Hurt duck

[Lourdie]

My duck is limping and hopping around. She was fine yesterday, I don’t know what to do. Help

 

[ButtonBag]

Sorry to hear about your poor duck! But this is the quail forum, you'll have more luck in the duck section here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/ducks.42/

 

[Mariakissinger132]

How is she walking can you send a picture so we can see how her feet look can you also check the bottom of her feet she might have bumble foot

 

[Lourdie]

I can’t right now, but it’s like a limp, she uses her right to move and her left to somewhat support it. It’s gotten better tho. I checked the bottom of her feet, nothing I could see. Might be niacin deficiency? Is it possible it could just be sore? And white goo came out of her nose and I think mouth this morning

 

[Mariakissinger132]

I can’t right now, but it’s like a limp, she uses her right to move and her left to somewhat support it. It’s gotten better tho. I checked the bottom of her feet, nothing I could see. Might be niacin deficiency? Is it possible it could just be sore? And white goo came out of her nose and I think mouth this morning

I’m sorry to hear about that and it’s a possible niacin deficiency but I’m not positive I would ask Isaac o and miss Lydia

 

[nao57]

Need to know how old the duck is.

Also, is she solo or with other ducks? Are the other ducks the same age?

Does she act like she has no balance, or is it more like an 'arrow to the knee' style limp? Niacin problems will look like they have no control of nerves and be all over the place in movements, but other injuries tend to be they will limp the same way all the time. Plus, niacin may affect more than the legs.

Is she panicky and jumpy, such as when someone tries to pick her up? (This happened to me and is different than niacin.)

 

[Lourdie]

She has balance, besides the fact the ground isn’t even. She has 1 other duck with her, and 4 chickens. She is scared of me and my mom when we come in, like the rest of them.

 

[nao57]

She has balance, besides the fact the ground isn’t even. She has 1 other duck with her, and 4 chickens. She is scared of me and my mom when we come in, like the rest of them.

Is there a rooster with the chickens? And how old is she?

If she has balance then its probably more like an injury limp. (With niacin there's zero balance, and the way they fall can be any direction, not the same direction every step.)

If you decide to isolate her, you could do so towards evening when they are more tired to get her when they have less fight, which would be less stress for her. But then you'd want to keep the other duck with her to make her more calm and not panic/depressed/lonely.

When you isolate her later and look at her, the next thing you'll want to look at;

Does the leg look like its sticking out of place? Or have any joint swelling? Try to not aggravate any such injuries further, which may happen if you cause her to panic. And when gently touching any of these areas around it, it may help you to know which way to feel by the duck's reactions. The closer you get to the injury the more she may yelp or cry out, or try to get free. (Its unfortunate but this may be one of the ways to tell which kind of problem it is.

Look for broken and bruised skin also. (Use a light to see really good.) But you may have to calm her with treats before and after looking at this, or to distract her while you do what you need to.

Its very possible its a joint injury of some kind, if its not showing a wound or bruising.

Now when you isolate her and the other duck together, one thing you can try is weightlessness therapy. People with bad back swear by this, where they use a pool and water to take weight off an injury. You can do this with the ducks by keeping for the next few weeks a shallow water basin they can sit in next to them to get weight off the injury. And you can do this with them in a pen with this in so that they can choose when to go in and out of the water. (But if other animals are with them, they may splash around and take over it, nullifying any benefits.)

(Years ago with a back injury a relative of mine paid a hotel for a swimming pass, just to walk in the pool at night to take weight off a bad back. It helped a lot. The same principle can work for injuries that sometimes need weight off the affected area. But it would also need steps in and out of the shallow basin whatever it is to not cause further injury. You shouldn't have to buy this btw...you can just use whatever plastic shallow devices you have around.) (BTW some people also do the weightless ness therapy with niacin ducklings.)

 

[Lourdie]

Thanks you, she’s recovering very well. No roosters. And she can easily get out of the pool. I don’t know how it happened. I feel bad when I see her tho.