Limber Neck or Niacin deficiency?

[sunnyfishy]

Yesterday morning, I let my ducks out of their house as per usual, and one duck did not come out. I opened up our door to get in, and there's my littlest Ancona, Sprinkles, on her back like a turtle getting VERY upset. I righted her and she waddled with great effort out of the pen, but she continued to noodle around, stumbling and half-falling. She did turtle over again once that I saw, but after watching her great distress, my boyfriend and I separated her from the other birds and set her in a big box with plenty of shavings so she could at least lay comfortably. I've never seen anything like this from any of my birds, and first thoughts were niacin deficiency, but we feed them Dumor Layer Crumbles, which is supposed to have enough niacin and all the birds free range and have a garden at their disposal and a lot of space, AND no other bird is experiencing this.

I called the vet, who was out on a farm call, so in the meantime we did get a niacin supplement to put in her water. She was annoyed yesterday, though she didn't seem overly distressed. She would try to get up and sort of wobble and flop around and lay back down. Sometimes she seemed to have a problem laying upright, leaning or tilting to one side. This morning before I left for work, she has been keeping her head down a lot, as though she were napping out in the yard like all the birds do. She's been eating and drinking and pooping fine. The vets have a sample of her poop, and the vet called this morning saying it seemed like it could be Limber Neck. I picked up some antibiotics he prescribed and he said she'd be fine to go back with the other birds--he seemed pretty non-worried.

Thoughts on this? Anything you guys might think we could do for her to make sure she's comfortable and any signs I should be looking for that mean something really serious? How long will it take for antibiotics to make a difference and when will her equilibrium return?

Here she is when she was at work with me yesterday while we waited to find out what was up with her.

 

[Amiga]

If she's under a vet's care that is good. I do not quite understand how the antibiotics work on botulism poison other than killing the Clostridium botulinum bacteria that produce the poison - - -

But in any case, lots of fresh water is good.

And I would be looking for the cause. It is found in dead animal and plant material, in fetid water, according to Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. So removing what she got into would be a priority for me, so no one else gets it.

 

[sunnyfishy]

If she's under a vet's care that is good. I do not quite understand how the antibiotics work on botulism poison other than killing the Clostridium botulinum bacteria that produce the poison - - -

But in any case, lots of fresh water is good.

And I would be looking for the cause. It is found in dead animal and plant material, in fetid water, according to Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. So removing what she got into would be a priority for me, so no one else gets it.

I have Storey's Guide at home and we've added a little molasses to her water and we're changing it daily. I'd guess the antibiotics are probably just a safety net if it's something less likely. The vet didn't seem super concerned and said we could put her back with the other birds, but we're not doing that til she can move properly. She still has plenty of energy to nibble my boyfriend when he changes her bedding lol.

 

[apricotvalleywf]

I would've flushed her system with epsom salts to try to get out anything that would be left in her stomach. I have seen behaviour like this before and we often attribute it to some kind of poisoning.

 

[sunnyfishy]

Well it's been a few days and she's not worse. She got in the bathtub and swam happily. She has her head in like she's sleeping all the time and still isn't standing well, but she did start extending her neck a bit, and she's got quite an appetite for floating greens. We are still putting molasses and vitamins in her water, and she's on her antibiotics. She seems to have a lot of energy, and this morning was the first morning that when I got up to check on her she wasn't splayed out like a turtle on her back. So I am hopeful!