Feathers on wings

[Isaac 0]

There are lots of vets in your area, may be worth calling around, telling them your situation and see if they have anything to offer.

 

[Trisseh]

Isaac 0 has been giving you excellent advice. my only addition to the thiamine/B complex portion is that sometimes if an animal has a severe enough deficiency, there may be permanent neurological damage done, that no amount of supplementation will reverse. This doesn’t mean that he won’t be able to live his life but he may be a handicapped duck.
Selenium is another vitamin that comes to mind that can cause muscle issues and tremors. Usually given in conjunction with the vitamin E. the vit E helps with selenium uptake.
Hard to find a starting point for diagnostic testing, you could run up a large bill and still not find any answers. Most vets will prophylactically treat the most common things first and then rule things out from there.

 

[Isaac 0]

Isaac 0 has been giving you excellent advice. my only addition to the thiamine/B complex portion is that sometimes if an animal has a severe enough deficiency, there may be permanent neurological damage done, that no amount of supplementation will reverse. This doesn’t mean that he won’t be able to live his life but he may be a handicapped duck.
Selenium is another vitamin that comes to mind that can cause muscle issues and tremors. Usually given in conjunction with the vitamin E. the vit E helps with selenium uptake.
Hard to find a starting point for diagnostic testing, you could run up a large bill and still not find any answers. Most vets will prophylactically treat the most common things first and then rule things out from there.

I completely agree, but definitely worth trying for a few weeks. I only have used selenium for extreme neurological cases where absorption of the vitamin E is critical, but let me find a dosage first because selenium easily overdoses with birds. Yes, many avian practitioner's make a diagnosis by ruling out the most common causes, but diagnostic testing is still an essential part of making that.

The Diagnostic Pyramaid.

 

[angiemray]

The second one is one of the ones we went to. If it is indeed neurological, there is no coming back from it is that correct?

 

[Trisseh]

@Isaac 0 Yep, I’m in the veterinary field and get what you’re saying, especially in an ideal world; but very few people have the funds or ability to pursue diagnostic testing for the many disease processes that may be going on here. bare bones testing at the lab can easily run $600-$800 in my area, (not sure for the OP) and the biggest issue you run into with diagnostics for poultry is that very often a confirmed diagnosis often isn’t made until necropsy. It’s frustrating and heartbreaking for the owners, and equally frustrating for the veterinarians who are trying to help.

There is a chance of toxic doses of all vitamins and minerals, including thiamine and niacin, so all additional treatments should be given with caution.

@angiemray neither of us is saying definitively one way or another how this is going to turn out for you - the best person/people to talk to with further questions would be the veterinarians that you’ve dealt with. Did they give you a tentative diagnosis? and if so, did they give you a prognosis? If you’re unclear on anything they’ve told you, the best thing to do is reach out and get your questions clarified. If they’ve given you information, it’s their responsibility to ensure you understand it.

 

[Isaac 0]

To b

@Isaac 0 Yep, I’m in the veterinary field and get what you’re saying, especially in an ideal world; but very few people have the funds or ability to pursue diagnostic testing for the many disease processes that may be going on here. bare bones testing at the lab can easily run $600-$800 in my area, (not sure for the OP) and the biggest issue you run into with diagnostics for poultry is that very often a confirmed diagnosis often isn’t made until necropsy. It’s frustrating and heartbreaking for the owners, and equally frustrating for the veterinarians who are trying to help.

There is a chance of toxic doses of all vitamins and minerals, including thiamine and niacin, so all additional treatments should be given with caution.

Agreed, but there are some simple diagnostic test's that run fairly cheap, at least in my area that can help eliminate some possible cause's, I'm not familiar with the OP's part of town nor her financial situation, but I'd thought I'd mention it because with these type's of problems diagnostic testing is often useful in making a diagnosis. Yep, niacin is very hard to overdose with so you can be a bit more flexible as far as the dose goes, I'm haven't researched thiamine enough to know the effects, the daily requirement is definitely lower, still hard to overdose with In my experience, but best to stick with the recommended dosages. The only problem is there are either very few recommend dosages for birds, or too much that contradict each other.

Other problems are definitely easier to treat than others, but with some sort of paralysis of the neck muscles there seem to be many possible etiologies. The three most common seem to be malnutrition, toxin ingestion, or neurological damage, so we'll just have to start eliminating each one slowly.


I am also curious what the vet said regarding possible neurological damage with your duck, if you could give us a bit more info, or call back and reconfirm what he thought, that'd be great!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I can only encourage by saying keep up the b complex it’s at least something to give him a chance at recovery. And I sure hope he does. And if the KC is pecking at him separate but keep them so they can still see each other. He doesn’t need the stress of a bully while trying to recover.