Hello. I'm new to here, so I've been posting a few questions. I have five female runners i got as ducklings in May. One of them grew up deformed, kind of crooked. I can't decide if its her back or legs. She gets around, hops instead of runs and she flaps her wings like the others, she just goes in circles. From what I've read I decided it's either a birth defect (ducky scoliosis?) or malnutrition when growing? She is more timid then the others and often by the time she decides she will eat the treats i put out the other ducks have already finished them off. I don't think she is in pain so i was just going to let her live her little crooked life. Any input on what it might be? Should i get her checked out by the vet or as long as she eats, drinks, and gets around then she is fine? Thanks
Aw poor little one. Glad you decided to stick with her. It might be worthwhile to take her to a vet. They may offer options on how to either improve her condition or ways to make her life easier. If it looks like she is behind the others in growth and she's not getting enough to eat you can always feed her seperatly. It would also benefit all of them to add vitamins to the water.
Depending on what type of 'crookedness' it has, and how old it is, you may be able to slightly correct it by giving it 'hydrotherapy', letting it swim and gain strength in the legs, and supplement with niacin/brewers yeast. I've seen these two things work miracles on ducks before. If it's a back problem, I wouldn't have any idea.
There is a condition called wry tail. I am not an expert, but a number of bent or crooked problems can be helped a bit with extra B vitamins. Time in a lukewarm tub padding around can help, too - cetainly cheers them up! Here is my writeup on B vitamin supplements. Apologies to those who have seen it a zillion times. You have some options. I would go with brewer's yeast. Forgive me for using capital letters, but for anyone else who may casually look over this thread, NOT baking yeast, NOT winemaking yeast. Brewer's yeast is a nutritional supplement and it provides niacin and a few other vitamins. Generally, folks who supplement with brewer’s yeast use a tablespoon per cup of food. Ducklings need about three times the niacin chicks do. And some ducklings get leg problems or seizures if they don't have enough niacin. If you cannot find the brewer's yeast, or if you happen to have (here come the capital letters again, please forgive me) PLAIN niacin - NOT no-flush, NOT timed release, then dissolve 150 mg niacin per gallon of water for the duckling’s drinking water. Another approach is to use B Complex capsules, and use the B3 - niacin - levels as a guide. Again, 150 mg B3 per gallon of drinking water. Keep the little one on the supplements for about 8 weeks. Sometimes it only takes a few days to see improvement. You can also see how it went for Qwackers and Bentley from these threads. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/857143/treating-wry-neck-in-crested-duckling-edited-title https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/761308/peking-duckling-with-crooked-neck-help
