Spurlock Farms
Hatching
On our farm we have 5 ducks, one male peekin drake, 3 female peekins and 1 khaki campbell x rowan.
This morning, when letting the ducks out of their coop (a very large shed built to accommodate them), our drake, who we call C3-PO, waited until the females had all exited before going to leave himself. He then sat on the ramp for a few minutes instead of simply running/ flying down it like normal. He is usually the first out, him being the dominant.
Once he finally made his way down i noticed that in his walk from the coop to their water pools, he was limping on his left leg and using his left wing for balance.
I caught him easily and gave him a look over finding no scrapes, cuts, swelling nor bumble foot. There was no heat coming from his legs and he looked perfectly normal. He does have VERY SLIGHT pigeon toed legs but he was like that from the time he was born and they've never given him issue.
The ducks are on a waterfowl feed with a middle range protein, between 15-17 depending on brand availability, get a variety of fruits and veggies throughout the week, their fave is chilled watermelon, daily crickets or meal worms and get daily brewer's yeast due to our one female having wry neck from the time she was young and us keeping her on it to assist her mobility. (she had wry neck when she was around two weeks old, we treated with brewer's yeast, she got WAY better but was never 100% strait in her neck, even now at 5 months old. She moves, eats, drinks, swims, ect. all just as well as the others. However, if she goes a few days off of brewer's yeast, we notice she has an increasingly harder time getting around. Our vet recommended we keep her on it if it helps and that it wouldn't hinder the others in the amount that we give them)
We're pretty sure the limp in C3-PO doesn't have to do with his feed nor his vitamin levels. Because he has no visible leg/ body injuries, I was curious to see if anyone had any ideas as to what may be bothering him. Any and all ideas as to what it may be/ ways we can help him out would be greatly appreciated!! We will continue monitoring him the rest of the day and the next few days to see how he does.
This morning, when letting the ducks out of their coop (a very large shed built to accommodate them), our drake, who we call C3-PO, waited until the females had all exited before going to leave himself. He then sat on the ramp for a few minutes instead of simply running/ flying down it like normal. He is usually the first out, him being the dominant.
Once he finally made his way down i noticed that in his walk from the coop to their water pools, he was limping on his left leg and using his left wing for balance.
I caught him easily and gave him a look over finding no scrapes, cuts, swelling nor bumble foot. There was no heat coming from his legs and he looked perfectly normal. He does have VERY SLIGHT pigeon toed legs but he was like that from the time he was born and they've never given him issue.
The ducks are on a waterfowl feed with a middle range protein, between 15-17 depending on brand availability, get a variety of fruits and veggies throughout the week, their fave is chilled watermelon, daily crickets or meal worms and get daily brewer's yeast due to our one female having wry neck from the time she was young and us keeping her on it to assist her mobility. (she had wry neck when she was around two weeks old, we treated with brewer's yeast, she got WAY better but was never 100% strait in her neck, even now at 5 months old. She moves, eats, drinks, swims, ect. all just as well as the others. However, if she goes a few days off of brewer's yeast, we notice she has an increasingly harder time getting around. Our vet recommended we keep her on it if it helps and that it wouldn't hinder the others in the amount that we give them)
We're pretty sure the limp in C3-PO doesn't have to do with his feed nor his vitamin levels. Because he has no visible leg/ body injuries, I was curious to see if anyone had any ideas as to what may be bothering him. Any and all ideas as to what it may be/ ways we can help him out would be greatly appreciated!! We will continue monitoring him the rest of the day and the next few days to see how he does.
