Lame duck

[Swampfarm]

Hello!

I found my almost one year old runner laying right outside the coop yesterday morning unable to walk. She could stand a bit, but quickly would fall and her legs would immediately shoot backwards.

I checked both legs, hips, and back for any signs of an injury - but nothing was found. I put her in a Luke warm bath this AM....she seemed like she liked it? But also seemed like she was having a hard time keeping her head above water.

This morning she couldn’t stand at all, but was alert and eating/drinking. She seems to have control of her neck, but I haven’t seen her clean any feathers or look behind her. She can only stand if I assist her and mainly hold her chest.

I gave her some brewers yeast in case she was lacking in nutrients...I also have been giving her electrolyte packages.

I checked her stomach to see If there were any signs of her being egg bound...I didn’t feel anything round poking out of her stomach. But I did notice that her chest/spine bone was sticking out pretty far....I don’t think I could feel that yesterday


She didn’t go to the bathroom at all yesterday, but I did notice today that she had some green diarrhea.

she defonitely has the will to live, I’m just struggling to figure out what has got both of her legs lame.

Any ideas or suggestions would be most

 

[Swampfarm]

Hello!

I found my almost one year old runner laying right outside the coop yesterday morning unable to walk. She could stand a bit, but quickly would fall and her legs would immediately shoot backwards.

I checked both legs, hips, and back for any signs of an injury - but nothing was found. I put her in a Luke warm bath this AM....she seemed like she liked it? But also seemed like she was having a hard time keeping her head above water.

This morning she couldn’t stand at all, but was alert and eating/drinking. She seems to have control of her neck, but I haven’t seen her clean any feathers or look behind her. She can only stand if I assist her and mainly hold her chest.

I gave her some brewers yeast in case she was lacking in nutrients...I also have been giving her electrolyte packages.

I checked her stomach to see If there were any signs of her being egg bound...I didn’t feel anything round poking out of her stomach. But I did notice that her chest/spine bone was sticking out pretty far....I don’t think I could feel that yesterday


She didn’t go to the bathroom at all yesterday, but I did notice today that she had some green diarrhea.

she defonitely has the will to live, I’m just struggling to figure out what has got both of her legs lame.

Any ideas or suggestions would be most

I also read it could be possible toxins (it is rather rainy this season where I live and she is free-range so botulism isn’t out of the question). But if it were botulism, wouldn’t her neck either be totally lame or crinkled?

 

[Isaac 0]

How is your duck doing?
It is hard to say over the internet, but from what you have described it sounds as if she was/is suffering from obturator paralysis. This can occur when an egg in the oviduct creates excessive pressure on the nerves adjacent to it. Oftentimes this will happen overnight, and paralysis is seen in the morning.
Botulism is another prevalent cause of paralysis in ducks, but will usually progress to full-on paralysis of the neck, and wings. I see this was posted a few days ago, so will wait to hear back if you still need help with treatment.

 

[Khaki Campbell Mama]

I hope it is ok for me to interrupt this thread. I am having a similar issue with my 2 month old ducklings. I have lost 7 out of 16, and one seems to be going downhill today. It has been the same progression for each duck--leg weakness, followed by leg paralysis, then whole body weakness, then I find them dead the next day. It happened over the course of several weeks, and in that time I spoke with a doctor at a university in the veterinary science pathology department. He seemed to think botulism, which I suspected as well. He said it was likely from the feed, so I switched to a new bag and thought that the problem was solved--no deaths for about 4 days. It looks like I was wrong. So either I have another bag of feed that is carrying botulism, or I need to find another source of the problem. Is there anything you can recommend I do for the ducks that are affected? Charcoal? It feels a bit like even if I find a way to treat it, I will be chasing it around in circles until I find the source. But it is so hard to watch our ducks slowly die, so I need to do something.