Duckling with mismatched legs

[Quatie]

@hfchristy how is your duckling doing?

 

[hfchristy]

@hfchristy how is your duckling doing?

Not great. I was worrying over the wrong leg. The "swollen" one seems okay, but the scrawny one is pretty much useless and now just hangs behind him.
I managed to splint the feet so it would be possible to stand on them and that worked okay. I also tried to correct his spraddle legged posture, but overnight it somehow slipped and he was able to get the tape around his tail, keeping his legs pulled back. That seems to have been the final turning point for the gimpy leg. Before that he was at least wiggling it when I let him swim, but not anymore.
With his legs tied together, though, he's at least getting more weight on his good leg and trying to stand up sometimes to reach into a deeper food dish.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Bless! I hope your offering some liquid B complex along with good feed.

 

[Quatie]

Not great. I was worrying over the wrong leg. The "swollen" one seems okay, but the scrawny one is pretty much useless and now just hangs behind him.
I managed to splint the feet so it would be possible to stand on them and that worked okay. I also tried to correct his spraddle legged posture, but overnight it somehow slipped and he was able to get the tape around his tail, keeping his legs pulled back. That seems to have been the final turning point for the gimpy leg. Before that he was at least wiggling it when I let him swim, but not anymore.
With his legs tied together, though, he's at least getting more weight on his good leg and trying to stand up sometimes to reach into a deeper food dish.

Can he move his bad leg at all or is it more just limp?

 

[hfchristy]

The other day he was moving it some, but at this point it just seems limp.
The wing on that side also sticks out funny.

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

The other day he was moving it some, but at this point it just seems limp.
The wing on that side also sticks out funny.

Do you have a picture of the wing?

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

That’s interesting that his legs are like that, was he an assisted hatch?

 

[hfchristy]

If he was assisted, it wasn't by humans. He was hatched in a nest. One of two that hatched and were found trampled against a wall. I assumed his problems were due to the trampling, but I called times up on the remaining eggs and the one that I looked inside had what looked like a prematurely internally pipped duckling - with legs that didn't look quite the same size.
Is there something in the incubation process that could do this? I don't think that egg and the one gimpy duckling hatched from were from the same duck.

Here's a picture of him. You can see how the wing points forward like an arm. Totally adorable how human-like it makes him seem when he leans on his water dish with his arm over the edge - but not terribly functional.

.

I take back what I said about the leg being totally limp, though. When I was trying to get a picture, he totally used the top of his foot to launch himself out of view.

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

If he was assisted, it wasn't by humans. He was hatched in a nest. One of two that hatched and were found trampled against a wall. I assumed his problems were due to the trampling, but I called times up on the remaining eggs and the one that I looked inside had what looked like a prematurely internally pipped duckling - with legs that didn't look quite the same size.
Is there something in the incubation process that could do this? I don't think that egg and the one gimpy duckling hatched from were from the same duck.

Here's a picture of him. You can see how the wing points forward like an arm. Totally adorable how human-like it makes him seem when he leans on his water dish with his arm over the edge - but not terribly functional. View attachment 3169782.

I take back what I said about the leg being totally limp, though. When I was trying to get a picture, he totally used the top of his foot to launch himself out of view.

He’s really cute, first of all, second, I’m wondering if it’s a genetic thing, are his parents related?

 

[hfchristy]

I’m wondering if it’s a genetic thing, are his parents related?

It's possible, though it wouldn't be my first guess. He's a lot smaller than the one that looks like our big ducks, so i was figuring at least one of his parents was an Aztec. And his markings don't look like the pictures we have of them as ducklings, so probably one Aztec and one big duck for parents.