Duckling walking on hocks

[ChickenTumble76]

Hello,
I have a Rouen duckling that I acquired from someone else. It is about 3 or 4 weeks old. Since it’s been in my possession I have been supplementing it with niacin and trying to bound its legs. It is currently walking on its hocks and it never seems to get any better. Culling is not an option for us and we are okay if it has to be an inside duck. I am just trying to figure out the best way to find someone to either straighten them up or building something for it to feel more comfortable. If nothing works, I do have a vet for my poultry so I will be taking it to the vet if nothing seems to help!.

Thank you

 

[ruthhope]

Hello,
I have a Rouen duckling that I acquired from someone else. It is about 3 or 4 weeks old. Since it’s been in my possession I have been supplementing it with niacin and trying to bound its legs. It is currently walking on its hocks and it never seems to get any better. Culling is not an option for us and we are okay if it has to be an inside duck. I am just trying to figure out the best way to find someone to either straighten them up or building something for it to feel more comfortable. If nothing works, I do have a vet for my poultry so I will be taking it to the vet if nothing seems to help!.

Thank you

I had 2 rescued ducklings this spring that had severe niacin deficiency with leg and gait issues when I got them at 2-2.5 weeks old. I put them straight onto added brewer's yeast in their feed but they collapsed the next day and needed Durvet high level vit B compound for several weeks. They turned out to be jumbo pekin drakes and they grew very large very fast. The slightly bigger duckling had bowed tibia from when I got him, both needed hobble binding. The slightly smaller one had much better gait after 3 days binding and is now, at 16 weeks, a healthy juvenile. The bigger one with bowed tibia did not improve with binding. I left the binding off for a few days but he was still down on his hocks falling over his feet, so I put the binding back on for anothrr 5 days. Throughout, the ducklings had swim therapy 3 or 4 times a day in either my bath or a deep tote that gave them good deep water for swimming. I could not get the bigger of the two to walk normally even with resistance physiotherapy after his swim session. Unfortunately, he would not accept that he could not walk and would not accept use of a ducky wheelchair--he threw himself out of both wheelchair designs he was offered. When he got to the stage that he would stand but then fall over trying to walk ( at 7-8 weeks old)
He started injuring himself by lying flailing around on the grass with his legs out straight behind him. I then tried suspending him in a sling made from a tote bag with a hole for his head and holes for his legs. That was much better as he could move his legs, and feed himself from a tub of water and a bowl of duck food positioned in front of him. My handyman made 2 A-frame trestle supports and he spent nearly 5 weeks still in the garden with his brother and the rest of my flock, although he was in a temporary dog pen to keep him safe. His brother talked to him from outside the pen and came over while he was having his swim therapy in a big clear tote, so that they could see each other through the side. Then brother came outside the screens on my rear porch while his brother had his resistance therapy. Each evening, I carried him down to the duck house with brother running along side shouting to us, and he slept in a pet carrier next to his brother in their section of the duck house.
The poor boy died overnight nearly 2 weeks ago, sleeping in his pine shavings bed next to his brother. I was very sad that I could not get his legs walking normally. He was frustrated by that too but not latterly when he was in his tote sling. He had given up trying to walk by then. I dont know exactly what was the cause of his problems, but as a jumbo pekin he had been bred to grow quickly for culling as a meat bird at 6-8 weeks. Jumbos are very prone to joint and gait problems because of the excessive weight gain. Plus my boy had severe niacin deficiency. I dont know what he was fed for his first 2 weeks of life but he had 24 hours eating soil and what he and his brother could find in gardens in my neighborhood after they had been dumped by their owner. So malnutrition may have added to his leg problems.

I strongly recommend that you continue using nutritional yeast in your duck's feed, but also give 1ml Durvet high level vitamin B compound orally every day until the duckling is fully feathered and full grown.

I recommend that you try a ducky wheelchair. The first one I offered my boy was quite heavy made from HDPE pipe and angles. It was on casters but too heavy for a duck to move itself. As he wouldn't stay on it, I made a second much lighter wheelchair from an old laundry sorting hamper on casters. It was made with lightweight tubular aluminum, and was certainly moveable by a duck on hard surfaces but not grass. Mine didn't accept it but your duck might. I have had a rescued drake with leg problems that accepted the heavy wheelchair and lived nearly 7 happy months still believing he was boss duck with all the flock at his beck and call. The flock encouraged that by spending the resting part of the day outside the screening on my rear porch with drake in wheelchair immediately on the other side of the screen. I encouraged them by putting the ducks' feeding bowl just outside the screen so that they all ate together. He died from a pelvic tumor that had likely been pressing on nerves in his pelvis when he stopped walking.

If your duck doesn't accept a wheelchair, or you can't get/make one, do try using a tote bag sling for periods each day so that the legs hang down in a better position for walking. I think I

started that too late. Photo 1 sows Benji in his totebag sling with his water tub where he could help himself freely. I offered him food after his 4 swim and resistance training sessions.

photo 2, Benji swimming in his tote with his brother, Albi, outside watching over him. Photo 3. Shows the A-frame trestles supporting Benji, and his dog pen area where brother Albi and the other ducks would come around