Duckie Help...Please Anyone???

[alliekrpc]

Hi All!
Alright...so I have a few duckies from my month-ish old flock that I'm having trouble with! I've posted pics below with a little information for each. If anyone can help out with any of these issues...it would be great. It makes me so sad to see them like this!!! HELP!

This first one I think is the easiest...is this the infamous Angel Wing? She is the only one whose wings are coming in like this...and I've never had a duck with Angel Wing before.

This one is a little trickier...I have two ducks that are limping. When you are looking at them, it is the left foot that they are both having problems with. It seems almost as if the foot "doesn't work." while the other toes curl up when i lift their feet, the gimpy foot doesn't. It just...hangs there. They limp when they walk. A few people have suggested maybe a Niacin deficiency...but I've been giving it to them now for awhile with no results...the feet are not borken however...and do not seem to be causing any pain...they just can't use them...

The most peculiar part of it is that they sit funny...unlike the others, their tails are not held up when they sit or walk...they slump over. Almost like a hunch?? They eat fine...drink fine...everything seems to be normal...they swin fine as well! Any thoughts?!? Please help my little guys.
Oh I forgot to mention...I've called bird sanctuaries...vets (although around here...no one deals with birds) and wildlife conservations too. But no one can help...
Thank you all...hopefully someone has some insight!
Cheers!

 

[chickboss]

I've read this post a few times today and have been waiting for someone else to give a go, because I don't think I am going to be much help. Are they all living by themselves or are there older ducks in with them? That may be Angle wing, in which case the wings can be wrapped. You might want to look up some inforamation (google search) on slipped tendon and also, leg injuries in domestic ducks for the other two. And that tail has me stumped completely....I did a search and found nothing.

Some things you might want to add to your post are:
What are they eating specifically
What are you supplementing and in what form (such as Niacin, are you using a vitamin, Brewer's Yeast, ect.)
How many ducks/drakes and in what kind of space
How long has # 3 ducks tail been drooping
Have these things all shown up at the same time, and were there any changes to their enviroment a week or two prior

Some others might pop on here...

 

[alliekrpc]

Chickboss,
Thank you for replying...I'll add some information that I left out yesterday with some specifics on them.
First off, in this hatch, there were 11 of 12 eggs to hatch. At the very beginning, 2 of them died. This was right out of the egg. I figured maybe they were just overexhausted from the hatch or something. The rest seemed fine until about two days later when one little guy kept flipping onto his back and not being able to get back up. He eventually died as well. Since then, there really haven't been any issues at all with them. They all eat fine, drink fine, etc.
Of the bunch, there are 4 drakes and 4 ducks. They all came from perfectly healthy Muscovy parents. The ducklings are now just over a month old.
I started them on a "veggie mash/starter" from my local ShurGain/Masterfeeds feed dealer. After about 2 weeks or so, they were able to eat the duck grower pellets. It is an 18% grower specifically for ducks. I now mix the two together as I have with all of my ducks in the past.
About 3.5 weeks after they hatched, I started noticing one was limping...this is the above picture of the one with the droopy tail. I figured maybe she had gotten hurt or something, but after keeping her seperate for a week with no improvement at all, and realizing that she doesn't appear to be in any kind of pain, I figured maybe it is just a deformity...maybe she is growing too fast for her legs or something, and left it at that. A few days later though, sure enough, another started doing the same thing. Limping around and drooping her tail. They walk with their toes kind of...together. Instead of being seperate like any normal duck, the three toes seem to bend together. Like I said in the previous post...when i put my finger under the ducks foot, and raise my hand a little, the normal foot curls up. The bad foot just seems to stay put. Almost like it doesn't work!
After reading several posts on here, and PMing a few people as well, I decided that it sounded like a Niacin deficiency. I started supplementing them with Niacin tablets from Shoppers Drug Mart as suggested by a few people. I crush up 2 tablets in the am, 2 in the pm and put them in their water dish. They all drink it fine. I put it in a large round rubber feed tub. So far, none of the others have even shown any symptoms of what these two are showing.
Durin the day, they live in a large, chainlink fenced in area. There are 2 shelters from the elements, a pond for them to swim in that is pressure washed on a regular basis to make sure there is nothing bad in there, there is grass, a feeder and another water tub. There is also a large area where the ground is covered by a rubber stall mat. They catch bugs all day and then come in at night. In the barn I have a large coop, which sits up off the ground about a foot. The bottom is swept and cleaned everyday and lined with clean hay. I have two feeders that attach to the walls that give them free choice food and a rubber tub at night for water.
I built the enclosure a long time ago, when I first started raising ducks and have never had an issue. I pressure wash everything with no soap or chemicals to ensure that everything is always clean. There have never been any changes to the enclosure and I have used the same feed for all of my ducks. I can't figure out for the life of me what is going on. I've done many searches on the internet to find nothing.
Any thoughts?
Cheers
Allie

 

[katharinad]

I had to come back to these images a couple of times. I don't think it is angel wing, since they are not pointing outwards. The wings are hanging down, so is the tail. I wonder if it is some kind of muscular problem. Either the muscles are not strong enough, or there is some neurological thing going which prevents their muscles from responding right. I would strongly suggest to see an avian vet. You have done all the supplemental things, so there may be something else going on.
Katharina

 

[alliekrpc]

I would strongly suggest to see an avian vet.

I live in an area where really, all vets specialize in three things things...cats, dogs and large mammals. We actually had another duck get caught by a fox one time, and after searching for a vet that knows anything about ducks for about 3 days (some know something about small birds...but never ducks...they give the "it's a duck...you've gotta be kidding me" look). We couldn't find anyone that could do anything. I eventually decided that I would fix it myself and she ended up making a full recovery. This is why I'm so stumped! I can't find anyone around here!
It makes me wonder if I should become a duck vet...there seems to be a market out there

!
It's funny...because they used to all walk just fine. When they hatched, mama wanted nothing to do with them and so everyday I'd take them out in the lawn to run around and they would follow me everywhere. Just running through the grass happy as can be. None of them showed any signs at all of being unhealthy.
Hopefully we can all put our experiences together and maybe think of something

Thank you all for the help so far though. I figure if I can eliminate things it will be easier to find what it is.
Cheers
Allie​

 

[katharinad]

I understand that one. I will look later into some of my books. For now I would focus on supplementing vitamins ADE and K. They have a strong connection to the nervous and muscle system. Make sure to mix a little bit of sand into the food mush with those vitamins. The sand will help them to absorb it better. You can get cheap clean sand in the hardware store where sell sell concrete. Its called builders sand in most stores. It will work like grit, but is finer. You can also use fine grit instead.

Katharina

 

[chickboss]

Thanks for the further info. I'll keep searching around as I have time. I am not nearly as experienced as some on this board, but you never know what will turn up. Do you by chance have a university near by. You've probably already thought of it, but sometimes the extensions service, or the university itself can help find reasources....

 

[katharinad]

I'm living in the boonies. Nothing out here either. Everything is over 1.5 hours away, and those are not even big towns either.
Katharina

 

[chickboss]

I've done a search for avian muscular disorders and the only results I find are for avian muscular dystrophy, which is hereditary from what I understand. It seems that the treatments used have mostly had to do with reasearch into human muscular dystrophy. You may do a search and see what comes up. Also, I found this site where you can ask an avian vetrinarian online, and though you have to pay for the answer ($15.00 is the minimum) it seems above board and you have the option to not pay if you do not feel that the answer was helpful. I would give a ton of detail because I don't know how much conversation you will actually have.
http://www.justanswer.com/brands/Ve...Test4_Tabbed&gclid=CLrKja-Om6ICFR5rgwodXD5QxA

 

[alliekrpc]

Thank you both for the info. I will look into the avian veterinarian website. I do have a college right by my place, but they specialized in Equine studies. Not much help lol. I'll definetly supplement with the vit/min...any suggestions on brands or where to find it?
The one thing that really keeps sticking out in my mind in regards to the legs...is a slipped tendon. I posted awhile back inquiring as to whether or not this seems like what it could be. No one really seemed to think so but I still wonder...
Picture this. When I feel the leg...I feel the main long bone in the leg...and then something to the side that feels like a piece of uncooked spaghetti. It does have some give to it but the good leg does not feel the same. I also checked my other duckies...same thing. I can't find the spaghetti. Does it sound like a slipped tendon? And is there a way to fix it? Or is it more humaine to cull them? Can they live a relatively normal life if it can't be fixed? Now that I think about it...it seems more and more likely. When the bad foot hits the ground...it's almost like they're tippy toeing on that foot. Like their heel can't reach the ground. Almost as if the bad leg is a little shorter than the good one.
The smaller and darker of the two is so sweet. When I pick her up she cuddles. She loves being held and loves her nose being rubbed lol...
Any thoughts?