help, my duck is suddenly lame

[sehfergy]

today one of my swedish blue ducks is limping severely & not wanting to get up. i inspected her foot/leg & there is no injury & no apparent tenderness, swelling or deformity. she is eating/drinking if the feeder/waterer is close enough but she can’t walk more than a couple of feet before lying down.

what do i do? should i take her to the vet or just bring her inside & watch her? the vets in my area have not been super helpful when i’ve had chicken issues. i just don’t know what to do.

 

[Eggcessive]

What feed do you give your ducks, and do you give supplements for extra niacin, such as nutritional yeast or vitamin B complex? Hopefully some of the duck experts will be along soon. How old is your duck, and do you see any sores or scabs on the bottom of her footpads?

 

[sehfergy]

What feed do you give your ducks, and do you give supplements for extra niacin, such as nutritional yeast or vitamin B complex? Hopefully some of the duck experts will be along soon. How old is your duck, and do you see any sores or scabs on the bottom of her footpads?

i don’t give niacin supplements but i give then several servings of meal worms per day as i had read that this was a good way to supplement b vitamins & niacin. no scabs, no deformity, no swelling or tenderness at all.

 

[sehfergy]

What feed do you give your ducks, and do you give supplements for extra niacin, such as nutritional yeast or vitamin B complex? Hopefully some of the duck experts will be along soon. How old is your duck, and do you see any sores or scabs on the bottom of her footpads?

she is 9 months old. sudden onset of symptoms. she was fine yesterday.

 

[Miss Lydia]

A lot of mating going on? How many drakes. Females can get injuries from being mated a lot or if more than one drake is going after her. On the bottom of her foot there is nothing?being sure to rule out bumble foot. Is she laying at this time? Sometimes if egg bound they can be lame if the egg is pressing on nerves in the back area.

 

[sehfergy]

A lot of mating going on? How many drakes. Females can get injuries from being mated a lot or if more than one drake is going after her. On the bottom of her foot there is nothing?being sure to rule out bumble foot. Is she laying at this time? Sometimes if egg bound they can be lame if the egg is pressing on nerves in the back area.

one drake for 3 females. he is pretty gentle & i haven’t seen much in that way going on recently but i’m not out there all the time. i don’t know if she specifically is laying, egg production dropped drastically when the weather turned cold last month & among the 3 of them we get maybe one egg a day.

i gave her a baby aspirin a couple hours ago & there is no improvement.

definitely no bumbles or injuries. i just had 2 hens w/ that that i treated & who have recovered so i was thinking that was probably it but really no prob on the feet/legs, totally normal. sigh. i don’t know what to do.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Out of my five black swedish (they were sold to me as Magpies) two have developed an unexplainable limp from one day to the next. I have ordered them in January this year from IdealPoultry in Texas and have been reported problems with those ducks from them by several other members. Are your birds from IdealPoultry?
For the treatment, i sadly found that there is not much you can do, other than let her rest, give her a warm bath, let her rest some more… - and she still may keep a limp. My two ducks are limping more when it is cold and wet and less when it is warm, which may be a symptom of arthritis. I have treated both ducks with so much Niacin powder that they were glowing in the dark (just kidding, too much Niacin causes flashing in us humans, but seems to have no effect in ducks), they got calcium, magnesium and a multivitamin supply for weeks - all with no result.
@Magnolia Ducks @Texag87 @casportpony

 

[sehfergy]

Out of my five black swedish (they were sold to me as Magpies) two have developed an unexplainable limp from one day to the next. I have ordered them in January this year from IdealPoultry in Texas and have been reported problems with those ducks from them by several other members. Are your birds from IdealPoultry?
For the treatment, i sadly found that there is not much you can do, other than let her rest, give her a warm bath, let her rest some more… - and she still may keep a limp. My two ducks are limping more when it is cold and wet and less when it is warm, which may be a symptom of arthritis. I have treated both ducks with so much Niacin powder that they were glowing in the dark (just kidding, too much Niacin causes flashing in us humans, but seems to have no effect in ducks), they got calcium, magnesium and a multivitamin supply for weeks - all with no result.
@Magnolia Ducks @Texag87 @casportpony

no, i got these from my pet chicken. i haven’t supplemented niacin b/c i read that mealworms are a good source & they love them. i am going to try an epsom salt bath & maybe another baby aspirin later. thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'd separate her so maybe you can determine whos laying. Well maybe if it's her anyway. That will rule out egg bound.
Like @WannaBeHillBilly says resting is very important if an injury could be a hip. I have a Muscovy female who is 12 yrs old with arthritis. I have tried so many things for her all I've done is made her afraid of me since I was putting something down her throat everyday for a while . You def can't expect to see results with just one baby aspirin. But maybe over the course of 3-5 days you might. I just let a Runner female out of dog x pen this last week from a limp that took 3 weeks to go away. No foot or leg problems that I could see. She stayed in the pen during the day so she could be with her flock and up at night in the coop with everyone. Injuries take a while to heal. I never did figure out what my Runner did but she is finally over it.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

no, i got these from my pet chicken. i haven’t supplemented niacin b/c i read that mealworms are a good source & they love them. i am going to try an epsom salt bath & maybe another baby aspirin later. thanks for your thoughts.

My Pet Chicken doesn't sell ducks themselves, they do what is called "drop-shipping". They forward your order to a hatchery from where your birds are being shipped. Very likely you got the swedes from Ideal. They are one of the largest breeder for black swedish ducks.
I have only tried epsom salt in a bath once, with "Bazilla" one of my white layers and it was a mess. She drank a lot of that water and developed a nasty diarrhea - as if duck poop isn't bad enough! Just warm water, little more than your body temperature will help to relax muscles, nerves and tendons.