Healthy duck can't walk?

[Tompike]

I have a perfectly healthy female silver apple yard duck who's maybe about 5 years old. Last year she started to limp and wouldn't walk much but she got a little better. About three months ago though, she got a lot worse. It's almost as if it's paralyzed since she doesnt use it, except in swimming every once in awhile. It isnt like it hurts her, I've looked all around her leg and foot and everywhere. Going off of my guess of it being like it was paralyzed, I know that some causes of paralysis is a lack of blood flow, so for the last month or so I've been massaging her thigh and moving her leg around. It instantly made her better and I was extremely surprised. It didnt fix it, but she was actually walking on it a little and using it. The effects of the massage only lasts about 5 minutes though. I've massaged it almost every day, but there haven't been any improvements in the long run. No where have I seen anything like this, I cant find anything that it might be or any long term treatments.

I'll try to add videos later but it keeps saying the file is too large and I don't have a lot of time right now

 

[Pyxis]

To upload a video, you'll have to upload it first to Facebook, Youtube, or Vimeo, and then you can post it here.

Does she still lay eggs?

 

[Tompike]

Here's a video of her, the first clip is of her before I massaged her leg, second clip is her swimming and I zoomed in on her leg moving (hard to see with poor quality, sorry), the third clip is a few minutes after I massaged her leg, and the last one is right after and she was running to catch up to her friends. She looks pretty bad in the first clip, but she isnt in any pain except maybe from falling over every once in awhile

I'm not quite sure if she's laying, I have three other females and I only get one egg every 3 days or so, not sure if it's from the same duck or not. I'm assuming it isnt from her though

 

[Pyxis]

I asked about laying because an egg bound duck can have a stuck egg pushing up against a nerve leading to paralysis of the leg. However, if a duck is egg bound for more than a couple days, they will die. So she'd have to be getting repeatedly egg bound and then passing the egg and having it happen again for that to be the case.

She may have a tumor that's pushing on the nerves and causing paralysis. You'd probably need a vet to determine if that was the case.

Since you looked her over well and didn't see anything unusual, we can rule out bumblefoot. Does the affected leg feel at all hot to the touch, in any of the joints or just in general?

@casportpony what do you think? @WVduckchick any ideas?

 

[WVduckchick]

Maybe a tendon issue that she has learned to live with??
Does one leg look fatter/different than the other?

@shawluvsbirds is having a similar issue with a young call duck now too.

 

[Tompike]

Bumble foot was one of the first things I checked for since she had it a little over a year ago, but it isnt there. The leg isnt hot to the touch, and the joints and all look good. The only difference between the legs is that her right foot (the one with the problem) has black spots, almost like freckles, on her foot which I thought was weird since it's only on the top of that foot and none of my other ducks have that, nor have I noticed it before on her. I doubt it's anything or even worth mentioning but it's the only visible difference between the legs.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Maybe a tendon issue that she has learned to live with??
Does one leg look fatter/different than the other?

@shawluvsbirds is having a similar issue with a young call duck now too.

Ya. I wish had some good advice but I don't. I've been keeping mine confined and off of the bad leg as much as possible. For a couple days I wrapped it's leg where it couldn't put pressure on it. Now I've been wrapping the bad leg for stability and it seems to help. But mine is a young one so I'm hoping it could strengthen up and grow out of it. With this one being 5 years old I have no idea. I would think if it was a slipped tendon there would be some swelling in that leg.
Poor duckie. She sure is pretty.

 

[WVduckchick]

Bumble foot was one of the first things I checked for since she had it a little over a year ago, but it isnt there. The leg isnt hot to the touch, and the joints and all look good. The only difference between the legs is that her right foot (the one with the problem) has black spots, almost like freckles, on her foot which I thought was weird since it's only on the top of that foot and none of my other ducks have that, nor have I noticed it before on her. I doubt it's anything or even worth mentioning but it's the only visible difference between the legs.

I'm stumped.

Have you gotten an egg from her lately??

 

[Tompike]

Yeah, I'm pretty stumped too, nothing looks or feels wrong and she's perfectly healthy. I put some nutridrench in their water since it has a pretty good amount of calcium and calcium helps with bones so? Maybe? Either way, it couldn't hurt I guess

To my knowledge, I haven't gotten an egg from her lately. I have three other females and the last time I got an egg was Saturday so I'm going to assume no.