Help! Pekin Duck with Crooked Neck and Falls on Back

[chelly3]

Jumbo Pekin Duck is 1 month and 3 weeks old, hatched along with 2 other ducks(as pictured). My mom hatched them in a home made incubator. The duck was a little late on her hatching date, and when she was out of the egg the neck was already twisted and legs spread wide apart. She has been attacked on the neck by a dog and once by either a mouse or rat on her wing/back area. Her foot has red veins and a little cut by her nail from constantly trying to walk with her crooked legs. The duck used to walk right turns in a 360 formation and now she is trying to balance without flipping over. She constantly falls on her back and can't push herself back up. I find her on her back every time i leave her unsupervised, sometimes even when sleeping she would just try to move to be comfortable then fall on her back. I really need help. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[fourkidsandduck]

The first thing I would ask is "Is her quality of life acceptable"? If the answer is yes, I would just baby her and allow her to enjoy life. If the answer is no, I would take her to the veterinarian and see if there is anything they can do surgically to repair the deformities and/or nerve damage due to the dog attack.

 

[Amiga]

I don't know how much improvement you will see, but her symptoms show a B vitamin deficiency.

Here is a writeup on treating it. I feel it would be worth trying to see how she responds. With young ducklings, improvement can be seen within days.

Response for ducklings with likely niacin deficiency

People often get confused about what to use, so please stick with me here.

You have some options.

I would go with brewer's yeast. Forgive me for using capital letters, but for anyone else who may casually look over this thread, NOT baking yeast, NOT winemaking yeast. Brewer's yeast is a nutritional supplement and it provides niacin and a few other vitamins.

Generally, folks who supplement with brewer’s yeast use a tablespoon per cup of food.

Ducklings need about three times the niacin chicks do. And some ducklings get leg problems or seizures if they don't have enough niacin.

If you cannot find the brewer's yeast, or if you happen to have (here come the capital letters again, please forgive me) PLAIN niacin - NOT no-flush, NOT timed release, then dissolve 150 mg niacin per gallon of water for the duckling’s drinking water.

Another approach is to use B Complex capsules, and use the B3 - niacin - levels as a guide. Again, 150 mg B3 per gallon of drinking water.


Keep the little one on the supplements for about 8 weeks.

Sometimes it only takes a few days to see improvement.

You can also see how it went for Qwackers and Bentley from these threads.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/857143/treating-wry-neck-in-crested-duckling-edited-title

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/761308/peking-duckling-with-crooked-neck-help