HELP! Duck Shaking and Unresponsive

[The Dim Side]

Posting quickly. Runner duck's head is shaking, breathing, eyes open, but unresponsive. Like it's having a seizure maybe? They were in the pool, and it has dislocated knees, so it can't walk generally. Never saw this happen before though!

 

[Obsessed With Silkies]

@azygous
@Eggcessive

 

[The Dim Side]

 

[The Dim Side]

Can being too cold be a thing and cause this?

 

[Eggcessive]

I know very little about ducks, but vitamin deficiency and botulism can be problems. I would probably offer some Poultry NutriDrench and water. Tagging @Miss Lydia for advice.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Looks like it could be a seizure, place her in a draft free area and let her rest.
Once she is more alert then offer water with Nutridrench or poultry cell. How did she dislocate her knees? How old is she?

 

[azygous]

Treat for shock. No need to know what caused it. Warm the duck by placing warm compresses beneath the wing pits. Wrap him in dryer warmed towels in addition.

Give him warmed Gatoraid or a cup of warm water with one teaspoon sugar and a pinch of salt and baking soda mixed in.

How do you know the legs are dislocated? Lameness and weakness can occur with shock. Treating the shock will improve the lameness and leg weakness.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@The Dim Side how is your Runner doing?

 

[The Dim Side]

Looks like it could be a seizure, place her in a draft free area and let her rest.
Once she is more alert then offer water with Nutridrench or poultry cell. How did she dislocate her knees? How old is she?

@The Dim Side how is your Runner doing?

Sorry! I keep forgetting to reply on here. Fortunately, after holding him in a couple towels and trying to warm up, he slowly perked back up and went back to normal. I still don't know exactly what happened though, and I haven't let him stay in the water for as long since then either just to be safe. (He never wants to stay in very long anyway.)

We think the knees were dislocated in the egg, or maaaybe upon hatching something happened. We got him around a week old, so we don't know for sure (from Rural King, like TSC). And he's about 2.5 months old--raspy voice and doesn't quack, so we're assuming it's a male (named him Dick Van Duck). Our Cayuga is suuuuper loud with her quacking, so we believe it's a girl, lol (Mary Tyler Molt).

The only thing currently is I went back out to check on him this morning and saw that his bill was scratched up a bit and bleeding, and now I see part of his bill looks bruised. It's darker in color and squishy. I have no idea what happened to him. He'll get injured sometimes when he tries to stand, in his wing or bill. So maybe he scraped it somehow (he uses his bill to push himself up sometimes). Or one of the geese might have done it? The older two think he's their child, but the younger goose is kind of a wild card. She's not mean spirited by nibbles and bites/chews a lot. Is there anything I can do for his bruise? Will it heal alright on its own?

 

[The Dim Side]

Treat for shock. No need to know what caused it. Warm the duck by placing warm compresses beneath the wing pits. Wrap him in dryer warmed towels in addition.

Give him warmed Gatoraid or a cup of warm water with one teaspoon sugar and a pinch of salt and baking soda mixed in.

How do you know the legs are dislocated? Lameness and weakness can occur with shock. Treating the shock will improve the lameness and leg weakness.

Saving this specific information for next time in case it happens again! I did basically that, just didn't know about going for the wing pits and such. Thank you!

I had X-rays done on him at the vet before, and two different vet clinics confirmed they were dislocated knees. So he's just always been this way. When he was in his first couple weeks, he was actually able to stand more upright and walk (not exactly how he should have been though), but as he got bigger, it got worse. I think his legs weren't able to keep up with the growth and build muscle. Plus the knees might have been hurting him more, too? But I've been trying to work with him to build up his muscles more, and we're working on structuring some sort of wheelchair-type thing around him to make him more mobile. Right now it's just keeping his right foot underneath him.

They normally criss-cross, so the two different vets I went to tried stints by pulling his legs behind him to keep them straight. He had been able to stand to some extent after working with him for a while before that. But after a week with the stints, I took them off, and his right leg now just naturally goes behind his body. Seemed like it just made it worse, and we lost the progress we made prior. And I have a couple duck splints, but he just isn't able to wear them well since he can't keep the leg straight for long. His left leg actually is doing pretty well though. He puts most his weight on it when he stands, so I have to work with him on the right leg. The wheelchair we have right now (not mobile for him yet) is mostly there to help him practice keeping his legs under his body, so I have a couple straps to hold his right leg in place, lol.