Please bear with me as I am new to duck ownership and having already spent several hundred pounds on taking one of my other girls to the vets (unrelated to this issue) I am seeing how much I can treat at home.
One of my four month old runner ducks has been getting progressively worse for not fully weight bearing on one leg. I noticed it around two weeks ago that she was not putting her heel to the ground when standing around. Looking back at some videos, it’s maybe been happening for three weeks, more subtly. She now is limping and won’t put the back of her foot down at all, but the front she will, as if she is on her tip toes. She sits down a lot in the coop to rest.
She is eating, drinking, toileting normally. She loves being in the pond - always has but I imagine it’s some respite currently. She is quite a tall, big duck but not overweight. All the other ducks are fine and not showing any similar signs. No one is laying yet. They are a small flock of all girls the same age.
They are on a deep, dry bed of straw pellets (lightly soaked so more of a crumble) with thick straw ontop. Cleaned daily and topped up with straw. They eat duck specific food with niacin in and have lots of access to greenery, are fed peas daily alongside other green treats.
I originally thought she had tweaked herself getting in and out of the pond as when they are excited they zoom in and out of it, often tumbling over.
So far I have:
- Checked the foot thoroughly for cuts, bruises, swelling, bumble foot with no sign
- Palpated all over but cannot find a sore spot and don’t believe anything is broken
After getting to this conclusion I then:
- Rested her for a week by keeping them in a 8ft x 4ft area. Unfortunately I couldn’t rest her by herself as I originally separated them and she would not settle (panicking, mouth breathing) , neither would the rest of the girls who, for want of a better term, ran around like headless chickens and exhausted themselves
- Given meloxicam at the correct dose BID
- Started everyone on brewers yeast added to their food
The last few days I have allowed them out to free range for a few hours a day. And she has gone drastically downhill, so this morning I will be resting and giving pain relief again. I stopped the pain relief before letting her out again as I wanted her to feel and manage any pain I.e not feel great on the pain relief and go over doing it.
Any advice please?
One of my four month old runner ducks has been getting progressively worse for not fully weight bearing on one leg. I noticed it around two weeks ago that she was not putting her heel to the ground when standing around. Looking back at some videos, it’s maybe been happening for three weeks, more subtly. She now is limping and won’t put the back of her foot down at all, but the front she will, as if she is on her tip toes. She sits down a lot in the coop to rest.
She is eating, drinking, toileting normally. She loves being in the pond - always has but I imagine it’s some respite currently. She is quite a tall, big duck but not overweight. All the other ducks are fine and not showing any similar signs. No one is laying yet. They are a small flock of all girls the same age.
They are on a deep, dry bed of straw pellets (lightly soaked so more of a crumble) with thick straw ontop. Cleaned daily and topped up with straw. They eat duck specific food with niacin in and have lots of access to greenery, are fed peas daily alongside other green treats.
I originally thought she had tweaked herself getting in and out of the pond as when they are excited they zoom in and out of it, often tumbling over.
So far I have:
- Checked the foot thoroughly for cuts, bruises, swelling, bumble foot with no sign
- Palpated all over but cannot find a sore spot and don’t believe anything is broken
After getting to this conclusion I then:
- Rested her for a week by keeping them in a 8ft x 4ft area. Unfortunately I couldn’t rest her by herself as I originally separated them and she would not settle (panicking, mouth breathing) , neither would the rest of the girls who, for want of a better term, ran around like headless chickens and exhausted themselves
- Given meloxicam at the correct dose BID
- Started everyone on brewers yeast added to their food
The last few days I have allowed them out to free range for a few hours a day. And she has gone drastically downhill, so this morning I will be resting and giving pain relief again. I stopped the pain relief before letting her out again as I wanted her to feel and manage any pain I.e not feel great on the pain relief and go over doing it.
Any advice please?
