First blue swede hatched with malformed foot, any way to fix this?

[shannondee12]

Had my first blue swedish duckling hatch this evening around 10:30 pm. When I got up this morning, I thought he would be up and dried off and moving around a bit. When I checked on him in the bator, he didn't look like he could stand so i took him out and it looks like his one foot is one backwards. Almost like he has a stick for a leg and then just a piece of flesh for a foot that is turned the wrong way, like he is missing an ankle. The other appears fine. Is this something that I can fix?

 

[Amiga]

You might think of some kind of brace, and certainly making sure he has plenty of B vitamins. Brewer's yeast - a tablespoon added to their feed daily ought to help some.

 

[shannondee12]

I have tried everything that I can think of. Niacin, infant vitamins, vitamin E, and brewers yeast. I realized that the hip was dislocated so I tried to wrap it up in the correct position. That was like brushing your teeth while eating oreo cookies! The little booger was to squirmy and after trying mulitple things to wrap it with I finally had some luck with "free wrap" from my daughters softball bag. That lasted all of 2 minutes before he wiggled it right down to his bum and off. I have been holding him for long periods of time with the leg in the correct position and he is starting to put weight on it now occasionally but his foot still turns wrong and is all smashed up so I don't think he would be able to swim and certainly not mate, which was my long term goal. Without any other suggestions, I guess I will focus on making sure he isn't in pain and plan for having a special needs duck. All of mine free range from morning to dark and "Deeks" wouldn't be able to so I will start to work on a new pen for him.

 

[Amiga]

Progress is being made with using 3D printers to make waterfowl leg prosthetics. Perhaps you can look into that.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421299,00.asp