raggiedoll88
Chirping
- Jan 14, 2021
- 60
- 169
- 96
Hey everybody -- I was hoping to never have to make a post in the emergencies part of the forum, but unfortunately here I am...
1. My Duclair duckling, Pippi, will be two weeks old on Tuesday. She is 202 grams as of around 5pm tonight (up 22g from when I weighed her this morning). She has been gaining weight daily & is one of the biggest of my six ducklings.
2. She's unable to stand or walk... eventually she walks but there's obviously something very wrong. This has happened twice now since Friday.
This first happened on Friday afternoon. I had been with the ducklings all morning & then left to make myself lunch. When I came back to check on them all of the ducklings were running around, except her. I noticed her legs looked a little off (more off to the side than normal) & when she went to walk she could barely move. She could hardly even stand. It was terrifying & heartbreaking to watch her try to get around... I called my parents & they drove up to try to help me with her. By the time they arrived she was able to start walking again, not gracefully, but better than before. An hour or two later she seemed much better. I've kept a close eye on her all weekend & she seemed 90% back to normal -- if you weren't specifically watching her legs every time she moved you'd never notice that hers seemed a little different than the rest. Wider set, but only by the tiniest bit. I wasn't sure if she had spraddle leg (it sure looked like it from the diagrams in my books & my research online) but I didn't even know how I'd treat such a minor-seeming case since her legs looked basically normal.
I came in to check on the ducklings around 10pm tonight & to my horror found her in the same condition as she was in Friday. She was squished underneath another duckling (they were all sleeping cuddled up together & she happened to be on the bottom of the pile) & when I came in to check on them the rest ran to the playpen door to see me but she couldn't move. She couldn't stand up, her legs seemed out to the side again & she was frantically peeping. I scooped her up, separated her from her friends so they wouldn't trample her, and got her a little dish of food & water. Again, at first she could barely stand, but after a while she was able to & she was able to move (but not normally) a while after that. Earlier today she was running around & seemed almost all the way better... She did trip, and fall, several times throughout the day (but most of them do, I figure they're clumsy and that's normal, right?) but other than that she wasn't having any issues getting around today.
3. Symptoms first exhibited Friday afternoon & then again Sunday night.
4. No other birds are exhibiting similar symptoms. The only thing I've noticed is that they seem to snort/sneeze/puff air out (not quite sure exactly what they're doing) quite a bit. They especially snort when they dunk their heads in the little deep water dish I have for them to clean their faces with, but I'm assuming this is normal behavior since they all seem to do it... Every now & then I'll head a little sneeze (sounds like they're blowing a puff of air through their bill) so I'm not sure if that's something I should be concerned with, but either way I don't think that would really have anything to do with her not being able to walk. Otherwise all the ducklings seem fine to me.
5. No signs of trauma other than her legs go out a bit to the sides... I'm using a heat plate in the brooder & the ducklings all used to go on top of it instead of underneath it. They'd jump on & off, sometimes fall off or be pushed off while sleeping, sometimes fall onto their backs -- after her incident on Friday my dad built a little cardboard shield to block the top so they can't get up there anymore. I'm not sure if she had hurt herself by falling from the heart plate or not, but now nobody's allowed up top.
6. Not sure if it was a bad fall from the heat plate, or if she slipped on the cookie sheet that I had their "soup" (crumbles + water) dish on... I knew about spraddle leg so I bought rubber shelf liners & cut them to fit in the cookie tray so they wouldn't slip & hurt themselves but then they started constantly nibbling on & pulling up the rubber shelf liner like it was their job so when I would go in to check on them sometimes it would be mostly lifted up & defeat the purpose & the surface would still be slippery since the liner was up, so I don't know if that could potentially have caused the problem.
I don't even know if she has spraddle leg or not -- they do seem to go out to the sides, but she recovered so quickly on Friday & seemed fine all weekend, I'm wondering if it could be because of a niacin deficiency? She's only 12 days old though & I've already started supplementing their feed with nutritional yeast. They're on the Purina Flock Raiser Crumbles (which I had read on here should be sufficient for ducklings but I figured adding a little nutritional yeast couldn't hurt)... I thought that niacin deficiencies usually present in slightly older ducklings anyway but have no idea why she's having leg/walking issues so figured maybe that has something to do with it?
7. She's been eating the Purina Flock Raiser Crumbles, some nutritional yeast & lots of water. She still has an appetite (although not right now -- she's sleeping under the heat plate while the five other ducklings are eating & drinking, but she gained 22g in one day so clearly she's been eating well).
8. Poop looks normal as far as I can tell... It actually seems more solid than most since most of them have more liquid poop & a few of hers I've noticed are more solid/formed than just liquid. I'm new to ducks so I looked up that's about duck poop consistency already & it seemed like there's a whole range of poop for ducks so I wasn't too concerned.
9. Treatment so far has been to separate her from the group & give her food and water & nutritional yeast. One got Sav-a-Chick electrolytes and probiotics here so I'm planning on mixing that up to give as well. Otherwise I don't know how to treat her because I don't know what the problem is.
10. If it seems like it's just spraddle leg & could be an easy fix, I'm fine treating her at home. However we do have two different vets within an hour of us who treat ducks so if it's anything more serious then I'm more than willing to take her there. I plan on calling the vet in the morning, hoping they could see her, but I don't know if they take emergencies or what their policy is.
11. I will post videos ASAP. It's been a wild night trying to care for & comfort her but I made sure to take videos & pictures to upload on here. I'll do that shortly.
12. Brooder setup: XL doggie playpen with mesh top & sides, fleece/towel bedding over tarp on bottom (since they spill water everywhere), changed 2-3 times per day. Multiple waterers (2 mason jar style, 1 large gravity waterer, 1 small deep dish to wash faces) & multiple feeders (large gravity feeder & heavy glass juicer filled with "soup" (crumbles + water)). Waters changed multiple times per day, "soup" changed 1-2 times per day.
I will post videos of her shortly. Thank you for any advice on helping my sweet little Pippi... I love all my little ducklings so much already & obviously don't want to see them not doing well. I really appreciate your help!
1. My Duclair duckling, Pippi, will be two weeks old on Tuesday. She is 202 grams as of around 5pm tonight (up 22g from when I weighed her this morning). She has been gaining weight daily & is one of the biggest of my six ducklings.
2. She's unable to stand or walk... eventually she walks but there's obviously something very wrong. This has happened twice now since Friday.
This first happened on Friday afternoon. I had been with the ducklings all morning & then left to make myself lunch. When I came back to check on them all of the ducklings were running around, except her. I noticed her legs looked a little off (more off to the side than normal) & when she went to walk she could barely move. She could hardly even stand. It was terrifying & heartbreaking to watch her try to get around... I called my parents & they drove up to try to help me with her. By the time they arrived she was able to start walking again, not gracefully, but better than before. An hour or two later she seemed much better. I've kept a close eye on her all weekend & she seemed 90% back to normal -- if you weren't specifically watching her legs every time she moved you'd never notice that hers seemed a little different than the rest. Wider set, but only by the tiniest bit. I wasn't sure if she had spraddle leg (it sure looked like it from the diagrams in my books & my research online) but I didn't even know how I'd treat such a minor-seeming case since her legs looked basically normal.
I came in to check on the ducklings around 10pm tonight & to my horror found her in the same condition as she was in Friday. She was squished underneath another duckling (they were all sleeping cuddled up together & she happened to be on the bottom of the pile) & when I came in to check on them the rest ran to the playpen door to see me but she couldn't move. She couldn't stand up, her legs seemed out to the side again & she was frantically peeping. I scooped her up, separated her from her friends so they wouldn't trample her, and got her a little dish of food & water. Again, at first she could barely stand, but after a while she was able to & she was able to move (but not normally) a while after that. Earlier today she was running around & seemed almost all the way better... She did trip, and fall, several times throughout the day (but most of them do, I figure they're clumsy and that's normal, right?) but other than that she wasn't having any issues getting around today.
3. Symptoms first exhibited Friday afternoon & then again Sunday night.
4. No other birds are exhibiting similar symptoms. The only thing I've noticed is that they seem to snort/sneeze/puff air out (not quite sure exactly what they're doing) quite a bit. They especially snort when they dunk their heads in the little deep water dish I have for them to clean their faces with, but I'm assuming this is normal behavior since they all seem to do it... Every now & then I'll head a little sneeze (sounds like they're blowing a puff of air through their bill) so I'm not sure if that's something I should be concerned with, but either way I don't think that would really have anything to do with her not being able to walk. Otherwise all the ducklings seem fine to me.
5. No signs of trauma other than her legs go out a bit to the sides... I'm using a heat plate in the brooder & the ducklings all used to go on top of it instead of underneath it. They'd jump on & off, sometimes fall off or be pushed off while sleeping, sometimes fall onto their backs -- after her incident on Friday my dad built a little cardboard shield to block the top so they can't get up there anymore. I'm not sure if she had hurt herself by falling from the heart plate or not, but now nobody's allowed up top.
6. Not sure if it was a bad fall from the heat plate, or if she slipped on the cookie sheet that I had their "soup" (crumbles + water) dish on... I knew about spraddle leg so I bought rubber shelf liners & cut them to fit in the cookie tray so they wouldn't slip & hurt themselves but then they started constantly nibbling on & pulling up the rubber shelf liner like it was their job so when I would go in to check on them sometimes it would be mostly lifted up & defeat the purpose & the surface would still be slippery since the liner was up, so I don't know if that could potentially have caused the problem.
I don't even know if she has spraddle leg or not -- they do seem to go out to the sides, but she recovered so quickly on Friday & seemed fine all weekend, I'm wondering if it could be because of a niacin deficiency? She's only 12 days old though & I've already started supplementing their feed with nutritional yeast. They're on the Purina Flock Raiser Crumbles (which I had read on here should be sufficient for ducklings but I figured adding a little nutritional yeast couldn't hurt)... I thought that niacin deficiencies usually present in slightly older ducklings anyway but have no idea why she's having leg/walking issues so figured maybe that has something to do with it?
7. She's been eating the Purina Flock Raiser Crumbles, some nutritional yeast & lots of water. She still has an appetite (although not right now -- she's sleeping under the heat plate while the five other ducklings are eating & drinking, but she gained 22g in one day so clearly she's been eating well).
8. Poop looks normal as far as I can tell... It actually seems more solid than most since most of them have more liquid poop & a few of hers I've noticed are more solid/formed than just liquid. I'm new to ducks so I looked up that's about duck poop consistency already & it seemed like there's a whole range of poop for ducks so I wasn't too concerned.
9. Treatment so far has been to separate her from the group & give her food and water & nutritional yeast. One got Sav-a-Chick electrolytes and probiotics here so I'm planning on mixing that up to give as well. Otherwise I don't know how to treat her because I don't know what the problem is.
10. If it seems like it's just spraddle leg & could be an easy fix, I'm fine treating her at home. However we do have two different vets within an hour of us who treat ducks so if it's anything more serious then I'm more than willing to take her there. I plan on calling the vet in the morning, hoping they could see her, but I don't know if they take emergencies or what their policy is.
11. I will post videos ASAP. It's been a wild night trying to care for & comfort her but I made sure to take videos & pictures to upload on here. I'll do that shortly.
12. Brooder setup: XL doggie playpen with mesh top & sides, fleece/towel bedding over tarp on bottom (since they spill water everywhere), changed 2-3 times per day. Multiple waterers (2 mason jar style, 1 large gravity waterer, 1 small deep dish to wash faces) & multiple feeders (large gravity feeder & heavy glass juicer filled with "soup" (crumbles + water)). Waters changed multiple times per day, "soup" changed 1-2 times per day.
I will post videos of her shortly. Thank you for any advice on helping my sweet little Pippi... I love all my little ducklings so much already & obviously don't want to see them not doing well. I really appreciate your help!
) but she can't.
