Hobbling a Bowlegged Duckling High on the Legs UPDATE: Slipped Tendons

[3bird]

Hi, Everyone.

We are dealing with a three-week old duckling that is exhibiting fairly severe bowleggedness. We have another thread about this bird here with lots of videos. We have an appointment with our awesome avian vet but not until next Tuesday (she's on vacation).

BRIEF BACKGROUND: We noticed the issue on Day 11, and we started immediately with Vitamin B Complex and nutritional yeast added to Mazuri waterfowl starter. We do daily PT with the duckling, including swimming. We saw improvement initially, but now things have begun to slide, and we suspect a possible birth defect or other injury. Today is the first day the duckling is really having difficulty moving around much at all, and we feel we can't put off more aggressive action much longer.

NEXT STEP: At this point we are seriously considering what more aggressive, corrective actions we might consider prior to our vet appointment. Hobbling has been recommended to us, but we are unclear on exactly how to go about hobbling the duckling's upper legs, as that is where the issue is. We are thinking vetwrap, but we are looking for any and all tips, tricks and strategies.

Thanks in advance.

 

[3bird]

Let us know what hte avian vet says and treatment recommended

Will do! We made this today:

 

[3bird]

@casportpony always has good advice hopefully she'll see this tag.

I was hoping we might here from @casportpony ! The decline between yesterday and today is dramatic.

 

[3bird]

Our first effort.

Unfortunately, she had a lengthy swim first and was pretty tired, so we have not seen her try to get about with it. Thoughts?

 

[ruthhope]

Good job 3bird to you too!

That's how I would try to hobble a duckling with bow legs in the absence of an avian vet.

Do continue the high dose niacin; do continue to encourage the duckling to swim often; and continue to encourage walking -- a helping hand is always good for a duckling that is not afraid of hands

 

[3bird]

Yesterday's Trial 1 and Trial 2 with Duckling #1's wheelchair:

 

[3bird]

I am so sorry to read about your duckling! I was too busy (again) to look into BYC…

Do you have any calcium enriched layer-feed? As far as i remember, Silver Appleyard ducks are a heavy duck breed and the ducklings of medium and heavy breeds often don't have enough Calcium in their food to build up their hip and leg bones.
Calcium becomes important especially in the phase of their growth when their legs seem to grow too large for the rest of the duckling.
I know everybody will yell at me: "But too much Calcium will cause kidney damage!!!"
No, it won't! - That is a myth. Sadly most of the commercial duckling-food does not contain enough calcium for heavier ducklings.
If those were mine, i would add some Calcium-Glucconate to the ducklings diet - that's the quickest way to get Calcium into any organisms (including ducklings). Finely ground up egg-shells work almost equally good.
And i would give both ducklings an OTC vitamin-D preparation.

Thanks so much! We feed Mazuri waterfowl feeds at all life stages, but as soon as we noticed the leg issue on Day 11, we began Vitamin B Complex and nutritional yeast added to their food. The duckling began to improve almost immediately, but then the improvement stagnated and finally began to backslide. As of yesterday, the duckling was no longer standing on its legs at all (only on its hocks), and it is having a hard time moving around. Our vet is out of town, but we sought out an emergency consult with another vet this morning. The diagnosis is slipped tendon, and this vet doesn't do the corrective surgery. There is another vet that does the corrective surgery and is semi local, but apparently she has stopped doing it. So we're kind of stuck.

We did talk about the fact that the issue may be in the duckling's ability to utilize the niacin despite the fact that it is getting enough. The other duckling that hatched at the same time is doing great.

A knowledgable friend of ours recommended splinting the legs.

We did make the duckling a wheelchair, and we're going to try to give it as much time in the sling as possible. The duckling enjoys swimming and water walking, which seems good PT. It is eating and drinking, bright eyed and a great snuggler.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@casportpony always has good advice hopefully she'll see this tag.
@Pyxis

 

[3bird]

Here is a brief video of our first effort:

 

[3bird]

Good job 3bird to you too!

That's how I would try to hobble a duckling with bow legs in the absence of an avian vet.

Do continue the high dose niacin; do continue to encourage the duckling to swim often; and continue to encourage walking -- a helping hand is always good for a duckling that is not afraid of hands

Thank you. They managed to get the vet wrap off in the brooder. This morning the duckling is worse--really 100% on its hocks when it tries to get around. I'm not sure how effective the hobble is in this situation. Water PT seems to be the best at this point. We were able to schedule an emergency avian vet consult for tomorrow morning (it's 1.5 hours away, and we don't know the vet, but we're hopeful).