Injured duckling spinning

[_Jay_Bird_]

Ok so our female Welsh Harlequin - Sybil - has been brooding for a bit and the eggs hatched a few days earlier than we expected. We hadn't been keeping the door to her shed shut, funny enough the plan had been to start shutting it that day. Next thing we know, there are 3 ducklings, and the Drake's gotten to two of them. 1 and 2 both have injuries on their heads, 1 is the worst with the injury covering her eye. I planned not to name any of them until they were older in case they died, but ironically the most injured of the now 6 ducklings is the only one who's got a name, it's Zuko. Now recently little Zuko has started spinning, I think we're on day 3 now? the injury has scabbed over and doesn't appear inflamed at all, but there's no sign of any eyeball, I don't know where duck ears are, for all I know, that's been damaged too. Zuko mostly spins when she's wandered out of the nest, the moment we put her back in with Sybil she calms right down and buries under with her siblings. Mum thinks she may only spin when she's panicking and trying to get back to Sybil or to water and it seemed to get worse tonight when I went to check on them. We have a shallow plate set up so they can drink, Zuko managed to get in the center, and kept trying to drink, but almost couldn't seem to stop spinning long enough. I looked over the footage though and she did get a good drink in earlier before the spinning started. She always spins in the same direction, which is towards the un-injured side.

What I want to know is if this looks more like some kind of brain damage that's just going to get worse? Or is it simply a result of disorientation and stress? I know an adult duck with an eye injury can live quite happily, but this happened when Zuko was just a day old, and I've honestly been surprised how well she'd been doing up until now. She's always been the first of the 6 to venture down to get water and food, and I have to admit I've definitely grown a bit attached? Does anyone have any advice? It seemed really bad tonight, and I can post a video later, if this is going to end up with me needing to put her down I'd rather do it now to be honest.

For some info, the plan with the ducklings is to sell all but one or two females, (mum wants one, I say two) and it's likely that if Zuko survives she'll be staying with us. So far it looks as if 2 of the 6 ducklings are male, but a lot of their beaks look really similar to me so I cant be sure.

 

[_Jay_Bird_]

So lil update, tonight heard a super tiny commotion down in their shed, got paranoid and went to check it out, found lil Zuko stuck in the corner behind Sybil’s water tray (too tall for babies to get in). One of the eggs was also rolled out of the nest which I’m given to understand is what they do when the eggs go bad. Wha t I don’t know is if Zuko’s position was a deliberate rejection by her or a result of Zuko’s disorientation. The only complaint she made when I put Zuko back with her was at the fact that I had dared to pick up her baby in the first place.

 

[Miss Lydia]

So eggs are still hatching? If this little Zuko was mine I believe I'd have to bring her inside in a brooder. It does sound as though she may have some brain damage. Is the eye shut all the time? I am not sure on what to do for little Zuko other than keep her warm, maybe start adding some Poultry Nutri drench to her water or liquid B complex and hopefully she'll recover. What are you feeding your mama and ducklings? Have you cleaned the eye out at all?

@AstroDuck may have some suggestions.
@Isaac 0
@Quatie

 

[HollowOfWisps]

So eggs are still hatching? If this little Zuko was mine I believe I'd have to bring her inside in a brooder. It does sound as though she may have some brain damage. Is the eye shut all the time? I am not sure on what to do for little Zuko other than keep her warm, maybe start adding some Poultry Nutri drench to her water or liquid B complex and hopefully she'll recover. What are you feeding your mama and ducklings? Have you clened the eye out at all?

@AstroDuck may have some suggestions.
@Isaac 0
@Quatie

Can you get a picture of her injuries? Also if you could take a video of her spinning, upload it to YouTube and post the link here that would be most helpful. I agree with Miss Lydia I would start with dosing Zuko with a vitamin supplement that has Niacin and ensuring everyone's on waterfowl feed.

 

[_Jay_Bird_]

So eggs are still hatching? If this little Zuko was mine I believe I'd have to bring her inside in a brooder. It does sound as though she may have some brain damage. Is the eye shut all the time? I am not sure on what to do for little Zuko other than keep her warm, maybe start adding some Poultry Nutri drench to her water or liquid B complex and hopefully she'll recover. What are you feeding your mama and ducklings? Have you cleaned the eye out at all?

@AstroDuck may have some suggestions.
@Isaac 0
@Quatie

Since they came early, we weren't prepared with the food. There's quail food in there with them at the moment until we can get something better, I don't know the exact name, game bird finisher maybe? There are also the stuff we feed the adult ducks, but Sybil seems to be favoring the quail feed, it has a higher protein content so that may be why. It's not seeds or anything, it's like kibble. We also put in some peas and cooked quail egg every now and then to try and bribe them into loving us (hasn't worked).

None of the other eggs has hatched so far, but she's still sitting on them, and she's pushed two bad ones out of the nest which we threw away. I can't even see Zuko's eye, that entire side of her face is scabbed over, so it's definitely not opening. The brooder is currently occupied with some actual eggs, mum wanted to do an experiment comparing the hatch rate in the brooder vs under Sybil. Sybil's winning 6-0, so I may be able to convince mum to give up on that and let Zuko stay there. The thing is the only time she never spins at all and seems completely calm is when she's in the nest with Sybil, I don't want to stress her out by taking her away. If I find her kicked out of the nest again though then I will, it's warm out at the moment so she should be fine.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Can you see any discharge coming from the eye area? you just want to make sure there isn't any infection going on. As long as mum is taking care of her and the others and she doesn't get stuck again maybe it's good to let her stay with her mum. You just want to make sure there isn't any infection happening. And the litttle ones are eating and drinking. Maybe candle the rest of the eggs too so mum isn't sitting on nonviable ones. that way she can get up and take care of the ones that have hatched.

 

[_Jay_Bird_]

Can you see any discharge coming from the eye area? you just want to make sure there isn't any infection going on. As long as mum is taking care of her and the others and she doesn't get stuck again maybe it's good to let her stay with her mum. You just want to make sure there isn't any infection happening. And the litttle ones are eating and drinking. Maybe candle the rest of the eggs too so mum isn't sitting on nonviable ones. that way she can get up and take care of the ones that have hatched.

No discharge or any signs of infection. Sybil actually stopped sitting on the eggs at some point last night. We think it may be because Zuko had trouble getting back to the nest, and she wanted to take care of them like you said. But yeah she’s definitely taking care of Zuko and everyones eating and drinking, so I think everything’s gonna be fine. Thank you so much for your help and advice though.
Thank you so much for helping me out. I’m not the main carer of the ducks and I’d assumed mum had done more research about this than she had so it’s been a bit stressful.