Leg instability in duckling

[Kmadkisson]

One of my 3 week old ducklings won’t put weight on his foot. He hobbles around balancing on his joint. I’ve supplemented with niacin since I noticed a week ago but it hasn’t improved. His foot is fine, no cuts or irritation but he will not spread it out or put weight on it. It does also look like his leg may be malformed or is becoming that way from how he is walking. He doesn’t appear to be in pain and does still use the leg to scratch himself and swim. Any advice on how to help him regain full control of his leg or what could be causing the issue?

 

[HeatherKellyB]

My Pekin Drake had this issue whenever I got him at a week old. I made him a little boot that forced him to hold his foot properly. It took some time but he walks on his foot rather than his joint. I started treatment on him whenever I got him. It's important to start this asap, if I'm not mistaken. It's been almost 2 years ago now and Reggie gets around well. He has a slight limp but it's not a problem. I remember @Miss Lydia and @DuckyDonna were so incredibly helpful and a huge part in his recuperation

Edited to add that I believe Reggie's foot was more severe, but with a lot of little boots, time and patience, he's getting along well

 

[Kmadkisson]

My Pekin Drake had this issue whenever I got him at a week old. I made him a little boot that forced him to hold his foot properly. It took some time but he walks on his foot rather than his joint. I started treatment on him whenever I got him. It's important to start this asap, if I'm not mistaken. It's been almost 2 years ago now and Reggie gets around well. He has a slight limp but it's not a problem. I remember @Miss Lydia and @DuckyDonna were so incredibly helpful and a huge part in his recuperation

Edited to add that I believe Reggie's foot was more severe, but with a lot of little boots, time and patience, he's getting along well

What did you use to make his little boot? I’ve had him since he was a week old and it started about a week ago so I’m hoping it’s not too late to help him fix it

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I used cardboard with varying degrees of stiffness, sheets of craft foam, bandaids and tape

 

[HeatherKellyB]

The craft foam was the #1 most used material with every boot

 

[Miss Lydia]

Cut what ever you use the cardboard then the foam size of his foot. Place his foot on it making sure his foot is laying flat like the other one. Then wrap with vet wrap snug but not too tight to cut off circulation. Make sure to go up the ankle some for support. Also give him swim time daily in nice warm water this will help too. Also get some Liquid B complex [TSC ]and start giving him 1 ml a day over a tasty treat. Take the boot off for swimming.
What a cutie and Welcome to BYC.
Also if you don't have foam to start just cut the cardboard or plastic cool whip container wrap with the vet wrap for some cushioning then place foot and wrap.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/help-needed-duck-w-deformed-foot.1327964/

Here is a link to my post. I posted a picture of Reggie's foot and it's definitely much worse. I believe his was a deformity from hatch, but it looks to be treated the same.

Edited to add: Reggie is doing well now, although he has a slight limp, like I stated before. I'm thrilled with this because he was actually walking around on his ankle joint (as best as he could since he wasn't as mobile as the others). So I'm optimistic that your sweet duckling will do well with treatment

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I didn't remember correctly so my apologies. It's all coming back to me as I read over the thread and looked at the pictures. I had a lot of problems keeping Reggie's boot on. I purchased some sheets of moleskin. It is super sticky on one side and the soft moleskin on the other side. This was firm enough to encourage Reggie to lay his foot flat but not too firm to cause pain, if that makes sense. I also used cotton medical tape in place of bandaids. Since Reggie was a week old and your duckling is also older, they're quite a bit more messy than a hatchling, so there will be issues with keeping a boot on him without using something really sticky. Using something that's more sticky means that it's more difficult to remove. I found that rubbing some coconut oil over the adhesive made it come off easily. Then let your duckling swim to rinse away the oil and reapply boot once the swim is over. I hope this helps. I wish you and your gorgeous duckling the very best

Edited to add: I placed the sticky side of the moleskin on Reggie's foot, making sure to stick it flat, then used medical tape to keep it on. Vet wrap, like @Miss Lydia suggested, will probably work better and then you won't have to deal with any tape sticking. If this doesn't work, try medical tape. Please let us know if you have any questions

 

[Aunt Angus]

@HeatherKellyB What you did is amazing!

 

[HeatherKellyB]

@HeatherKellyB What you did is amazing!

Thank you. I really appreciate your kind words. You've made my night To be completely honest, I wouldn't have known what to do without the ladies that chimed in to help me back then