Help!! Ducks wobbling a lot, not natural

[Jaggedbadge123]

So here’s the story, we have always had chickens and just a couple weals ago we thought to get ducks. And we have been wanting them for a while now so we finally got them. It’s been about two weals and the smallest one seemed to be a little of valence yesterday and we thought it was nothing but today he’s walking all wobbly and all over the place. We gave him some charcoal to help incase he ate poison or something (it’s said that will absorb it) And yes we are keeping him very hydrated. Then we are giving him 10 mg of niacin each day just incase he isn’t getting enough of that, and hand feeding him a handful or two of meal worms. Any idea of what this might be, we checked websites and it said my ducks walking like he’s drunk and how he is spreading his wings but she hasn’t been doing that, just very off balanced and very wobbly. If you see this tomorrow I will be uploading a video, we just wanted him to rest for the night. Please help us any ideas of what it is or to cure it.

 

[Isaac 0]

The feed you're feeding her is for laying chicken hens. So it lacks several nutrients she needs to stay healthy, especially niacin (B3). It also contains too much calcium, for a bird her size. I would recommend switching her to a feed formulated for ducks specifically, or one for all fowl. Several suitable brands would include Purina Flock Raiser, manna-pro, or Mazuri. Make sure to check the instructions on the back and make sure it can be fed to a bird her age.

It does appear she has some niacin deficient signs going on, and 10mg of niacin a day isn't going to do much. For more information regarding dealing with niacin deficiencies in waterfowl, you can read this link.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/niacin-deficiency-in-waterfowl.1367557/

 

[Jaggedbadge123]

The feed you're feeding her is for laying chicken hens. So it lacks several nutrients she needs to stay healthy, especially niacin (B3). It also contains too much calcium, for a bird her size. I would recommend switching her to a feed formulated for ducks specifically, or one for all fowl. Several suitable brands would include Purina Flock Raiser, manna-pro, or Mazuri. Make sure to check the instructions on the back and make sure it can be fed to a bird her age.

It does appear she has some niacin deficient signs going on, and 10mg of niacin a day isn't going to do much. For more information regarding dealing with niacin deficiencies in waterfowl, you can read this link.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/niacin-deficiency-in-waterfowl.1367557/

Thanks
What you wrote made me really understand it better

 

[thumper650]

I had one act like that, but she was almost feathered out and much larger. A few weeks of liquid vitamin B given orally worked wonders. She was much worse than your baby.

 

[Jaggedbadge123]

Did you ever get a video?

sadly no, when I got home, the duck was upside down and we rushed him to the vet. But he was just suffering so we had to put him down. He’s in a better place now though. I wish I knew what it was, but he was the runt, and it appeared that him wings didn’t grow with him like the other ducks. So we think it could have just been how some runts don’t make it and yeh. But thank you for all the help, and I know that if in the future, if my ducks suffer from niacin deficiency, I will definitely know how to solve it.

 

[ducksinvt]

Sorry about your duckling, a few questions so the experts here can help you quicker. What are you feeding, what they housed in, what brand niacin are you giving and how are you giving it,, what is the bedding situation and can you post a video and n pics, you can post videos to YouTube or vimeo and copy/paste the link here.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

For the feeding, I will take a photo of the food bag, then on top of this we feed them meal worms and corn chips, and any left overs we can give them. But we make sure to look up if it’s healthy for them or not. For the feeding, it’s what they told us at the store to buy for them that’s would help the most when we first got them. Any ideas if we should change the feeding bag? We’re starting to run out of it so if we need a different feeding that you know of that could help her that would be great

The housing is about a 4x6 area I’ll send a photo again, we built it originally just for baby fowl that we get and used it for our ducklings we got, and we were hoping to move them from this area to outside to their new home for when they are bigger but then we started to notice this and decided to wait just in case. The bedding is filled with wood chippings and I’ll put a photo of it on my hand to show how big they are

The niacin I’ll send a phot front and back of the bottle, it says 300 mg per pill so we are cutting it in half for 150 mg devolved into one gallon and just letting her drink that whenever she’s thirsty and a little of regular water. We don’t know exactly how much she should be getting, if anyone has any clue. And we are making sure the water is always refreshed and cleaned. If anyone has any ideas to better help on the niacin.


Little heads up- we took her to the vet and the vet said he doesn’t really do ducks but he did notice a little red-ness near the ear and it could be an ear infection. Any ideas on that, I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt adding another healing ingredient to her.
The video I’m showing of her wobbling, ofc she doesn’t wobble on camera but more at the end she wobbles a little at least, and she tends to be a lot of balence. Right now she seems ways slower than normal and I believe it’s because she’s tired cuz they were about to go to sleep went I pulled this one out. In the morning when she’s more awake I’ll shoot another video to show what I see daily.
Here’s the link for Vimeo, sorry first time using the app, if you can’t click the link I’ll try to reupload it and figure it more out later

Watch “Untitled” on Vimeo:

That is NOT food for young birds OR ducks. Switch it immediately.

 

[Isaac 0]

Thanks
What you wrote made me really understand it better

I'm glad to hear that. I would suggest following the treatment in the thread for your bird Please do keep us posted.

 

[Isaac 0]

So sorry for your loss.

 

[Isaac 0]

What is she being fed as a whole diet? What kind of niacin supplement is being used, and how is it being administered? What are they being housed on? Could you post a video of the duckling trying to walk? What breed is the duckling?