott]

I'm pretty sure it is probably a Niacin defeciency You might want to also get some brewers yeast (made to brew alcohol), or nutritional yeast to sprinkle on their food as well. It will take a few days to see a big difference, but it should get better over time.

Brewers yeast isn't whats used in beer production. That's brewing yeast, which is the active/live form of Brewer's Yeast and most home brewers will tell you the best stuff is purchased in a liquid yeast slurry, not a powder. Brewers yeast is a byproduct of beer production (much like cream of tartar is a byproduct of wine making) and is used in making products such as vegemite.

After a brewer has fermented their wort (turning it into beer) they will then bottle or keg their brew carefully leaving behind a slurry of mostly dead yeast cells, hops and beer (yeasts die as the alcohol content in the beer rises which is why there's a big difference between the teo products.) In a professional brewery this slurry is reserved and sold to be dehydrated into the brewers yeast nutritional supplement, or brewers yeast extract for vegemite.


OP - I'd recommend adding brewers yeast or pure niacin to your ducklings food.

If using niacin, you'll want to avoid a NO FLUSH variety. No flush as in no redness. Niacin is known for making humans flush when they take even a moderate amount at once, so a time release, or no flush, capsule was made. This is too slow to work in the fast digestive tract of a duck.

You can dose the food or the water. 100-150mg per gallon of h20